A couple of years ago, Zeljko Filipin was trying to get me to start a Watir podcast. He was telling me how to do it and why it is so important. I asked him why he didn’t he do it himself? He said he didn’t speak good enough English. Nonsense. At that time I had never met Zeljko but had spoken with him over Skype several times.
Zeljko speaks Global English, whereas I speak American English. I told Zeljko that English is a second language for most Watir users, so his dialect, which is a simplified version that is known around world, would actually be more suitable for a podcast than mine. I agreed to do the first podcast, and from there Zeljko hasn’t stopped.
Watir developers come from all over the world as well. We last met in Austin in 2009. We are making plans to meet in April in San Francisco and I am looking into making a trip to Europe this summer to meet Watir developers and users there.
I got to meet Zeljko for the first time in the Austin meeting. He also got to record several podcasts with other attendees. Zeljko traveled from his home in Zagreb, Croatia, and paid for his own travel. So did other watir developers, travelling from as far as Australia and Norway.
Face-to-face meetings like this are critical to the ongoing collaboration. We first met members of the OperaWatir team then too, resulting in the recent release of OperaWatir to the general public.
We regularly communicate using email, IRC, and skype, but there is nothing like an occasional face-to-face meeting to develop personal connections and trust.
Your contributions to the Watir project will help defray the travel costs that the Watir development team incur to meet each other. We are planning a separate Watir day the Selenium Conference. We were just quoted $450 for a room for one day. Many of our overseas contributors have already booked their tickets. Your contribution today will help let us know that you want this to happen. You can click the Donate button on this page to pay with PayPal (via Pledgie). If you would like to make a contribution in another way, please send me email (bret at pettichord.com).