📄 Note: The interactive version of this article is available at Dev.to 🇺🇸🇬🇧 & Medium.com 🇪🇸.

If you want to know what the benefits of attending developer conferences like CommitConf and why you should consider submitting a proposal for a talk or workshop, keep reading! 😄.

Recently, I was fortunate enough to attend CommitConf. It is one of the largest events for developers that is held annually in Spain. It is well attended and draws strong participation from around 50 Spanish technical communities.

Why attend conferences like CommitConf?​

At the conference, developers were brought together to retrain, discover, and share new insight and knowledge about our profession. For example, attendees shared information about:

• New tools and languages.
• New capabilities for the tools and languages already used by the community.
• How companies solve different software development challenges.
• Best practices in accessibility, security, and design patterns.
• New trends.

Additionally, the conference provided a place to meet new people and reconnect with those already known. At events like this, it’s not uncommon to run into people you know! In my case, I bumped into some of my former colleagues, and some developers who use ArcGIS to create Location-Aware apps or map applications.

What made this conference special?​

This event, like many others, gives us, developers, the opportunity to present talks, workshops, and even Open Spaces.

For attendees, a unique factor that sets this event apart from others is the system used to create the event‘s agenda, allowing the communities themselves to be involved in the selection process of talks. This system is called Koliseo and is free for anyone to use.

Why submit a proposal?​

Going to an event like CommitConf is an opportunity to learn from and contribute to the developer community. And, there are many different motivations for a person to send a proposal.

• There are people who simply enjoy sharing knowledge and experiences.
• Other attendees want to increase the visibility of their company and to raise awareness of the cool work they do, with the hope of attracting new talent.
• Some attendees want to create a personal brand.
• While others want to discuss and find solutions to a problem with their colleagues.

And if you are lucky enough to have a proposal accepted, as in my case, you can attend the speakers’ dinner the day before the event, where you meet a lot of experts on different topics 😍.

What did Esri bring to the conference?​

From the company I work for (Esri), they have always encouraged me to attend to conferences and to send proposals that I thought might be relevant to other developers.

This time, I presented a variety of proposals:

• DataViz & Map Optimization
• Designing Beautiful and Intelligent Maps
• Using and Creating Collections in Postman Like a Pro
• 🔑🔒 OAuth, OpenID Connect and JWT for Dummies

I was lucky that the conference organizers accepted “OAuth, OpenID Connect, and JWT for Dummies” because it gave me the opportunity to share what these auth standards are and how they work. I showed practical examples based on some of the resources that we have created from Esri's Developer Experience team, like the Authentication workspace in Postman.

In case you want, you can check the slides out here. If you are interested in the topic and want me to repeat this talk online, just let me know in the comments!

What did I learn at the conference?​

Below are some of the takeaways from the sessions that I attended:

• Local Communities Outside Big Cities (Open Space): This session was super interesting. I had the opportunity to share tips and ideas to overcome challenges in creating and maintaining developer communities with approximately thirty other people. Among them were representatives from different communities about Python, Software Crafting, Data, Machine Learning, generalists’ communities, Free Software, GNU/Linux, DevOps, Drupal, and us representing the GeoDevelopers community.

Note: After the session, I decided to create a guide with what we learned and our own experience. If you are interested, save the article in favourites because we will add it [here] in a few weeks.

• Detecting Web Performance Issues with Chrome DevTools: @nucliweb gave an overview of the Chrome DevTools and showed us how they keep adding new tools like Recorder and Coverage to help evaluate your web performance and optimize it. Also, he showed us how the new AVIF image format improves WebP performance. More info at web.dev.

• Don’t Yell at Me, I Can’t See You: @javierabadia and @jameshedaweng explained to us how to divide the responsibilities between an Engineering Manager and a Product Manager to avoid failure when creating a product. In summary, a PM must be responsible for what features to add and why, and the EM in the how and the who. The when should be a shared responsibility.

• Why I Decided to Pursue the Developer Relations Path: @kinisoftware told us about his experience as a Staff Developer Relations Engineer, where he works to promote the expertise of Criteo’s technical team by facilitating participation in events and communities.

• Testing Web Accessibility: @bolonio showed us a multitude of tools and resources for testing web accessibility: axe-core, eslint-plugin-jsx-a11y, jest-axe, axe-core/cli, pa11y, pa11y-ci, axe chrome extension, arc toolkit, accessibilityinsights.io, wave.webaim.org, and more.

• The Mistake of Becoming a Manager: @npatarino explained to us that becoming a manager of people is not the only way to have leadership or increase your salary. He said that for those senior software engineers who want to continue growing, there are other positions such as Staff Software Engineer, Principal Software Engineer, Distinguished Software Engineer and Technical Fellow.

• Past, Present and Future of EducaMadrid: @asanzdiego talked to us about the educational platform of the Community of Madrid that he leads; he told us about the technical challenges they suffered during the pandemic, when the number of active users grew exponentially, along with the strengths and limitations of his team and his technological stack based on free software.

In summary, if you don't use to go to developer conferences, I hope my experience has encouraged you and given you arguments to attend in the future. I would say also to the Esri Developer Summit in the USA (or in Europe), although this rather applies if you are an Esri partner or customer 😉.

Remember, although much of the content of these conferences is then made available online, there are many other things that can only be achieved by attending.

If you want to leave comments, you can do it in the article published in Dev.to

I have shared a new document (not 100% polished) where I try to explain what problems anyone can better solve by learning new geospatial skills and tools, including spatial databases, spatial analysis techniques, web mapping frameworks, geospatial libraries and APIs, spatial data formats, and spatial data visualization tools, GIS software, etc.

I group them into five big categories:

• Geospatial algorithms.
  • How to do spatial queries or operations.
  • How to do spatial calculations.
  • How to do network and topological analysis.
  • Geostatistical analysis.
  • Data transformations.
  • Georeferenced Image analysis (aerial, ground, satellite, ...).
• Client-side development
  • Display 2D and 3D georeferenced data.
  • Create faster maps.
  • Customize / advance maps.
  • Interact with geospatial data.
  • Work with offline geospatial data.
  • Other.
• Server-side development
  • Design system architecture (how to store and access/integrate geospatial data).
  • Data capture/creation.
  • How to render 3D web animation as a video GPX track.
• Data gathering and geolocation
  • Data gathering.
  • Data geolocation (georeferencing).
• Map creation (not programmatically).

Do you want to help me increase the list? the document is on GitHub and published under CC.

If you have any comments 💬 please leave them on Medium / Twitter.

Welcome to my new website!, it was time for a change...😁

Some of you might remember the old website I built back in 2013:

Back in the days, I decided to build that website to introduce myself, share some thoughts, and give updates about my life to my friends.

Today I have decided to replace it for this new website built with docusaurus.io for several reasons, but mainly because I will be:

• Easier to maintain and update (no backend and almost everything in markdown),
• Able to share resources in Spanish and English.
• Allow you to contribute/repurpose the content I share (it is hosted on GitHub).

So, the next step is to start migrating the content I could rescue from my blog and put it here.

I have always thought that it is a pity to create resources and leave them in a drawer, so from now on I plan to start taking many of the resources that I have created over the years and share them in what I have defined as my "🧠 Digital Brain".

I'm starting by compiling all the resources I could share, so please, if you are interested in one in particular let me know in the comments.

This tool is not meant to be a social tool where you can subscribe, so if you want to stay up to date on what I share I will be republishing my articles in two channels:

• https://medium.com/@hhkaos for Spanish speakers
• https://dev.to/hhkaos for English speakers

I hope you like it, and any suggestions are more than welcome.

And... once again, the number of birthday wishes keeps growing!! Compared to 146 in 2014 and 2013, 120 in 2011, 115 in 2010, 89 in 2009, and 48 in 2008.

Thank you very much for remembering (or for taking the time to write when Facebook/LinkedIn/Skype... gave you the heads-up haha) to:

The first little gift... by María ^_^

Dad, Mom, María del Mar, Carmen, Brother, Iván, Milagros, Verde, Luisette, Mota, Analice, Jose Antonio (Copera!), Dani SEO, Ali Boscan, Sara, María, Patri Zamora (team!), Borja Dlb, Oguz, Jorge Ferreiro, Pedro González, Sonia Hernández, Nacho, Javi Rincón, Gustavo, Oscar Cumí, Fátima, Carlos Iglesias, Ana María Palop, Mari Carmen, Gerardo Casas, Eva Merlo, JJ Merelo, Pepe Moles, Paco Montes, José de la Chica, Javi Abadía, Alex Hidalgo, Antonio Remirez, Irene, Loli, Milagros, Pepe y Jose (in-laws! :D), Estrellas, Patri Romero, Aida M, Belén Carvajal, Cristina González, Fernando Benito, Tomas, Sergio Lillo, Silvia Bootello, Belen, Mónica, Almudena, Jorge Margenta, Matías, Jordi Pérez, Kini, Tita Angelines, prima Isabel Pilar, Álvaro Mora, Ana Paniagua, Pelos, Pablo Capilla, Guaning, Luisa, Alejandro (Mr Simar), Celia Maracena, Álvaro Maracena, Nico (Maracena), Gerardo (Maracena), Jose (cabeza), Rocío (Fever), Isaac, Marta (prima), José Manuel Cartes, Josep, Pili Díaz, Zam, Gloria, Alex Vega, Víctor, Antonio (Tony Ryan), Jason, Ana MC, Nuño, Juancho, David Cuenca, Pablo Hinojosa, María Platero, Guille, Chaparro, Antonio Rabago, Karla, Javier Rivero, Oliver Calvo, Luis A. Nerja, Tita Inés, David Arroyo, Nieves, Paula, Natath, Miguel Calero, Jessica Plegue, Elaine, Francesc y Tita Espe, primo Oliver, Guillermo Sanz, Tita Pili y Tito Paco, Yirli, Diego Bañales, prima Pilar, Fede, Francesc, Jorge Barrachina, Jesús García Villar, Juasmilla, Fernando MTC, Milu, abuela, AngelID, Jon Garrido, Uri, Fran canario, Mari Carmen López, Rubert Pacheco, María González Jaime, Cristina Granados, José Manuel Robles, Andrés Bayona, Yisus, Max, José Mª Berlanga, Juan Antonio Franco Rojas, Eugenio Morarescu, Antonio Fdez Ares, Gonzalo Fdez, Virginia, Pascual, Pozu, Santiago Aguilera, Mercedes, Sergio Jiménez, Chilli, Rufa, Dani Molina, Miguel Fdez Calero, Manu (Quea), Yusep, Fran Servia, David Galán, Noelia Rodríguez, Marina Azagra, Priscila, Fernando Rodríguez León, Miguel Ángel Lozano, and Dugo!!

And... sorry once again if I forgot someone! It's really complicated to keep track with so many channels: wishes in person, on Facebook (wall+messages), calls, WhatsApp, Hangouts, SMS, LinkedIn, emails, etc.

Thanks once again and... see you next year! (as we used to say when we were kids... if Johnnie Walker wills it! ;-P)

Google Glass and Android Wear​

Although I already told you that I had acquired Google Glass and how they worked, since September I also have a G Watch with Android Wear. Additionally, I have been motivated to develop a basic geolocated alerts application that works both on the watch and on the glasses.

We Won the 1st BEEVA Hackathon​

On September 25th, I participated in a BEEVA (BBVA) Hackathon where we won first prize with the development of a geolocated promotions application prototype for smartwatches with Android Wear and ArcGIS Online.

Iniciador Madrid​

On September 26th, I attended the Global Meeting of Iniciador, an event organized by the Iniciador Foundation for organizers and former organizers to discuss various issues affecting the organization.

There, I was able to reconnect with many old friends and meet new ones, but the best part is that after that event, I decided to collaborate with Iniciador again both at the national and local levels. So, starting this month, I will be helping organize Iniciador Madrid.

Photo at the Global Meeting

Afterwork​

On October 6th, I was on Capital Radio's Afterwork program in an interview with Enrique O’Connor, founder of Spotlinker.

Esri Spain Conference​

On October 22nd and 23rd, we held the annual Esri Spain conference, a large event where we showcased the full power of the ArcGIS platform to professionals of all kinds. Here is a video where I demonstrated a mini-application I developed for my watch with Android Wear ^_^.

You can find all the conference videos on the Esri Spain YouTube account.

During my presentation in the plenary session

University Tour​

During October, I also went on a university tour visiting Seville, Castellón, Complutense in Madrid, and Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona) to explain the professional opportunities available if they specialize in application development using technologies we offer at Esri (ArcGIS).

Talk at Universitat Jaume I in Castellón

Google Developer Festival​

On Friday, October 31st, I was at the Faculty of Granada at the Google Developer Festival talking about wearable devices with Google Glass, Android Wear, and ArcGIS Online.

For a long time, I wanted to experience how Google Glass works, and after a long wait, I have finally been able to try it myself (and with calm). So for those of you who had the same questions as I did, I decided to record these videos where I try to explain how they work.

In this video, I do a mini demo (as far as the glasses allowed me xD):

I would love for you to tell me if it is clear, ask me any questions you have, if you want to see something specific, etc.

Hugs!

Today I wanted to share another thought I had, this time it is: "everything has a positive side, even having a bad memory", although perhaps Leonard Shelby (from Memento) wouldn't think the same xD.

Those who know me know that I am a quite active person, always coming up with new ideas, projects, etc., and you know that I always say I have a bad memory (which is true). Sometimes I think it's because I don't exercise my memory much, although sometimes I think it's due to my "hyperactivity."

Who knows why.... the thing is, sometimes it "annoys me" to think that "I am this way," but this time I reflected and thought... well... having a bad memory is not always bad. Why? In my opinion, because:

1. It forces me to be more structured, for example:
   • When it comes to work, I try to document all procedures.
   • Procedures or work that I later share; for example, in articles on this blog like: Partner Agreement, Template for Creating an Analytics Plan, etc.
   • I tend to use many task management tools that I later reuse in my work.
2. Also, I make myself write more about what I have done so I don't forget it
   1. For example, my life summary posts which also serve to keep my friends updated on how I am.
   2. And to share articles like this one, which are thoughts I want to internalize (and writing helps).
3. And finally, it also helps you forget problems sooner or lessen the importance of many of them.

In short, if someone ever criticizes you for having a bad memory, maybe you can counter-argue that... having a bad memory also has its advantages, what do you think?

By the way, this reasoning also applies to "having scattered attention," anyone dare to justify the good in this? ^_^

As I mentioned in a previous article, I have joined the Esri Spain team as a Developer Program Manager... and what does that entail? Very simple: helping and inspiring developers to create applications that solve problems related to location (whether it's the user's location or anything else).

Esri Developers Summit in the USA

For those of you who are not familiar with the company, let me tell you that Esri is a company that started in the United States over 40 years ago (currently with more than 3,000 employees worldwide) and, in my opinion, has created the best software in the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) sector: ArcGIS.

And what is that used for? Well, let me give you several examples:

• Identifying the best areas to live within a city (based on certain criteria)
• Solving problems like: what is the best location for my next business?
• Creating location-aware mobile applications that incorporate behaviors associated with their location.
• Setting up dynamic and interactive 3D scenarios (similar to Second Life)
• Representing and communicating large amounts of information in a more understandable (map of England) or attractive way (map with incredible places).
• Conducting simulations, analyzing geolocated data (e.g., purchases) and predicting future situations (queues in stores, etc).
• Other examples

So, it can be used to solve problems, optimize processes, communicate better, etc., and therefore, the applications are numerous and can be useful for individuals, companies, and governments.

If you are a programmer and are interested in learning more about this field, I invite you to join the Geo Developers Meetup that I created to organize talks, workshops, etc., and help each other by sharing knowledge.

See you soon!

Many people still hesitate to take the step of paying a fee to subscribe to a good online training service; and today I wanted to advocate for it because I believe it is more cost-effective compared to other formal training alternatives. In my case, I decided to bet on CodeSchool in June of last year, for me the best platform that exists to stay updated and improve programming skills.

Personally, when it comes to educational platforms, I prefer those that require me to submit exercises to obtain certification, as they involve putting what I've learned into practice and therefore, I believe, provide some validity. Here are a few other platforms with MOOCs that follow this line where you can find free courses (with paid certifications): Coursera, Miriadax, CodeAcademy, and EDX (thanks Pino for this last one!).

Well, in my case I pay a $25 per month subscription on Codeschool, which over these months (including discounts) has amounted to about €125, and although this may seem like a considerable amount, I think if we analyze what I've gained in return it offers a different perspective.

For example, during this time I have completed 9 of the 36 courses they have available:

– Javascript Road Trip Part 1 (Free)
– Javascript Road Trip Part 2
– Javascript Road Trip Part 3
– Coffeescript
– Real-Time-Web with Node.js
– Discover DevTools (Free)
– Fundamentals of Design
– Try Git (Free)
– Try Ruby

Doing the math, each paid course has cost me about €20 and I have invested ... I would say between 4 and 8 hours in each. If we do the math, I think it comes at a very reasonable price since the courses are of tremendous quality and include a lot of practical exercises that I believe are making me a better professional.

What do you think about this, in comparison to other training options: workshops, training sessions, master's programs, etc. Don't you think it's a good price?