24 HOUR GLOBAL DAY CodeRetreat - Berlin Edition Imagine if a "Global Day of CodeRetreat" happened often. Now imagine that it was literally one giant event that started when the day started, somewhere, like in New Zealand where days tend to begin. Now also imagine that it didn't finish until more that 29 hours later, somewhere else, like say on the US West coast.* This would require a constantly evolving group of people to keep it going: Introducing, the liquid mob/ensemble.

* 29 hours you say? How can that be? Begin at 8 AM in New Zealand and finish at 5PM in California. That's how. Even crazier, it could keep right on going, connecting again late Saturday from California or Hawaii, early Sunday in New Zealand (again), with overlap all around : continuous flow like never before.

So here, in the Americas, we'll pickup and start our morning by joining Ensembles that already started in Europe, Africa, and before that, they started even further east, and much earlier.

I will host the US portion (likely with help). I will be recruiting friends to host in Europe, still others in India, and so on in Australia, and in New Zealand.

I made the start time for the US participation starting with 8 AM Eastern so that some of us in the Americas can connect with friends that are already well into their day and coding away in the UK, EU, and Africa. I at least will stay with it for 12 hours, until 8PM Eastern (you do not have to do the same, just to be clear) because I want to code with my friends all over the globe.

Please see the list all the places on the planet this event is being hosted from (below the list of peoples names).

What's the "and a bit more" part?

A CodeRetreat typically revolves around pair-programming. That presents quite a few challenges (not insurmountable, but they add friction). That's why we've been Mob/Ensemble Programming instead for over a year. Now, we're adding the Global element where a mob very intentionally spans continents and the oceans between.

Those of you who have been here before are like "Yeah, we already do this. So what's new?" Two things:

1. Open Space Tech (the stuff of "Unconferences") and likely a lot more. The spark that made me go this way can be attributed to Ron Quartel and some of his thinking that led to Fluid Scaling Tech. Now, a CodeRetreat is never going to be a way to run teams for developing a product, ... or could it? Not in its current form. The focus is shifting to autonomy like never before (hence the Open Space addition), and then, that gets us to …
2. Mobs that are liquid throughout the day, and, not limited to katas (practice exercises). If you have an Open Source project that you've been wanting to work with others on, then bring it, post it in the Marketplace so that other can join you (The marketplace will be online for all to see, from anywhere) and ideally try to get some subject matters expertise to join the event. The creators of the project get people working on their project. Those people get to know about what an awesome OS project it is and help to spread the word, and they feel good about contributing. This tactic is designed to provide code to work on that can be worked on for the entire 24-hour day, and it popular, then at more than one of the monthly events.

So the experiment will be with many of the ideas that are referenced in the paragraphs above, and how we can benefit from applying them, exploring with them, in a CodeRetreat gathering where people come to code and have fun with one another.

Questions:

"Do I have to join for the entire day? " is often asked. No. The intent is for a critical mass to be actively mobbing all day at any given time, but the span of time is up to each individual. You get more value the more we develop our skills together, but the timing has to work for you.

As the image above hopefully makes clear, it will be important to carry an objective (a singular objective) forward: you know , like we do with REAL code projects. We may stick with Cyber-Dojo.org for those doing katas, or we may go with …

1. a model being promoted (and enabled) by Llewellyn Falco where the code is developed in the cloud, and the "handoff" to rotate who is driving (aka "typing") is accomplished by using a tool like Anydesk. This is an already proven pattern.
2. or, by using a different model where the "handoff" is accomplished by pushing changes to a cloud-based version control system like GitHub or GitLab (both free for non-commercial use). A very efficient way to commit directly from your favorite IDE (whatever that may be) is Mob. That way everyone uses their own IDE directly on their system, and the medium of exchange is simply Git to a temporary branch on GitHub or GitLab. This is also a tried and true method in wide use.
3. We hope to attract Open-Source Projects that you'll want to contribute to. When/if that happens, 1 or more breakout rooms can be assigned to feature(s) for the project.

We Mob/Ensemble program, switching who is driving every so many minutes, usually 5-7 minutes. This keeps everyone alert and works well for up to about 8 people, but better at 4-5. Past that and we break off into more than one mob.

We will continue to use the same mob/ensemble method of working together. The big difference is likely to be that who you code with in the morning will be East of you, and in the afternoon you more likely to be with others who are West of you, in general. Think about it: what is late in the day for you is early for them.

How will mobs be formed?

The same as for Open Space: From a Marketplace. And they will likely form and reform throughout the 24-hour day.

The "micro-retrospective" pattern will still be done with each rotation (when we've all had the chance to be the driver/typist once):

• How did that feel?
• What was it we did that felt so good we want to do more of it.

Breaks:

We take breaks roughly each hour. What will be different is how we share out what each team's experiences have been over the last hour. We cannot stand in a circle as for a traditional CodeRetreat. What we will make available is a common digital area where everyone can post Aha! experiences

This periodic retro is a key contributor to learning, recognizing, and reinforcing good habits, and learning from, and with, one another.

With multiple mobs, anyone not only can move to a different room/mob, the expectation is that you will do so in response to The Law of Two Feet.

Who is currently registered to join the upcoming Code Craft Saturday in April?

1. Adelina Stanciu
2. Akshay Pethani
3. Alejandro Martínez
4. Amin Leiman 
5. Amir Ali
6. Antonio Serna
7. Avi Kessner
8. Ayomide Ibosiola
9. Badita Florin
10. Ben Samsom
11. Ben Stumpf
12. Brian Freeman
13. Charles Hoffman
14. Divya Rohilla
15. Dustin Thostenson
16. Enrico Teterra
17. Ethan Strominger
18. Ian Moss
19. iuliu Pop
20. Jagandeep Singh
21. Joel Silberman
22. Johann Quassowski
23. Johannes Rüschel
24. Jov Mit
25. Koushik Meenakshisundaram
26. Łukasz Wojtas
27. Michael Stratton
28. Muthukumar KB
29. Paige Watson
30. Peak Wongcharoen
31. Petar Zelenovic
32. Pramod Jangam
33. Robert Kaufman
34. Ron Quartel
35. Ryan Robbins
36. Sara Al
37. Swaraj Patil
38. Tim Leonard
39. Victor Cosqui
40. Vinothkumar Kabirdoss

The interesting people above are from New Zealand, US, Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Poland, Serbia, Israel, Nigeria and India. Events participating from elsewhere on the globe will be linked here once they are posted.

• 24 HOUR GLOBAL DAY CodeRetreat - New Zealand Region - 9AM to 4PM NZST, GMT+12
• 24 HOUR GLOBAL DAY CodeRetreat - India Region - 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM IST, GMT+5:30
• GLOBAL 24 HOUR CodeRetreat - Shift Munich/Berlin - 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM CEST, GMT+2
• 24 HOUR GLOBAL DAY CodeRetreat - Americas Edition - 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM EDT (GMT-4)

ALL participating events will use the same Zoom Meeting ID, emailed to those who are registered before the event begins.

Previously we've had people from the all over the US, Canada, UK, Germany, Poland, Spain, Bulgaria, Kenya, South Africa, Pakistan, and India. Who will you bring with you?

Want More?

This is a monthly series so be on the lookout for "International Code Craftsman Saturday" events every 2nd Saturday . Wait, there is still more!

Every second Sunday of the month, there is a "International Code Craftsman Sundays", also found on EventBrite.