The Virtual Coffee Podcast

Join hosts Bekah and Dan in this episode with Nadia Eghbal's "Working in Public" enthusiasts Jessica Wilkins and Brian Meeker. We discuss the nuances of open source collaboration highlighted in the book, the challenges and rewards of being both a contributor and a maintainer, and the profound impact of individual contributions in the open source community. Dive into the transformative journey of participating in open source and redefining its true meaning with OpenSauced.

Links

• Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software by Nadia Eghbal
• Virtual Coffee Book Club Discussion
• The left-pad story

Episode Sponsor!

We're grateful to be sponorsored by LevelUP Financial Planning, who understands the importance of finding balance between having an awesome life today, and being confident and excited about your future possibilities. If you want to take your financial confidence to the next level, check outlevelupfinancialplanning.com.

About Jessica

Jessica Wilkins is a self taught developer and technical writer from Los Angeles, California.

In her previous career, she was a professional oboist, educator and owner of JDW Sheet Music.

Jessica's interest in programming came during the pandemic when she wanted to build the Black Excellence Music Project which celebrates black artists from the jazz and classical fields.

She now works for freeCodeCamp on the curriculum team.

• @jdwilkin4 on GitHub
• @codergirl1991 on Twitter
• @jessica-wilkins-developer on LinkedIn

About Brian

Brian Meeker is a full stack engineer who occasionally leaves his basement in Indiana. Currently, he works as a Senior Engineer at Online Rewards. He works mostly in Elixir these days, but has a past littered with a wide variety of technologies and platforms. Outside of work, Brian is a devoted father, avid nerd, and lover of metal.

• brianmeeker.me
• @CuriousCurmudgeon on GitHub
• @CuriousCurmudge on Twitter
• @brianmeeker on LinkedIn

Sponsor Virtual Coffee!

Your support is incredibly valuable to us. Direct financial support will help us to continue serving the Virtual Coffee community.

Please visit our sponsorship page on GitHub for more information - you can evensponsor an episode of the podcast!

Virtual Coffee:

• Virtual Coffee: virtualcoffee.io
• Podcast Contact: [email protected]
• Bekah: dev.to/bekahhw, Twitter:https://twitter.com/bekahhw, Instagram:bekahhw
• Dan: dtott.com, Twitter:@danieltott

Join hosts Bekah and Dan in this episode with monthly challenge Preptember leads, Dominic and Ayu. We talk about the importance of preparing both as a contributor and a maintainer, some of the challenges you might face as someone new to those roles during Hacktoberfest, and some of the benefits you'll receive by participating in open source.

Links

• Ayu's Episode: Working through burnout as a self-taught developer
• Dominic's Episode: Finding value in challenging ourselves
• Your GitHub Issues

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About Dominic

Dominic is a Full Stack Developer, community builder, remote worker and aspiring polymath. He's passionate about open source everything, decentralization, peer-to-peer tech and cryptocurrency. He's also to be found playing board games, studying paper maps and riding public transport.

About Ayu

Ayu is a self-taught front-end developer and technical blogger based in The Netherlands.

She has a strong interest in building projects that are accessible to everyone.

Her passion for life-long learning is what motivates her open-source contributions, project collaboration, and community engagement.

Learning new things is something that fills her with excitement and she's eager to share her learning in public and pass on her knowledge through her blog and Twitter.

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Sponsor Virtual Coffee!

Your support is incredibly valuable to us. Direct financial support will help us to continue serving the Virtual Coffee community.

Please visit our sponsorship page on GitHub for more information - you can evensponsor an episode of the podcast!

Virtual Coffee:

• Virtual Coffee: virtualcoffee.io
• Podcast Contact: [email protected]
• Bekah: dev.to/bekahhw, Twitter:https://twitter.com/bekahhw, Instagram:bekahhw
• Dan: dtott.com, Twitter:@danieltott

Sponsor: LevelUP Financial Planning
We're grateful to be sponsored by LevelUP Financial planning, who understands the importance of finding balance between having an awesome life today, and being confident and excited about your future possibilities. If you want to take your financial confidence to the next level, check out levelupfinancialplanning.com.

Join hosts Bekah and Dan in this episode featuring Rafi, a talented full-stack developer from Bangalore. In this episode, you'll discover how building new things and making progress helps him find calmness and focus. Learn Rafi's approach to side projects, including his exploration of Blender, mobile development, Chrome extensions, and Ionic framework. Rafi also shares valuable tips on leveraging AI to enhance learning during project work

About Rafi:
I am a developer, hobbyist who loves JavaScript, Star trek and Cats. I build things, talk tech and write things.

• @Rafi993 on GitHub

Sponsor Virtual Coffee!

Your support is incredibly valuable to us. Direct financial support will help us to continue serving the Virtual Coffee community.

Please visit our sponsorship page on GitHub for more information - you can evensponsor an episode of the podcast!

Virtual Coffee:

• Virtual Coffee: virtualcoffee.io
• Podcast Contact: [email protected]
• Bekah: dev.to/bekahhw, Twitter:https://twitter.com/bekahhw, Instagram:bekahhw
• Dan: dtott.com, Twitter:@danieltott

Sponsor: LevelUP Financial Planning
We're grateful to be sponsored by LevelUP Financial planning, who understands the importance of finding balance between having an awesome life today, and being confident and excited about your future possibilities. If you want to take your financial confidence to the next level, check out levelupfinancialplanning.com.

Join Bekah and Dan in this week's episode, where they talk with Taiwo Yusuf, a back-end engineer with a passion for developing innovative solutions. Despite being the top of his class in Electrical Engineering, he found his passion in backend development. He shares the importance of always learning, growing, and surrounding yourself with people who are more skilled than you are to find inspiration, support, and motivation.

Links:

• Grace Health

About Taiwo:
I'm Taiwo Yusuf, a back-end engineer with a passion for developing innovative solutions. I've been fortunate enough to work with amazing companies like Grace Health, LogicShift, and JufoPay. When I'm not busy coding, I'm an avid fan of generative art, and I adore cats. So, whether you want to talk about tech, art, or felines, let's connect and have a chat!

• @Taiwo_HY on Twitter
• @teezzan on GiHub

Sponsor Virtual Coffee!

Your support is incredibly valuable to us. Direct financial support will help us to continue serving the Virtual Coffee community.

Please visit our sponsorship page on GitHub for more information - you can evensponsor an episode of the podcast!

Virtual Coffee:

• Virtual Coffee: virtualcoffee.io
• Podcast Contact: [email protected]
• Bekah: dev.to/bekahhw, Twitter:https://twitter.com/bekahhw, Instagram:bekahhw
• Dan: dtott.com, Twitter:@danieltott

Sponsor: LevelUP Financial Planning
We're grateful to be sponsored by LevelUP Financial planning, who understands the importance of finding balance between having an awesome life today, and being confident and excited about your future possibilities. If you want to take your financial confidence to the next level, check out levelupfinancialplanning.com.

Join Bekah and Dan in this week's episode, where they talk with Josh Goldberg, an independent full time open source developer working on projects in the TypeScript ecosystem, where he shares valuable tips and insights on how you can get started with contributing to open source, whether you're a seasoned developer or just dipping your toes into OSS. Josh also shares the story of his prolific speaking journey over the last couple of years and how staying involved in the tech community has been a rewarding experience.

Links:

• typescript-eslint
• typescript-eslint GitHub
• Code Academy
• Microsoft Sway
• Josh's Blog posts about applying to conferences:
  • How I Apply to Conferences
  • How I Apply to Conferences: FAQs
• Josh's Book: Learning Typescript

About Josh:

Hi, I’m Josh! I’m an independent full time open source developer. I work on projects in the TypeScript ecosystem, most notably typescript-eslint: the tooling that enables ESLint and Prettier to run on TypeScript code. I’m also the author of the O’Reilly Learning TypeScript book, a Microsoft MVP for developer technologies, and an active conference speaker.

• @JoshuaKGoldberg on Twitter
• @JoshuaKGoldberg on GitHub
• @[email protected] on mastodon

Sponsor Virtual Coffee!

Your support is incredibly valuable to us. Direct financial support will help us to continue serving the Virtual Coffee community.

Please visit our sponsorship page on GitHub for more information - you can evensponsor an episode of the podcast!

Virtual Coffee:

• Virtual Coffee: virtualcoffee.io
• Podcast Contact: [email protected]
• Bekah: dev.to/bekahhw, Twitter:https://twitter.com/bekahhw, Instagram:bekahhw
• Dan: dtott.com, Twitter:@danieltott

Join Bekah and Dan in this week's episode, where they dive into the transformative journey of Reda, a self-taught developer. Hear about the unique challenges and victories Reda faced as he navigated the journey to becoming a front-end developer. Gain valuable advice on the ideal timing for job applications, as Reda shares advice he heard along his journey: "When should you start applying for jobs? Yesterday." Tune in for an enriching conversation that will inspire aspiring self-taught developers and offer practical insights for your career paths.

Links:

• Free Code Camp
• Collab Lab
• Python Course

About Reda:
I'm a self-taught front-end developer based in Morocco, with a background in Marine Mechanics. I first got introduced to programming back in college where I learned about some basic algorithms and C++. During the pandemic, I decided to take the leap and teach myself ML and then Python. When I'm not coding, I do traveling, read manga, watch anime, or play video games.

• redapy on GitHub
• redabaha12 on Twitter
• redabaha on LinkedIn

Sponsor Virtual Coffee!

Your support is incredibly valuable to us. Direct financial support will help us to continue serving the Virtual Coffee community.

Please visit our sponsorship page on GitHub for more information - you can evensponsor an episode of the podcast!

Virtual Coffee:

• Virtual Coffee: virtualcoffee.io
• Podcast Contact: [email protected]
• Bekah: dev.to/bekahhw, Twitter:https://twitter.com/bekahhw, Instagram:bekahhw
• Dan: dtott.com, Twitter:@danieltott

This week Bekah and Dan sat down with Caitlin Floyd, a front-end developer, to chat about the concept of collective learning and explore new possibilities in the evolving landscape of tech mentorship. Discover firsthand how Caitlin's experiences highlight the power of collaboration, breaking down silos, and leveraging collective knowledge to drive innovation and success.

Links:

• Jonan Scheffler
• Nick Taylor

About Caitlin:

Caitlin is a front-end developer driven by the power of technology as a force for good. Before entering tech, she worked in linguistics, education, and nonprofit management. When not coding, she loves reading, studying languages, traveling, and most of all doting on her puppy.

• caitlinfoyd.com
• @cafloyd on GitHub
• @caitlinfloyd on LinkedIn

Sponsor Virtual Coffee!

Your support is incredibly valuable to us. Direct financial support will help us to continue serving the Virtual Coffee community.

Please visit our sponsorship page on GitHub for more information - you can evensponsor an episode of the podcast!

Virtual Coffee:

• Virtual Coffee: virtualcoffee.io
• Podcast Contact: [email protected]
• Bekah: dev.to/bekahhw, Twitter:https://twitter.com/bekahhw, Instagram:bekahhw
• Dan: dtott.com, Twitter:@danieltott

This week Bekah and Dan sat down with Carmen Kohole, a DevOps Engineer based in Portland, Oregon, to chat about the benefits of collaboration and the valuable opportunities you can gain just by asking for help. We also discussed the benefits of fostering strong relationships in the tech industry, and what it means to be a DevOps engineer.

About Carmen
DevOps Engineer based in Portland, Oregon. Big fan of house plants, hiking, hats and cats. Here to help build stuff, break stuff, learn stuff and make friends.

• @carmenkolohe on GitHub
• @carmenkolohe on Twitter

Sponsor Virtual Coffee!

Your support is incredibly valuable to us. Direct financial support will help us to continue serving the Virtual Coffee community.

Please visit our sponsorship page on GitHub for more information - you can evensponsor an episode of the podcast!

Virtual Coffee:

• Virtual Coffee: virtualcoffee.io
• Podcast Contact: [email protected]
• Bekah: dev.to/bekahhw, Twitter:https://twitter.com/bekahhw, Instagram:bekahhw
• Dan: dtott.com, Twitter:@danieltott

This week Bekah and Dan sat down with Alex Curtis-Slep, long time member and volunteer and self-taught developer, about documenting the small wins, falling in love with the process, and aligning your goals to maintain a healthy life while job searching and during your tech career.

About Alex
Alex Curtis-Slep is a self taught software developer. After getting his initial tastes of HTML and CSS in the early 2000’s on his basketball blog, Alex jumped into coding in early 2019. He heard about a course Madison Kanna created on roadmapping to become a developer and took the plunge. Following a few years of learning, creating, contributing to open source, and much more, Alex landed his first job in tech at Paypixl. When he’s not coding and hyping up his developer friends, he loves everything basketball, tropical fruit, vegan, travel, family, friend, and foreign language related!

• alexcurtisslep.com
• @AlexVCS on GitHub
• @AlexCurtisSlep on Twitter
• @alexcurtisslep on LinkedIn

Sponsor Virtual Coffee!

Your support is incredibly valuable to us. Direct financial support will help us to continue serving the Virtual Coffee community.

Please visit our sponsorship page on GitHub for more information - you can evensponsor an episode of the podcast!

Virtual Coffee:

• Virtual Coffee: virtualcoffee.io
• Podcast Contact: [email protected]
• Bekah: dev.to/bekahhw, Twitter:https://twitter.com/bekahhw, Instagram:bekahhw
• Dan: dtott.com, Twitter:@danieltott

We're starting the new season with a conversation with our maintainers, including our new maintainer, Julia Seidman! We share our thought process for adding a maintainer and walk through our culture citizenship statement to share how we intend to create a positive community.

About Julia

Julia Seidman is a developer education consultant based in the Seattle area. Julia is a believer in embracing the 'careen' over the career.

• @juliaseid on GitHub
• @juliaseid on LinkedIn

About Kirk

A full stack developer in the Caribbean interested in Functional Programming, Domain Driven Development, and Security.

• @KirkCodes on Twitter

Sponsor Virtual Coffee!

Your support is incredibly valuable to us. Direct financial support will help us to continue serving the Virtual Coffee community.

Please visit our sponsorship page on GitHub for more information - you can evensponsor an episode of the podcast!

Virtual Coffee:

• Virtual Coffee: virtualcoffee.io
• Podcast Contact: [email protected]
• Bekah: dev.to/bekahhw, Twitter:https://twitter.com/bekahhw, Instagram:bekahhw
• Dan: dtott.com, Twitter:@danieltott