No rest for the weary at RESTfest 2011

No rest for the weary at RESTfest 2011

One of the best things about working with Twilio is that we find out about great events all over the place that don’t hit the mainstream. One of those events was RESTfest 2011.

The goal is to put a bunch of the people designing, building, and using REST-based(-like)(-ful) systems in one place and trade ideas, problems, stories, and code. Excitement and passion don’t begin to describe it.

Unlike some conferences that are heavy on the concepts or the sales pitches and light on practical, this one is almost all practical. In fact, on the first day, anyone who built a working client or server based on the ALPS microblogging specification was awarded the coveted Nerd Merit Badge: Open Source Contributor.

The other unique aspect about RESTfest is the format. There were regular hour long presentations and 30 minute demos but the fun part was Saturday when every attendee had to give a “5 in 5” presentation. Each person gets five slides and five minutes  to show off something they’ve built or a concept they’re working on.

In fact, after talking with the RESTfest team, we decided that the best way we could support their efforts this year was to help spread the core ideas. Therefore, we made sure every session every session was recorded and will be posted online in the coming weeks.

100% free to you

That’s right. If you want to learn why REST makes sense, how to build more powerful software more easily, and where the technology is going, you can watch the videos as they’re released each week.

To get things rolling, here’s one of the first presentations from Dr. Jon Moore, Chief Engineer and Technical Fellow at Comcast Interactive Media (CIM) which develops and operates online and cross-platform entertainment and media businesses including: Comcast.net and XfinityTV.com.