This morning I accepted a postion as supreme overlord team leader for the PHP team in The Combine‘s Dev Derby.

What is Dev Derby?

The Combine (http://thecombine.org) is a tech event in Bloomington, IN going on from Sept. 9th-12th. On Sept. 11 there will be a “Dev Derby”. This is a one-day programming event which challenges teams, representing different programming languages, to build a web-based application for use by non-profits. The code will be released as open source, giving it life after the day has ended. There will be 5 teams competing. My suspicions say that there will be a Rails team and a CF team in addition to the PHP team.

I’m not sure how finalized some of the information I have on the details are but here is what I do know:

• Each team will be limited to 7 people (including myself). Depending on demand by Combine attendees, they may allow up to 3 additional “walk-ons”.
• The nature of the challenge won’t be revealed until Sept. 8.
• As team leader, I will be participating in the planning of this event, helping shape the challenge scope, defining the technical environment and determining the judging criteria.
• From the sound of things, we will have some sort of requirements spec to work off of and plan the project from.
• A designated team member or myself will be in a panel discussion sharing the team process and debating code with other team representatives.
• The Combine will have a recruiting campaign with a link to an application to collect names of interested developers. (If you’re impatient and want to be part of the glorious PHP team, hit me up)
• We will be provided with a food an d beverages that day. NOMS!
• There will be prizes. Some just for participating.

Team PHP

Until I start having to sift through applications for team members, I’m wondering who I’d need to hit up for some elePHPant T-Shirts for Team PHP to have. Also, we need a better pseudonym than “Team PHP” or at least some sort of awesome slogan to bring fear and envy into the hearts of our opponents. Join me and together we shall rule the galaxy in the fun and help crush our enemies, see them driven before us and hear the lamentation of their women show the awesomeness that is PHP.