In the developer community we are used to tinkering with technology to adopt it to our needs. All those hours we spend configuring our environments and forking software from github to make it do that very specific thing that only we need it to do. What if we were to apply the same thinking, and spend the same effort on tinkering with how we interact with one another? There is a way to do this, and it is called Culture Hacking. 

In Culture Hacking, culture takes on the form of software. There are surprisingly number of similarities: 

• Changeable architecture 
• Scalability
• Portability
• Usability
• ...and many more.

Culture hackers will try new things to create a new and improved environment for themselves and their team. Agile, and all its subdomains, is a form of culture hacking, but the art of hacking goes beyond methodologies. It is not about “Should we use Kanban or Scrum?”. It is about using all the tools available to improve the environment we work and live in. Being true to the hacker ethos is about experimenting, playing and trying new things outside our comfort zone. As with software hacking, you can not always be sure about what consequences a change will bring. Try something new and see what happens. One can always roll back if the change does not improve the environment. Failing is safe and the goal is to explore.

Anybody can learn Culture Hacking and many are already doing it without putting a label on what they do. Many of the world’s great leaders can be called culture hackers, as they try to change how we see the world, and how we interact with each other.

The important thing with Culture Hacking is that the culture must be designed and implemented. There should be a set of protocols that implements the culture. Without implementation and design, there is nothing to hack.

At Øredev 2012, Jim McCarthy will tell us how Culture Hacking is the path to magnificence. Join us to learn more about this important discipline of engineering, the art of Culture Hacking. 

/JK

We are very much looking forward to 2012 keynote, Reginald Braithwaite, deliver on The Thursday of the conference, with his talk entitled  “The Rebellion Imperative”, introducing three essential tactics when disrupting entrenched institutions.
 
Recently Reginald published a candid piece “What I’ve learned about learning”, containing observations on his learning process. Reading it may very well stir up one’s owns thoughts on the journey towards acquiring new knowledge. Check it out below.

Follow him @raganwald and find out more about this interested and interesting Øredev contributer on his website- http://braythwayt.com/ 

What I've Learned About Learning

I have a rather glaring life-long weakness, a behaviour that has tripped me up many times. You would think that I would have noticed it and corrected my behaviour in my teens or twenties, but no, it has persisted. While I am much better at correcting myself, it is extremely persistent and requires constant vigilance to suppress. Read more...

http://raganwald.posterous.com/what-ive-learned-about-learning

For the past 3 years, Øredev has featured sessions based on REST. Now, moving forward and more in step with what Javaheads have known for a while, it's about going back to basics, building Hypermedia systems as nature intended. At Øredev 2012 we will be featuring 2 sessions given by Steve Klabnik and Glenn Block on this topic of growing importance. Because devices varying from cheap phones to the kindle, from tablets to tvs, are just going to keep multiplying like bunny rabbits. And as the desktop experience is slowly disappearing, we need to be thoughtful towards building a solid architecture on web technology and thus performing as good as possible on each platform.

Friend of Øredev and .NET and web developer, Gustaf Nilsson Kotte, recently published an interesting and thought provoking article on Combining HTML Hypermedia APIs and Adaptive Web Design.

Read Gustaf's article here.....

Poll Results- Hardcore technical vs. Process and tools 

We recently started adding polls to our newsletter, and this is the result of the first: Soft vs. Hard sessions. The _hard_ sessions are the deep technical ones, whilst the _soft_ aka "process & tools" or, more agile-ly inclined are correctly referred to as "individuals & interactions". Whatever you like to refer to them as, each category compliments the other. Øredev strives to bring you the most relevant and high quality content available, but in addition, we also pay attention to the weight distribution of both. If you have something you would like to add to the discussion, comment below.

Knowledge through numbers:

Technical. I'm into the hardcore sessions 33%

Indifferent. I look at each session individually based on quality and personal level of interest. 24%

Both. They compliment one another of course! 23%

Process and Tools. The way things are done is essential to my work 17%