Nathaniel Talbott introduced the concept of homesteading at RailsConf 2006. His keynote has generated lots of discussion surrounding the practical implementation of the philosophy, whether through creation of a startup consulting business, a sustainable web application, or whatever else provides value to a niche.

Teascript is a Rails-based application that was released late last year. It generates and manages academic transcripts through an Ajax-enabled interface. The application was constructed using the principles outlined in 37 Signals' book Getting Real as well as many of Talbott's ideas about homesteading.

In this talk, Matthew Bass will outline how he used the homesteading mindset to go from an empty Rails project to a fully deployed, usable web application generating passive income on a monthly basis. If you've ever been interested in creating your own Rails product that provides value to a specific user base, this talk is for you. Join Bass as he examines how Rails can be used to quickly build small, agile services that target specific niches, with the goal of creating passive revenue streams.