Following to the LLTV(annual Lightweight Language Conference in Tokyo) and PHP Conference Japan 2009 (Asiajin's cover), another sub-1000 attendees class web developer conference YAPC::Asia 2009 is being held at Tokyo Institute of Technology.

In 2008, LL(Lightweight Languages, which mean scripting languages for web development such like Perl/PHP/Python/Ruby), Ruby, PHP, Perl events were held monthly pace from early summer to autumn, but this year, three of them are set in 3 weeks consecutively. But still, motivated geeks buy and attend any of, for some all of those events and all three conference tickets are sold out.

Perl, which might sound old name in some other countries, still is the one of the coolest programming languages in Japan. Many top-notch Japanese geeks stays with Perl instead of moving PHP/Python or Japan made Ruby.

I myself am not a Perl user but always enjoy attending YAPC::Asia. Although my understanding to Perl is pretty poor, they seem to utilize Perl language's flexibility greatly and there are no reason to look down someone by his/her using Perl in Japan (more likely s/he is an expert).

Inevitably, Japan's Perl conference seems to be more important relatively in the world (if compare with other languages). YAPC::Asia has 3 session tracks this year and one of them are in English, which makes YAPC::Asia more international with more foreign speakers and attendees.

Many web services holding No.1 in each categories mainly use Perl, like the biggest social network Mixi, the biggest mobile social network Mobage-Town(DeNA), the biggest social bookmarks Hatena Bookmark (they also allied with Nintendo for their Nintendo DS community service), etc.

Unfortunately, unlike last year, live streaming is not provided on YAPC::Asia this year, but you may follow attendees' reports and tweets by the official hashtag 'yapcasia2009'.

Tags: Event Report, Japan by Akky Akimoto
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Japan's biggest social network service Mixi added a new feature around its Mai-Miku(comes from "My Mixi") friend system, adding "good friend".

In addition to the existing "diary only to friends", you can write a "good friends only" diary now.

There have been many troubles on Mixi Diary such like people boasting their petty crimes were tracked down by analysing their past diaries, friends network and community by raged net users and had to leave their schools/companies. And many of them were by people who had misunderstood that Mixi is closed (and protected) place different from the web.

It is supposed to be safer as you can restrict your readers only your friends. However, as in Japan most people are using nickname and illustration icon without showing their real name or face, having couple of hundred friends means that you have someone whom you really do not remember well. Then, even it was only for friends, your writings are copied and forwarded into the open web.

For example, just a week ago, a police woman in her twenty something by moaning tough work, cheap salary and authoritarian colleague on her Mixi diary opened only to her friends, was reported to get an admonition and resigned at her own request [J] (the form often observed when employer pressures to let him/her so, instead of firing). It is said that her Mixi friend had informed those diaries to their boss.

I am pretty unsure if this good/better/true friends setting solves such an issue, and that also may make you an embarrassed when you notice that you are not listed on your good friend's good friend.

See Also:

Mixi's Press Release [J]

Tags: Community, Japan, Society by Akky Akimoto
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We have a bunch of tech conferences and events in Tokyo from the end of last month to the middle of this month.    It is very hard to cover all in a limited time.

Japan PHP User Group[J] is now holding PHP Conference 2009 in Tokyo, an annual tech-oriented conference for Japanese PHP programmers and community.

This year's edition consists of two days - the business day focuses on business aspect of PHP-based web service provisioning, and the tech day focuses on new tech trends and circumstances around the PHP development community.

The conference invites the following keynote speakers and guest presenters:

• Mr. Brian Shire from Facebook
• Mr. Fabien Potencier, Project Lead Co-founder of PHP-based web application development framework Symfony
• Mr. Finjon Kiang from Taiwan PHP User Group[C]

Ustream Livecast:

The conference-related tweets:

Tags: Community, Event Report, Japan, Technology by Masaru IKEDA
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As a countermeasure against other transit operators which have been providing in-cabin WiFi service for their passengers, JR East, a railway company operating a rapid express service from/to Narita International Airport, just announced it would start WiFi service in the train this coming October.

UQ WiMax users and Softbank Telecom's WiFi users are allowed to use the in-train Internet service without any additional cost.   For having Internet connectivity for trains on the move, JR East installed rooftop WiMax antennas onto some new model train cars.   The connectivity will be dropped in tunnel sections of the route where WiMax signal cannot reach.

Via Nikkei Net[J]

See Also:

JR East's Press Release: Brand-new Narita Express will debut on October 1, 2009[PDF]

Tags: Japan, New Service by Masaru IKEDA
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