We chose to use Present.ly as our communication tool during the Rumble. Present.ly is a private micro blogging system. It uses XMPP like most IM services use, so it's instant. But unlike IM, the messages are well organized thanks to the way it uses threading to display message replies. Plus, there are no messy chat logs to sift through! We use Present.ly at Intridea every day as our main tool for collaboration and communication across projects, so we were already comfortable with the application and knew how well it would support our unique needs as a distributed Rumble team.

This weekend was the fourth annual Rails Rumble event; a software contest among Rails developers, in which smalls teams of coders bring an app to life in just 48 hours. In the week following the Rumble, the apps are judged by an expert panel of judges, winners are selected, and honor is won.

Intridea is no stranger to the Rumble. We've sponsored the event for the last three years, and we've had teams participating since the event was jump-started in 2007. Intrideans have created some interesting applications, like Run1Mile, Lyricist, Love+Loathe, Thingivore, Celebrity Passage, and Smacksale - a deal aggregator that's still collecting data and publishing the hottest sales, even today!

The Rails Rumble event is entering its fourth year, and here at Intridea, we're very excited. Registration has just opened, and we're looking forward to some friendly competition!

The Rails Rumble is a 48-hour competition where teams of one to four developers design, develop, and deploy a web application in (you guessed it!) a 48-hour time period. After that, the submissions are examined and then weeded down by a panel of experts, and the top submissions go to public voting. Then, prizes!