The first ever IGeLU “Developers Day”, co-organized by the Interoperability and Linked Open Data Special Interest Working Groups was a resounding success. Far exceeding the organizers initial expectations, the meeting drew over 90 attendees for a packed day of presentations, lightning talks, and energized discussions.
Special thanks go to Guy Ben-Porat and Ohad Shaked for representing Ex Libris, to Alexander “Sacha” Jerabek for moderating the discussion Primo SaaS Open Discussion, and to Karsten Kryger Hansen for moderating the Developers Dream session. The Primo SaaS Open Discussion was a potentially fraught, hot-button topic and Sacha’s cool, clear-headed moderation kept discussion on track and helped ensure a fruitful and positive response.
Additionally, Mehmet Celik’s talk, “jQuery.PRIMO: the missing API”, was lauded as the day’s best presentation, for which he was presented with a Rubik’s Cube, or Bűvös kocka in Hungarian. This was a much deserved award, as jQuery.PRIMO is an incredibly important library that exemplifies the spirit of doing work “around the edges” of Ex Libris’ emerging SaaS offerings. Ex Libris even indicated that Mehmet’s work may be incorporated into future Primo versions to make the UI more adaptable and flexible to customers customization needs. Corey Harper’s talk ‘Add your talk title here’ won the well deserved runner up prize as audiences showed a key interest and passion for Linked Data and Analytics.
Overall, we believe that the meeting brought the developers of Ex Libris and those of the customer base a step closer toward understanding one another’s needs and helped make some headway in planning for a “SaaSy” future using Ex LIbris’ products as effectively and creatively as possible. Talks are already underway to organize additional Developer Day meetings at both ELUNA and IGeLU in 2016.
Corey Harper & Masud Khokhar