REGULAR MEETUP: Protocol Buffers, Blockchain, and gRPC, plus Government and Technology!
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6:00pm
Doors Open

6:30pm
Protocol Buffers and gRPC (Speaker: Bob Hancock, Staff Developer Advocate)

Protocol buffers are Google's language-neutral, platform-neutral, extensible mechanism for serializing structured data – think XML, but smaller, faster, and simpler.

gRPC is Google’s open source remote procedure call system that is based around the idea of defining a service, specifying the methods that can be called remotely with their parameters and return types.

We will present an overview of what these two technologies are, how they work together, and how you can benefit from them.

Bob Hancock is a Staff Developer Advocate for the AdWords API and a founder of the Original New York Google Developers Group.

7:15pm

Blockchain and smart contracts (Speaker: Artit Wangperawong, CTO runs.com and team, see biography https://art.wangperawong.com/about-me.html)

Part 1
We describe the essence of blockchain technology and how it is uniquely poised to disrupt swaths of industries. In particular, blockchain allows untrusting parties to perform validated transactions between each other. The burden of validation is distributed among the distributed and decentralized network that underlies blockchain technology. As a result, control is more representative of network participants, eliminating the need for a centralized authority or company. Despite its promise as a technology disruptor, the transaction time and fees limit its practical use and application. New innovations in blockchain technology addressing these limitations will be discussed.

Part 2 (Speaker: Pan Wangperawong (Co-Founder of Cristodaro.com), see biography at https://pan.wangperawong.com/)

We delve into the world of smart contracts and specifically discuss the Ethereum blockchain. A smart contract is the evolution of cryptocurrency to encompass logical execution of code based on conditions and events of the universe as perceived by the blockchain network. As a cryptocurrency can be expressed as a smart contract, the Ethereum network can be a platform for minting new algorithmically controlled currencies without deploying a entirely new blockchain. Smart contracts on the Ethereum network are programmed natively in Solidity. We address practical issues with smart contracts and how the blockchain ecosystem is continually evolving to meet the needs of the community.

8:00pm
Government and Technology (Speaker: Ralph Yozzo, Running Computer Programmer)

A discussion of how we in the tech community can help government better serve the public with transparency and cost effectiveness. For example, New York City is a growing city and our city needs good technology to scale otherwise the costs will skyrocket. This discussion will show what is currently the state of big cities such as New York City's budget via open data and hopefully will foster a discussion of how we in the tech community can help build a better future.

8:15pm
Lightning Talks & Discussion

Please email [masked] if you have ideas for Lightning talks.

8:30pm
Doors Close