We've all heard about PHP in high volume applications like Yahoo, Facebook, and Wikipedia, etc. but how many of us really know what it's like to run "consumer grade" websites.  To answer that question, we asked Jack Steadman, Manager of Architectural Development at Smarter Travel Media to share his experiences running high volume PHP.  Smarter Travel Media LLC operates two high-traffic PHP sites, SmarterTravel.com and BookingBuddy.com, which together serve millions of page views per week. During his presentation, Jack discussed many of the design decisions that were made to maximize performance as traffic scales upward.

We had over 70 people attend Jack's session, if you weren't one of them you can Listen Now! (slides:  bostonphp20080507 152.91 Kb) 

With six months now past since the release of version 3 of the GNU General Public License, there are reportedly 1200 projects that have released code under the new license. The addition of GPLv3 into the mix of 60+ other licenses approved as “open source” by the Open Source Initiative has not made the selection of a license for a project any easier.  If you missed Karen Copenhaver (Choate Hall & Stewart), and Ira Heffan (TopCoder) discuss this topic, you can Listen Now! (slide deck here:  php-heffan-copenhaver-feb-6-2008 431.21 Kb ) 

Bring your "thinking cap", a tough OSS/PHP problem, and an appetite for participation, we're throwing a Beach Blanket Summer School Party (beach blanket optional). We will have all the fixin's to throw code on the table, dissect and discuss the ins-and-outs of PHP.

So bring a topic/problem, bring a friend, bring Anette Funicello (remember, you can't play beach ball without a-net), bring your wallet (we're meeting at the Cambridge Brewing Company).