A Blend of Old and New

A Blend of Old and New

Just throwing down some thoughts of a very busy but enjoyable day that in so many ways had plenty of contrsts but also similar themes running throughout. In the morning, I took part in a guided tour on Nendrum Monastery, located on the shores of Strangford Lough, and founded in the 5th Century. In the afternoon, I popped along to NIDevConf where a bunch of ninjas from CoderDojo Banbridge were part of this year’s new youth demos in the project room.

Nendrum Monastery

This is one of the oldest or best examples of an early Monastic site and was said to have been founded by one of St. Patrick’s first converts in the 5th Centuary. One of the amazing things about it is that it sort of got lost and forgotten for a few hundred year, with people assuming references to it were in fact about the monastery in Antrim only for it to be rediscovered in the late 18th century.

If you ever visit the Ulster Museum in Belfast, an aerial photo of the site covers the wall in the Medieval section which means every time I passed through the room, it made me want to visit it and have a good explore. The chance finally came up this summer to visit and we were being guided by Thomas McErlean, the lead archaeologist who discovered that the odd water feature in front of the site was actually the world’s oldest tide mill.

Iterative Development

The tidal mill actually brings me to the first similarity between the two events of today. The original design, which dated to 619AD captured a large body of water to feed the mill. The effort taken not only construct this, but just as importantly to maintain it would have been immense. After 170 years of use, this mill was replaced by a new mill in 789AD. The monks had realised that a much smaller body of water would produce the same net effect, with reduced costs to build and maintain going forward. Swapping wood out with stone and improving the shape of the paddles from flat to curved (meaning they caught the water more easily and in turn spun the wheel quicker) were just two of the improvements.

This obviously showed that a process was in play whereby observations were made, learnings applied and improvments implented, much like modern agile practices. The big difference of course is in the turn-around time. Not too many projects have a 170 year sprint timeline :D

Breaking Down Barriers

Another striking aspect of the Nendrum site is the three enclosures, each in turn being more sanctified than the last. I was also amazed to learn that at one point, there was as many as 400 monks on the site. If you think that the monks had to attend prayers together a number of times a day, the tiny size of the church obviously caused issues. The vast majority of the monks would have been outside. This would have been worse in later years as the site became a pilgrimage centre with even more descending on the holy day of Saint Mochaoi (who founded the Monastery) on July 23rd. You can only imagine that there would have been a rigid form of hierarchy here about access to the inside of the church (you can see evidence of this with the graves outside, the more senior members being buried closer to the church etc).

Software development can also have this level of hierarchy or to put it another way, level of exclusion and discrimination. What fills me with hope is that so many talks given at NIDevConf focus on breaking down a lot of these obstacles and that is a great testament to the team of volunteers who run the event and spend the time selecting the proposed talks that are submitted.

CoderDojo

Like a monastery, dojos are a great example of community. Our dojo was delighted to be invited in by NIDevConf to show of some of their projects and they did a great job showing what young coders can do. As well as gorging on the swag and food on offer, the young people attended a few of the talks and also chatted away to developers from various companies and groups and I think that will give them a boost and a direction to aim to going forward.

I sort of wish I’d taken more photos from both events, but to be honest I think the fact I didn’t meant I enjoyed them more. It’s getting late, but if I do find a bit of time tomorrow, and any of the photos look good, then I’ll update the post with them.