Announcing DevCon VI
by B. Victor Chakravarty, Enterprise Systems Architect
The semi-annual Developers' Conference (DevCon) is the premier opportunity for State application developers to network and brainstorm. This is where they acquire new skills, bounce ideas off their peers, and also have some fun on the side. First launched in the spring-summer of 2006, the time has come for the sixth conference of the series. DevCon VI will be held on Wednesday, December 17, 2008, from 8:30 to 12:30, at the Central Maine Commerce Center Florian Room. The theme is Application Security. Participants are urged to register (accessible only from the Intranet) as soon as possible.
As our applications become more complex, more interconnected, and more exposed to the external world, securing them properly becomes more important than ever before. There will be three featured presentations at DevCon VI, covering the entire spectrum from security vulnerabilities of applications to how to get applications certified for deployment. Robert Cote, a senior developer at OIT-DHHS will start off with a panoramic survey of common application security vulnerabilities and their remediations. Mark Kemmerle, the Enterprise Security Director, will follow it up with a detailed account of the security certification process for application deployment. Finally, Mark will describe the circumstances under which third-party security assessments are called for, and what to expect from them.
If past DevCons are any guide, although the podium presentations generate lots of questions and comments, the real passion and candor are reserved for the Open Mic session. This is where developers reveal their thoughts and opinions in random, free-wheeling exchanges. Real changes have taken place as a result of previous Open Mic sessions. The enterprise software configuration management (Tigris SubVersion) environment came out of the Open Mic at DevCon IV. The free web service hosting came out the Open Mic at DevCon V. So, please participate in DevCon VI and articulate your thoughts. It is highly likely that many of your suggestions will be implemented in the not-too-distant future.
Given the distributed organizational structure of the State developer community, the DevCon is our premier opportunity to accomplish peer-to-peer enrichment. And it is absolutely free. And it involves almost no travel. And it counts as four hours of training toward the stipend. We thank the State developer community for their strong support to the previous five DevCons. We look forward to the same kind of passionate participation in the upcoming DevCon VI.
