Summer Workshop: Fellows Teach and Learn Node.js and Socket.io

In this post 2011 hackNY Fellow Misha Ponizil describes the lastest student workshop, in which Fellows teach each other tips, tricks and skills they know and are learning through their internships.
Preface about HackNY Workshops: Eitan Adler and I were talking during the beginning of the fellowship program and we decided that we had to get something out of the fact that we were basically living with 30 other coders who could all each teach us something we didn't know.
There are always new technologies to pickup or at least get exposed to, and there's no better opportunity than having fellows at New York's hottest startups teach each other what we know. So we created workshops that we hold once a week with two presenters covering something we think everyone else will want to learn. We're all experts in some area or another; workshops are how we share the wealth.
Wednesday evening it was my turn to present. I've been doing some awesome work with (and learning all about) Node.js and Socket.io at OMGPOP, the startup I have been working at for five weeks. I started by demoing a stock trading simulation that uses the technologies to simulate and visually display the execution of multiple trading algorithms.

I then showed the HTML5/Javascript game we're working on that relies on Socket.io to create a multiplayer experience, a staple of OMGPOP's games. I went on to explain how the different pieces come together to create the real time multiplayer experience and which of those pieces I would be covering in my presentation.

By the end of the presentation, everyone in attendance was running Node and creating real-time socket-based functionality. While some parts of the talk focused on specific syntax and procedure for getting setup, a lot of time was spent simply on exposing the fellows to the possibilities of working with Node and Socket.io. The goal is that those interested in the features will have little trouble getting started after a full instructive overview of how it all comes together.
Next week we're expecting some pretty awesome talks by two Fellows. We plan to have Cemre Gungor cover the Processing library and Grant Kot to demo and explain his work with physics-based animation. Guests are welcome to join our workshops, which are traditionally held midweek in an NYU classroom.