200 Days of Code: First 30 Days

During the first six months of 2015 we will be getting back to basics and focusing on PHP code development. Each Meetup will offer not one, but two presentations on specific PHP topics. One presentation will be for beginners and a simultaneous talk will focus on more advanced topics. You chose which presentation to attend.

For those members who choose not to participate in either of the presentations, we'll provide a hack space for you to work on your own projects by yourself or in collaboration with other members.

To help provide structure to this enhanced focus on education, the topics will be selected from two books as follows:

~ PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites (http://www.larryullman.com/books/php-and-mysql-for-dynamic-web-sites-visual-quickpro-guide-4th-edition/)

~ PHP Advanced and Object-Oriented Programming (http://www.larryullman.com/books/php-advanced-and-object-oriented-programming/)

Our plan is to cover a few select topics from two to three chapters per book at each month's Meetup. While the time limitations of 1 hour presentations will only allow us to cover a few select concepts from each chapter, you can reinforce the learning experience by purchasing the book of your choice and completing the reading and practice exercises outside of the Meetup at a pace of two chapters per month.

Book purchase and self-paced work is not required. You will learn PHP topics by simply attending the monthly presentations. You will learn more and comprehend more by reading and practicing on your own between Meetups, if you choose.

In addition, we are opening up an earlier time slot for members to practice their presentation skills and talk about a topic of their choosing. This topic does not have to focus on PHP, but should be related to web development in some way.

But wait, there's more!

We are opening up the final 30 minutes of the evening for hands-on practice. If you bring a laptop and your coding questions we would like members of the PHP community to lend a hand and help each other out.

Lastly, you might chose to skip the presentations all together. No one will be offended. You can set up shop outside the main presentation area as early as 6:00 pm and code way, either by yourself or in small groups.

As always, we'll provide the pizza while you decide on the most productive way to spend the evening with your fellow Boston PHP members.

Join us on January 14 to learn more about 200 Days of Code.

Sponsor

http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnfull/20100225/AKAMAILOGO

Agenda

6:00 pm - 7:00 pm -- Free pizza provided by Akamai (http://www.akamai.com/html/careers/index.html)

6:30 pm - 7:00 pm -- Learning to Code Later in Life
Ryan McDonald (https://www.linkedin.com/in/rpmcdonald), Jr. Full Stack Developer at Vsnap (http://vsnap.com/)

7:00 pm - 7:15 pm -- Announcements

7:15 pm - 8:15 pm

Hacker Track - open space to collaborate or work on your own

Beginner Track - Chapters 1 & 2 of PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites (http://www.larryullman.com/books/php-and-mysql-for-dynamic-web-sites-visual-quickpro-guide-4th-edition/) - Presented by Ernie Gillis, Berklee College of Music (http://berklee.edu)

Basic syntax, variables, intro to HTML forms, arrays, loops

Advanced Track - Chapters 1-3 of PHP Advanced and Object-Oriented Programming (http://www.larryullman.com/books/php-advanced-and-object-oriented-programming/) - Presented by Robby Grodin, Wayfair (http://wayfair.com)

Anonymous functions, passing by reference, affecting browser cache, storing sessions in database

8:15 pm - 8:45 pm -- Hands-on Coding

9:00 pm - ? Beers at Champions Bar

About the Beginner Track Speaker
Ernie Gillis is the Manager of Learning Resources Web Development at Berklee College of Music. He receieved a bachelor’s of music degree from Berklee in music production & engineering. For the past 15 years, Ernie has worked on a team the develops multimedia intensive website for Berklee including the library's web portal and e-reserve system, and extracurricular class signup and registration system. Outside of web development, Ernie is also responsible for the 15,000 plus audio / video digital assets, training staff on video and audio technologies (production & post-production), designing and implementing the live broadcast video streaming infrastructure, and developing and implementing the college's high bandwidth low latency video conferencing technology.

About the Advanced Track Speaker

Robby Grodin, founding partner of Boston based digital consultancy Toy Pig Co., is a versatile innovator in the fast growing technology sector.

From his time spent building backend services at large corporations such as Visa and Blackberry to the research he has conducted at MIT and Northeastern University, Robby has worn many hats. His titles have spanned from Research Engineer, to Code Reliability Engineer, to his current role as a Senior Engineer on the Finance Engineer team at Wayfair LLC.

In addition to his technical work in San Francisco and Boston, Robby is an avid educator. He has given lectures at Tufts and Northeastern, presented at numerous conferences, and offers one-on-one training and preparation for students seeking to start or advance their careers in technology. Robby holds a dual BS in Computer Science and Electronic Music Composition from Northeastern University.