Michael Carducci

Personal Knowledge Management Second Brain Methods and Madness

8:30 AM MDT

We are knowledge workers and ultimately, we must own our growth and learning. Personal Knowledge Management is a process of collecting information that one uses to gather, classify, store, search, retrieve and share knowledge in their daily activities and the way in which these processes support work activities.

Despite taking notes, bookmarking web content, and highlighting passages in books; often we struggle to recall or rediscover these many insights we pick up daily in our work and life. This session introduces a tool and some process recommendations to never again lose discoveries and knowledge resources.

Michael shares the tools and workflow he (and many on the NFJS tour) use to write, organize and share your thoughts, keep your todo list, and build your own digital garden. These approaches naturally connects what you know the same way your brain does, and makes it easier to make everything you learn actionable and always at your fingertips.

You'll learn the basics, tips and tricks, and recommendations of these tools and practices; and leave armed to deploy these right away as you continue learning at the conference!

Hypermedia and the rest of REST

10:30 AM MDT

REST is, undoubtedly one of the most maligned and misunderstood terms in our industry today. So many different things have been called REST, that the world has virtually lost all meaning. Many systems and applications that self-describe as “RESTful” usually are not, at least according to REST as defined in Dr. Roy T. Fielding’s 2000 Dissertation, “Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures”.

The wild success of the architecture derived by Dr. Fielding led many to want to emulate it (even when it was inappropriate to do so). As a shorthand, organizations began referring to “RESTful” systems, which exposed “RESTful” APIs. Over time “REST” became a buzzword referring to a vague generalization of HTTP/json APIs that typically bear little to no resemblance to the central ideas of REST (and thus elicit few of the benefits). Hypermedia is the central pillar and defining characteristic of the REST architectural style yet it remains almost universally absent.

Hypermedia was a revolutionary idea that, while more relevant than ever, is almost forgotten in today's tech space. Consequently few reap the benefits of this idea and ever fewer know what they might be giving up.

Although not every system needs to (or should be) RESTful, it's helpful to understand the key–and often overlooked–ideas to be able to decide if they make sense for your current next project. This session introduces the key foundational ideas and shows what these ideas look like in practices. Although hypermedia and REST don't make sense for every project or system, you'll leave this session with a better understanding of these groundbreaking ideas, practical insights on how to adopt them today, and ultimately armed to approach the trade-offs of this approach mindfully and deliberately.

The Knowledge Graph - The Story From Daydream to Reality

1:00 PM MDT

Knowledge graphs have been quietly powering the future, unlocking new capabilities that were unimaginable to most just a few years ago. The few, however, have been imagining this future for decades and we've finally arrived at, what industry analysts are calling, “The year of the knowledge graph”

This session provides a historical look at the roots of Knowledge Graphs and how the ideas have evolved over the decades along with breakthroughs in various fields, have brought us to the brink of a new era in technology. Join us to see how far we've come and what is possible next!

The Linked Data Revolution is here, are you ready?

3:00 PM MDT

The web is arguably the single most impactful revolution in human history (to date). By agreeing on a simple set of standards, we have collectively unlocked all the world's information. Documents can be discovered, retrieved, published, and shared so easily we don't even think about it.

Data, on the other hand, is a different story. Our data remains stuck in the 1980s. Locked in silos, each with a different format, interface, and conventions that must be interpreted by a human, parsed, mapped, and converted. Data is at the heart of many problems we solve today, and we produce data exponentially faster than we can consume it.

Today I can request any document from any server on the web. I need to know nothing about the underlying technology the server uses, nothing about how the information is stored or retrieved, and consume it instantly. We've been evolving those same capabilities with data over the past 20 years and the standards, tools, and technologies are reaching critical mass. The linked data revolution is now one that you can no longer ignore. Join us to see what you've been missing.

Completely Rewritten for 2023

The Linked Data Revolution II - Tools, patterns, and practices

5:00 PM MDT

Part one of this series introduces the ideas, motivations, and applications of linked data along with historical context. This more technical session dives deeper into the tech stack and available tooling.

We'll dive into key linked data patterns, explore semantic modeling, graph queries, and talk about applying these ideas in the field, where the rubber meets the road!

An Architect's Approach to API Strategies

9:00 AM MDT

Integration, once a luxury, is now a necessity. Doing this well, however, continues to be elusive. Early attempts to build better distributed systems such as DCOM, CORBA, and SOAP were widely regarded as failures. Today the focus is on REST, RPC, and graphql style APIs.

Which is best? The goto answer for architects is, of course, “it depends.”

In this session, we look at the various API approaches, how they attempt to deal with the challenge of decoupling client from server, evolvability, extensibility, adaptability, composability.

The biggest challenge is that needs change over time, and APIs must necessarily evolve. Versioning is challenging, and breaking changes are inevitable. You'll leave this session with a highlevel understanding of these approach, their respective tradeoffs and ultimately how to align your API approach with your architectural and organizational goals.

Managing Tech Teams: Rules, Tools & Insights

11:00 AM MDT

Software projects can be difficult to manage. Managing teams of developers can be even difficult. We've created countless processes, methodologies, and practices but the underlying problems remain the same.

This session is full of practical tips and tricks to deal with the reallife situations any tech leader regularly encounters. Put these techniques into practice and create an enviable culture and an outstanding development team. At the same time, you'll avoid common management mistakes and pitfalls.

Mob Mentality Collaborative coding and problem solving

1:30 PM MDT

Mob Programming is a style of programming in which the entire team sits together and
works on a single task at a time. Teams that have worked this way have found that
many of the problems that plague normal development just melted away, possibly because communication and learning increases. Teams also find that the quality of their code increases. They find their capacity to create increases. However, the best part of all this is that teams end up being happier and more cohesive.

In this session we introduce the core concepts of mob programming and then get handson mobbing on a coding kata.

Mob Mentality Collaborative coding and problem solving

3:15 PM MDT

Mob Programming is a style of programming in which the entire team sits together and
works on a single task at a time. Teams that have worked this way have found that
many of the problems that plague normal development just melted away, possibly because communication and learning increases. Teams also find that the quality of their code increases. They find their capacity to create increases. However, the best part of all this is that teams end up being happier and more cohesive.

In this session we introduce the core concepts of mob programming and then get handson mobbing on a coding kata.

The Influential Engineer Overcoming resistance to change

8:30 AM MDT

By the end of this conference you will have learned many new tools and technologies. The easy part is done, now for the hard part: getting the rest of the teamand managementon board with the new ideas. Easier said than done.

Whether you want to effect culture change in your organization, lead the transition toward a new technology, or are simply asking for better tools; you must first understand that having a “good idea” is just the beginning. How can you dramatically increase your odds of success?

You will learn 12 concrete strategies to build consensus within your team as well as 6 technique to dramatically increase the odds that the other person will say “Yes” to your requests.

As a professional mentalist, Michael has been a student of psychology, human behavior and the principles of influence for nearly two decades. There are universal principles of influence that neccessary to both understand and leverage if you want to be more effective leader of change in your organization.

In this session we discuss strategies for getting your team on board as well as when/how to approach management within the department and also higherup in the organization.

Influential Engineer Part 2 Persuasion Patterns

10:30 AM MDT

In Part 1, you learned the core principles of influence and persuasion. How to we take this back to the office and apply what we've learned?

We dive deep in to specific strategies to get both the team and the business on board with your ideas and solutions. We cover several realworld patterns you can follow to be more effective and more persuasive. Part 1 was conceptual, part 2 is practical.