RubyWorld Conference Prospectus 2013

There is a thing called “common sense” in the world, and most people believe it to be something natural. But common sense is not a universal law. Common sense changes in time with the big changes taking place in the world. Furthermore, now is a time of big changes in the world due to the progress made by IT. Ruby was born in tandem with these changes taking place in the world.

In the past, most people believed that “There would never be software from Japan that’s used around the world.” What’s more, most people used to believe that, “A software business outside of Tokyo would never do well,” “Free software can’t be trusted,” “OSS has no continuity,” and, “The OSS business would never do well.” However, we think that Ruby’s current success clearly reveals that this “common sense of the past” was nothing but a bunch of assumptions.

Humans are animals who are fall victim to making “assumptions.” They’re late in noticing changes in their environment, and are often pushed by unfavorable situations. Yet humans are animals possessing reason. So shouldn’t we use our sense of reason, depend on the future possibilities that Ruby offers a glimpse of, break down the assumptions and attempt to construct a “new common sense"?

We sincerely hope that this year’s RubyWorld Conference will tell everyone about Ruby’s new possibilities and help them construct the future by themselves.

Yukihiro Matsumoto,
Chairman of the Execution Committee of the RubyWorld Conference