Hi:

I have had an idea come to me on more than one occasion.
This time, I figure I will share it with the group. 

<thick_skin_on>

My idea is to have a Ruby Coding Vacation. I figure a 
modest size group can pick a nice central location and get together
for ~3-4 days of Ruby coding during the day, with discussions
in the evenings.

This would be much more hands on than a conference and
one could work on their own project, but work with a group
that is also working in a similar area.

This is my vision:
Each group, of approximatly 3-6 people, would choose a topic
and have one (or more) people dubbed as the group expert.

Some of the possible groups could be:
  GUI programming 
    with Fox
    with tcl
    with Cocoa
  Threads
  Web/modRuby
  Web services (soap)
  parsers
  ...etc

Individual coders could stay with their original group the entire
vacation or, if multiple groups are formed, they could
switch to another group after a day or two.

It would be a great opportunity to learn and to get a lot
of code written. 

I am interested in what others think about this idea.
If you think I am crazy, fine. Your reply is not needed. :)
If you think this is a good idea, I would be interested
in how you think the format could be improved upon and 
where a good location might be.

(Truth be told, I think this idea has come about because
Ruby is like a drug. If I go for more than a couple of 
days without programming in Ruby, I start having withdrawal 
symptons. And, when I do have the opportunity to program in
Ruby, the time I have is never enought. This ruby vacation 
would be a great way for me to feed my habit.)


Thanks
-- 
Jim Freeze
If only I had something clever to say for my comment...
~