The Ruby Central README: February 2025 Newsletter

Welcome to the first edition of The Ruby Central README 🎉

We’ve revamped our newsletters to better serve the Ruby community! Instead of combining updates on our Open Source Program, conferences, and organizational news into one, The README will focus on Ruby Central as an organization, our events, and the broader community.

For Open Source Program news, check out our dedicated newsletter, The OSS Changelog, and subscribe here.

RailsConf 2025 Updates

This year’s RailsConf will take place July 8-10th in Philadelphia, PA. It will be the FINAL RailsConf and our only conference this year (there will be no RubyConf until Spring 2026).

Chris Oliver Joins as Co-Chair

Chris Oliver (CEO of GoRails) is joining Ufuk Kayserilioglu (Engineering Manager at Shopify) as RailsConf Co-Chair!

Chris and Ufuk will work with Ruby Central to set the vision and theme, shape the program, and help with planning and execution to create an unforgettable final RailsConf. See our video interview with Chris to learn more about why he joined as Co-Chair and what he’s excited about!

CFPs are NOW Due!

If you’d like to present a talk or workshop at the final RailsConf this summer, now’s your chance! CFPs are closing EOD on February 28th (at midnight EST). Submit your proposal now.

We also had CFP coaching sessions last week and turned those insights into a guide for submitting the best RailsConf proposal. Best of luck!

RailsConf Tickets

Ticket sales are slated to begin in late March/early April. If you’d like to get your ticket now, consider purchasing a Supporter Ticket! Supporter Tickets are priced at a premium to help fund our programs and operations, including the Scholars and Guides program.

Scholars & Guides Applications OPEN

Want to level up your Ruby on Rails career? The Scholars and Guides Program pairs you with a mentor to help you navigate your learning journey, prep for RailsConf 2025, and connect with the Rails community. Scholars get a free RailsConf ticket, one-on-one mentorship, and guidance to present a mini-project. Apply by March 18, 2025!

Program Committee Selected

We have also selected this year’s RailsConf Program Committee! Thank you to our six incredible Committee members: Adrianna Chang, Bhumi Shah, David Hill, Drew Bragg, Noel Rappin, and Rosa Gutiérrez.

Sponsoring the final RailsConf will showcase your company’s dedication to the Rails and Ruby ecosystem, provide unparalleled visibility in the community, and highlight your support for open source and developer education.

Send sponsorship inquiries to Tom Chambers at sponsors@rubycentral.org.

Company Spotlight: DNSimple

Every month, we will be featuring incredible startups and corporations that are building with Ruby! This month’s feature is DNSimple.

DNSimple, a Ruby Central sponsor, helps businesses simplify domain management, including registration and DNS hosting across multiple providers. CEO Anthony Eden introduced the company to the world during a lightning talk at RubyConf 2010.

When it comes to choosing Ruby: “The speed of development that Ruby enabled let DNSimple stay lean and profitable throughout its earliest days, when it really mattered to be efficient.”

Eden credits the Ruby community for opening doors: “My connections with the Ruby community helped DNSimple get other successful businesses using Ruby as customers, and we were able to hire Rubyists from that same community due to our long-time support.”

You can read the full interview here.

Community Spotlights 💡

Here are some exciting news and projects from the Ruby community! While these projects aren’t directly affiliated with Ruby Central, we love highlighting the amazing work happening in the ecosystem. If you would like to be featured, please apply here!

Nadia Odunayo of The StoryGraph Interviewed on TODAY

Nadia Odunayo, the CEO and developer behind The StoryGraph, was one of our keynote speakers at RubyConf 2024.

This month, she was featured in a segment on TODAY! 🤩 We loved hearing her story of growing to 3.7M+ users. Check it out here.

(We also interviewed Nadia after her keynote in November—watch here!)

Rails Camp in Alaska (Aug 18-21)

Rails Camp US (est. 2015) is an annual summer camp for the software community to connect and unwind in nature—this year, they’re heading to Kenai Lake, Alaska! You can find out more and buy tickets here.

The Ode to RailsConf Podcast

With RailsConf coming to a close this year, host David Hill created this podcast as a way to highlight the impact the conference has had over the years. He releases new episodes every Monday, featuring conversations with guests about their experiences at RailsConf. Listen here!

Other News & Updates

Join us on Slack

Did you know that Ruby Central has a Slack community? While it originally started as a space for conference attendees, it’s now open to all. Please join us here!

Local Meetup Grants

In collaboration with Fastly, Ruby Central has been providing grants for Ruby and Rails meetups and events all over the world! In February, our grants supported meetups like Ruby AI in NYC, Madrid.rb, Geneva.rb, Boulder Ruby, Web Dev Talks in Colima, Mexico, and many more.

We will make another announcement via our newsletter, Slack, and social media channels when grant applications open again (date TBD).

Marty Haught on the Maintainable Software Podcast

Our Director of Open Source, Marty Haught, was a guest on the Maintainable Software Podcast! Listen here for a discussion on the sustainability of open source projects, the challenges of maintaining RubyGems, and why the metaphor of technical debt may not fully capture how software ages.

Your company can support the security and growth of the Ruby ecosystem by becoming a sponsor of Ruby Central. As a sponsor, you’ll support Ruby’s core open source tools and community development work, be recognized as a community leader, and can get a seat at the table by joining a working group or advisory board.