The incredible Djangonaut Space project

Speaker 1: Ciò, tutti , I take this idea from the slides from Carton. Thanks Carton for for the ideas of these slides. And I also take the styles from the homepage of Jangouth space program. Which is this one. So this is an incredible uh project for me. I uh been part in the last year, and but I found a lot of connection between my part as a contributor and mentor and this idea of this project. I want to share you my personal experience as a contributor and as a part of this great program. There are a lot of connections I found

Speaker 1: recently studying for the slide. The first one is if you remove the dark layer from the home page and also the words. You find that in the background there is an image of Italy. And this is the first incredible connection. This Italy in the night, and from the light, you can You can see where the biggest uh area where the big big biggest city are. And since I try every time to explain where I live. I trying to do some geography about Italy. A lot of lights. Everybody know where Rome is. I think and this is where I first they paid me for the first time to

Speaker 1: program as a Python developer. So I I lived there for a few few time Going back in my life, this is Bologna. This is where I studied, where I graduated, where the oldest university in the world is, and where we are going to have PyCon Italia this year. At the end of May, thank you. Going back This is Pescara, so where this is where I live and this is my hometown and where my story starts because I started in the high school uh programming. Um I struggled for finding a picture of me programming when I was young because I I started so young But this is the one.

Speaker 1: This is the oldest picture I have of myself in the computer. And it's 1996. And I was doing something like that. This is Turbo Pascal. If you recognize it, you are as young as me. And this is my first attempt to have a um a code version control. I take a snapshot of the code and I still have it today so it worked. This is the starting point of me as a programmer. And after that I studied at the university, a lot of languages and a lot of interesting things for me. But the other key point in my career is this picture So this is ten years later and was my first conference uh I ever attended.

Speaker 1: My first international international conference is the Plum conference. I don't know if some of you have um ever used Zoe poor Plone, but this was my um my way to enter in the Python community. And for the first time I saw in a lot of talks of people that were contributing to the tool I were using every day. And so I was inspired. They said to me, I give it to be also a contributor to the project. The things that what interested me at the time was that Python was different from all the other languages I studied I enjoyed a lot the simplicity, the approach to the

Speaker 1: programming. But what there was one thing I was missing a lot. relational database because ZOP was one of the first not relational database. It was using PICO For store objects, uh it can seem strange for you, but we are using this big file with a lot of things inside. I were missing uh Postgres, so I started s uh uh searching for a uh Python way to interact with Postgres. And I found Psycho PG. This is a picture from the Little Prince, but it's also the header from the Psycho PG social accounts. and had the opportunity to connect these two interesting

Speaker 1: Postgres and Python in this other conference. It was EuroPython 2011. This is the group of people of the Plone crew. We are an niche of people attending all the conference around, but I met for the first time the larger Python Comp. uh by the community and for the first time I attended a talk about this this guy, Django. So for the first time I I learned that it was possible to use Python and a relational database and specifically Postgres using the Django ORM So I started trying to switch from plum to to Django and use it my

Speaker 1: daily job. I studied a lot. I tried to dip down and I found that DRM was working, but not in the same way for every. And this is from the documentation of Django. And more than that I found that former Django Core developer, Mark Tamnil , started a crowdfunding campaign to have a module specific for Postgres. And that was the things that convinced me to uh uh to contribute in this specific field. In fact After that, I participate in my first Django Con Haver in Florence, where I meet a lot of people I remember Cartoon there, also

Speaker 1: other of you, and was the opportunity to finally contribute back to Django because I attended the sprints. And this picture of me with Marcus and Mark Tamil. And they helped me to merge my first ever pull request for the Postgres module of Django. This is the one. So I celebrate it. I remember we we had the gong, the tan, we still have one of this. I don't know where it is. has lost. Okay, so uh I was contributing to Django at that point. So but another thing that interested me and I discovered only uh the

Speaker 1: Django con uh that year was Django girls. was uh was very interesting for me to learn about this this initiative and I take a picture with the girl that we're organizing and say I have to organize one in my time And I tried to do it for a while. The other thing that interested me was that in the Module of Postgres in Django, they released in the version 1. 10, the full-text search functionality. And that gave me another opportunity to be a contributor, not in the Django core. Because I was searching the website every day for

Speaker 1: learn new things about Django to check if I were m make a mistake, and I found out that we were not using uh Django itself for the documentation search. So in the next EuroPython conference I organize a sprint with the other contributor to remove the connection to Elastic we were using the time and to have a better web search and after the sprints I opened the pull requests and after a lot of time Tim merged These other pull requests was my first contribution also to the code base of the website and not only the project So today we have a lot of new features, a lot of people contributed

Speaker 1: back to that was the starting point from a long list of features and I'm happy to start this this thing. But finally, after a while I was able to be a mentor in the community. And this was my first Django Girls workshop in Rimini. Thanks Fiorella for organizing. It was a great incredible experience to be able to share with other people that want to learn how to be a Django developer. And so I can try and continue to try to interact with other contributor, the other mentor. This is another great experience. The last uh Django Con

Speaker 1: before the pandemic, Copenhagen, amazing experience. But after that two or three years of nothing, unfortunately, in person. But this is the the next one, Django Con in Porto, and I was taking a picture with Sara and Sure. We were at the time working together to uh improve the websites. We were trying to help help and finding new people helping us uh solving the issue or improving the everything. And finally, I was able also to organize a Django Girls event finally in Pescara, my hometown. So for the first time we had uh a Django Girls initiative

Speaker 1: in that side of uh of the Italy because usually we're only in Rome or Florence. Um and at the same time I tried also to contribute back to the local community in Italy. This is a picture with me and other volunteers in the PyCon Italia conference. And uh starting from there, I try to help people that want to contribute from Italy. So we created the translation for the documentation of the documentation of Django. was a funny things to do. We enjoyed a lot. We used a lot of emoji to merge it. And now you you can see today a lot of translation

Speaker 1: of the documentation. So I introduced myself, but I really say a lot of things about me. This is the final point, the the current point of my my career as a uh member of the community. Uh I now I'm board director of the BSF and I I founded also a local community in Pescara and I tried to be um organizer, mentor and contributor, but I'm saying these things to you only because I wanted to inspire some of you to do different things, not the same as me, because everyone has different story and it's incredible to to share. So this um This

Speaker 1: thing the I wanted to share so much that I gave a talk at the Django Day in Copenhagen based on it was an extended version of what I already shared to you. I recently found out that the next year, exactly the next year, in the same city, the same conference, the other Knote was Sarah, and she spoke about the Django Note Space program. I haven't been there, but I I found out about the project in the DjangoCon US when Rachel and Dawn presented. the the project I was so inspired by by them. I was in the front row listening to them and

Speaker 1: I gave a talk about the website, but after the talk we went together last as in yesterday we did yesterday to the speaker dinner. And I found Rachel and I started stalking her to know more about the project. I was so interested. I spoke with her during the uh during the speaker dinner for a long time And yeah, and later the that year the project was so inspiring and so great that They won the Malcolm Trednik Memorial Prize with a great motivation. I think it was one of the best.

Speaker 1: um things we we we did the that year I think to inspire so many people. I I started also trying to think which people to invite to join the program as a Django notes. So I was mentoring a former colleague of mine, Juliana. And she I try to help her to do the same thing that we do in the Django space. Try to help them to find a topic, open up a request, and She failed because they don't match his pull request, but she gave a great talk about the failure. And was so great that she was selected as one of the first Django out in the in the program. Then I met Rafaela later here

Speaker 1: and I was convinced to join the program as a navigator. In fact, I uh have been at uh the celebration that year at So I haven't talked a lot about the program until now because you can find a lot of things directly on the website. I only wanted to share it to you that We were searching the program for so many different people with different experience. If you are a person that's used Django and want to be a contributor, it's the program for you if you are already contributing and you want to inspire other people or you want to mentor other people I think is the the best program you can join and you can share your

Speaker 1: expertise and you your your goals. These are some of the information about the program. It's last eight weeks, there are teams. with Navigator, Captain, and Junganauts and the best things we do is we celebrate wins. Every type of deck I've been part of the session three. Um recently has been the session four. concluded but in the session three we had four four teams and we took a lot of screenshot of the meeting the The onboarding call with organized officer and Django nowuts. We

Speaker 1: had also great speaker. We had Simon Hemma that gave a talk interesting to inspire people to contribute in specific field. And we also have a showcase. It was a moment to celebrate the learning and also to discover new topics together. And at the end we celebrated what we have done and was a lot of things like a lot of one-to-one calls, we had a lot of meetings, also pull requests open, pull requests merged and post and uh we try to collaborate also with other uh part of the community. So as I say that was part of the Team Saturn.

Speaker 1: And what we did is to take a lot of pictures during the meeting and we'll shared all the worries about com contributing back, a lot of imposter syndrome going on, to select the field where contributes. It had been a very great experience, lasted eight weeks and at the end we celebrated in in this way A lot of people laughed, a lot someone cried. The tag way to I can share to you that As I did, I encourage you to find something you

Speaker 1: like very much, like I did with database and Postgres that inspired me to be a contributor, that moved me. If you have something similar, grades if you don't have, you can search it and the programmer can help you to do that And you can do a lot of things. You can learn new new information. You can share it with your peers. You can also mentor other people to do that. And the last part I think is the the best one because it rewards you a lot and you grow so so much. So I encourage you to be part of the project. This is the the website. You can check the website. See the old videos. You can see what

Speaker 1: has been done in the last session. And wait for the next next one. I don't know when we'll start, but I encourage you as a Django contributor to be a navigator or if you want to be a contributor to join as a Django Nows. Okay, we come back to the original picture. Uh you can share this slide and you can download it. And again, this is where Bologna is. So we wait for you the last of May. And this is my connection. I've wrote about a bit the things I already shared to you and also other things I found during the program. So if you want to connect. This is my context.

Speaker 1: So thank you. Last things. We have to take the picture. Sorry. I was forgetting. And say hi.

Speaker 2: There's an online question that's uh how many hours a week do participants have to commit to the program?

Speaker 1: How?

Speaker 2: How many hours a week do participants have to commit to the program?

Speaker 1: Uh I think it depends from you. Um the best thing you can do if you already are working with Django, uh you can deep down, be deep dive in some topics that you are already using for your job, for your personal project is uh a great opportunity to improve that field, but uh it ends totally from you.

Speaker 3: Hey Paolo, thanks. Great talk.

Speaker 1: Thank you.

Speaker 3: Can you talk quickly to the the the the relationship or the the way you're able to nurture them the the navigate um sorry as a navigator you're able to help nurture the the Jenga nauts more closely because you're working with them in a sort of kind of sheltered environment or slightly away from just on the main Grip Hub Repub. It's a bit more intimate, right?

Speaker 1: So the question is as a navigator?

Speaker 3: As a navigator, how you're able to help nurture or mentor the the the Jenga nauts because you have a bit more of a personal connection.

Speaker 1: Yeah. mistake I did with other Changonans. I say I already did this mistake you're you are thinking to do. And I think that that was the best thing I was able to to share with them. And then we went together finding in different fields because I'm not expert on every field of the code base, I don't think everyone uh anyone is here. So if they is choose to work in the form field for example, we went together in the documentation first and then we went in the code to learn more from there and I tried to help them to have a method. to study and to to search for information more than already know all the things

Speaker 1: because it's not possible. So was an opportunity also for me to learn. We tried to learn together what we had to do. I tried to share my expertise as a hearer of learnings and growing this. That was uh what I what I tried to do

Speaker 3: Thank you very much for the story. DjangoNort Space has succeeded in doing something that other people tried and failed to do several times in the past twelve years or or more. How do you see this scaling and and being sustainable so that the amount of effort Going in is manageable, but you can still you're still able to increase the number of people that you you touch and and elevate through what you're doing.

Speaker 1: Yeah the the key point here I think is to through the program have new people that start as a Django not and then uh became part of the project because we need uh new energy, new enthusiasm, new new people that will be part of it. So if we um we will be able to renovate the people that are part of the program. We can at the first time before scanning we can guarantee that this project will survive in in the future. And then we we create this mechanism of having every time new people at Enter and then begin a navigator. We can also start to think how to

Speaker 1: to scale and have more more more people. And I don't know how to do that, but I think this is the This is the point.

Speaker 3: And one of the things that you showed which has surprised me in the life of the of the project is it's not just new people but new ideas. So accessibility, Django CMS, the ORM. I didn't expect that to be on the agenda. a couple of years ago. So I think that's also something really s new and surprising in the project that is it will help make it sustainable. What's next?

Speaker 1: I I don't I really don't know. Yeah, but um I share with you that uh point. Uh as I said at the beginning everyone has a unique story and unique interest So it's great that people focus on accessibility, other focus on on the code because they like the core of the Django and or CMS. Yeah, so this is great.

Speaker 4: Thank you very much for the talk. I was wondering you just said everyone has a a unique story, whether um there's any particular background of both the Django Nortes And the leaders in the in the project, you know, whether people are particularly beginners or their career stage, you know, technical ability and and so on, is there any pattern or or or is there a mix?

Speaker 1: I can share my experience in my my team. This one I like the picture. Every one of these people had different starting points in their career. uh Yeshu was studying and uh other people already are in the in the field uh working as a programmer, maybe not the Python and others were more trying to find something interesting uh to contribute back. So I don't think there is a specific field. um something I haven't said that is you have to to apply for the project and then since we have a lot of requests only um some people are selected to to join. So we try to have a a diverse representative in every team

Speaker 1: and to but it there is no um barriers to enter the project.

Speaker 4: Thank you. Just a super quick follow-up. You said uh lots of people apply, so I guess you're are you over subscribe over subscribed? You need more leaders, is that right?

Speaker 1: Sorry.

Speaker 4: Yeah, you're oversubscribed, is that right? So you need more leaders.

Speaker 1: is this um w what the the program want to do but um um we can ask we can ask them yeah

Speaker 5: thank you paolo for uh this talk I think as the program we've sometimes found it difficult to uh encourage people to uh be navigators to so to be the uh For anyone who doesn't know, this is the individual who might have a bit more experience contributing and kind of guides the Jenga nauts through. And it's it's definitely one of the roles that I think has the most imposter syndrome because the captain role is a bit more pastoral and and there are more people in the community who feel comfortable doing that role. Uh do you have any advice or any um words of encouragement that might incl

Speaker 5: uh enable any of the people in this room uh as to why uh they should do it if they were involved or um yeah why did you do it yourself for example

Speaker 1: Yes, I encourage everyone that are already contributing to Django or the accessibility team or one of the work group to apply as a navigator. It has been an incredible experience because you share the path with other people as you, uh usually from other parts of the world, and um enrich you. reach you as as person. If you're already contributing to Django, you're uh you you can do that. So it's it's something I I think consider that as the next next step as your uh path as a as a contributor because helping other to contribute. It's the way you can

Speaker 1: go on the next level and be more useful to the community but also learn more. And it helps you uh uh I think also in the your job career because you start mentoring people, it's something you you do when you you are a senior developer or you grow up. So it's is something good for you and for the people that are you in your team. So totally worth it being part of.

Speaker 6: Thanks for the talk. I wanted to ask, is there any plans for uh how the graduates of the program can uh maybe become navigators themselves at a later point? Is that something you plan or something you encourage? So when they graduate from the program they they finish their juggernauts and then can they become part of the program themselves later.

Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I totally encourage it. So the what I try to say to the people in my team is that they are um uh doing the program in a safe place which is the Hang on Out program. It's safe because the other people are learning with them. There is navigator they can do one-to-one call and I say the you are preparing to be released in the bigger Django community. So the next step is to interact in the field they like, uh try to contribute in the work groups or in the code themselves and the next step is doing and interacting with other people in the community and then continue to be part of the of the program

Speaker 1: so they can have the opportunity to be navigator next to that. The program encouraged people not to remain only in the program but to be part of their larger larger community. So this is the this is the goal

Speaker 2: Okay, thank you, follow.

Speaker 1: Thank you again.