Merb Camp 2008 is now officially announced. This is the very first Merb conference and the much awaited version 1.0 is scheduled to be released during the event!

The two main brains behind Merb, Ezra Zygmuntowicz and Yehuda Katz, will keynote while a bunch of other interesting talks are scheduled. Additional tracks for impromptu talks are also planned so prepare some talks and share the knowledge.

This event is organized by the San Diego Ruby Group which has been involved with Merb for quite a long time. Back in April 2007, Chris Van Pelt gave an introduction to Merb, then later on Kevin Clark showed how Powerset uses Merb as a JSON-RPC service. More recently, Jordan Fowler gave an update talk on Merb.

Earlier this year, Matt Aimonetti, active Merb contributor, came up with the idea of organizing the very first gathering of folks using or interested in Merb to build web apps. In no time, the whole San Diego Ruby Group lead by Patrick Crowley joined the project. To help in this task, Engine Yard’s very own Leah Silber came to rescue. Everything has gone smoothly and Merb Camp will take place on the awesome campus of UCSD (Calit2’s Atkinson Hall)

What to expect??

Lots of fun, inspirational talks, great networking, awesome hacking. It’s both a conference and a camp! There will be one track of scheduled talks, and at least one other open track.

Who is it for?

You, if you love programming and web development. You don’t have be a Merbist or even know Ruby to come. Talks will obviously cover Merb but also Ruby in general, testing, methodologies… Don’t be shy, even Java guys will be welcomed :)

How much is it?

A very modest attendance fee will be required, registration will open soon.

How to get more info

Check on http://merbcamp.com/ of course but you can also join the mailing list