Two Open Source Advocates on How They Build Community Through Education
Cloud Foundry sponsored this podcast.
One of the themes of the Cloud Foundry Summit series has always been to help reinforce the strong sense of community among those who take part in the open source movement. In this way, the recently held Cloud Foundry Summit EU in September lived up to its mission. Among those on hand at the conference whose jobs are to initiate and educate organizations, about open source and the Cloud Foundry, as well as to include more individuals in the movement, were Ivana Scott, business operations manager of the educational firm EngineerBetter and Sara Lenz, sales and account Manager, anynines, a Cloud Foundry platform provider. They were the guests on The New Stack Makers podcast recorded at Cloud Foundry Summit EU, hosted by Alex Williams, founder and editor in chief of The New Stack. Both Lenz and Scott are particularly well-positioned to offer a fresh perspective on how to grow the community through education.
Two Open Source Advocates on How They Build Community Through Education
Scott first became involved in the open source community in 2007 when she joined the training provider in London. There, she was part of the events team and was involved in organizing events, training courses, conference and meetups, while devoting a “huge amount” of effort to support open source communities. She then became directly involved in the Cloud Foundry community after joining EngineerBetter in 2018.
Most of those who come to EngineerBetter for training usually sign up for one-day courses with an emphasis on introductory Cloud Foundry and Bosh training. One of the main goals is to show how accessible the Cloud Foundry, as well as the open source, are. The training is for “anyone who wants to be involved and wants to get an understanding of the topics can just look at the content,” Scott said.
One of the options anynines offers is Cloud Foundry developer certification. Possibilities include developer training for neophytes as well as advanced training for engineers or developers who have several years of high-level experience working with the Cloud Foundry, Lenz said.
Lenz, who joined the Cloud Foundry Summit in 2015, noted how the conference series continues to offer a forum where to see all the people coming together to speak and to exchange their knowledge” during the conferences. The exchanges are “really easy, because everybody’s really open to each other and to answer all the questions you have,” Lenz said
One of the goals of EngineerBetter is to help include people from underrepresented communities who often have the talent but might feel alienated due to their backgrounds. “We at EngineerBetter try and foster a very diverse and inclusive team,” Scott said. “And so, we try and make sure that everyone who joins our team feels welcome.”
In this Edition:
1:38: How Lenz got involved in conferences.
4:22: EngineerBetter’s Cloud Foundry training.
10:02: Developers and the certification process?
11:25: The “unconference.”
15:07: The benefits of getting involved in the Cloud Foundry Foundation.
18:07: Careers, the unconference and Cloud Foundry.
