Finding Purpose in Open Source Through Community Building with Abigail Mesrenyame Dogbe

Speaker 1: Let's get started with a keynote that I've been really looking forward to. Abigail is an open source community builder, programs manager, and STEM Education Advocate from Ghana who loves the power that open source can put in people's hands. She's a fellow at the Python Software Foundation. an individual member of the Django Software Foundation, a recipient of the PSF Community Service Award, and a Google Open Source Peer Bonus Award. Open source is a powerful force for good in our world. If you're in this room, it's safe to say it's been a force for good in your own life. It's technology that's free for the world to benefit from, is

Speaker 1: created by community, and the spirit of the individuals that make up that community. So please welcome an especially bright spirit, Abigail Mazarenme, Togbey.

Speaker 2: Hi everyone. I'm very grateful to Drew and the organizers of DjangoCon US. For giving me this opportunity to be here and to be able to share with you my story into how I'm finding purpose and contributing to Open source through community building. So my name is Abigail Ms. Rangami Dogbe Now, identity is a part of like being African, and one of it is our names. You'd usually meet an African who has say like four names or more and yeah um

Speaker 2: a proud Ghanaian and My name is Abna because I was born on a Tuesday. So most definitely, if you're interested in getting to know about what Ghanaian name you could have Um, feel free to reach out to me, let me know the day you were born and I could let you know. Um so this is just a little bit about my educational background. I I kind of was reflecting on when I actually started primary school. I couldn't remember But then I completed high school in twenty twelve and I had an interesting um Time like I mean during during this time

Speaker 2: because I I really loved drawing. Um I loved art And I was really hoping that I was gonna continue pursuing art. Like, I mean, um, and in 2013 I I started a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Minds and Technology back home in Ghana. Um from 2017 I took some time. I believe that is actually the period when I was Assessing myself and then trying to find where I really fit in. So 2022, I started a master's in information technology at the University of Cincinnati.

Speaker 2: Now my parents have played a huge role in um my success uh in where I I I find myself now and I'm grateful to them for all the time that I've spent with me all the times that I got confused by some of the advices that they were given to me, especially because they wanted me to have um or take very very great career um decisions also especially because I am the last out of seven Throughout my education in um primary school, junior high

Speaker 2: senior high, I never liked mathematics, I never liked science, and I never even liked computers. I would Go for um a class that was teaching us basic computing and I would sit at the back and not really care about what was going on But then I found myself in the computer science and engineering class for my undergraduate studies Was I going to say no? I mean, um, I didn't want to stay home too, so I had to really take it up and it was very difficult, especially because I didn't really like it. But I mean, um a lot of things happened and I'm grateful for where I find myself now

Speaker 2: because I'm still in the world of technology and I mean computing Now I specifically put house here because it's really been um Something that I I feel I took from like my parents. I took a lot of lessons from how they'll make me do house chores in the house. So for example, my dad was like really big on getting everyone um or every of his child, like to be able to do like different like house chores. There's nothing like um this person is required to To sweep the house in the morning. This person was required to do these specific things.

Speaker 2: We're all brought up in different ways, but then at the end of the day, we're all taught to do a lot of different things when it came to house chores. So for example, When he wanted me to learn how to clean his car, he would call me. Um one one day he he just Called and was like, okay, Abigail, I want to spend some time with you outside, but this time let's do it by cleaning the car. Um, we would go outside and he's gonna show me um how to Do it. Then the next day he comes home and he's like, Abigail , I feel very tired today. Can you do it by yourself? And

Speaker 2: I would I would I would do it and the car and the the car ends up getting dirty all over again. and I would have to go call him to come help me um do it. Now the reason why this example or how my parents really got me through doing house chores in the house is very important to me is I see that I was able to pick up this trait I mean, the way they would go about getting us to do house chores into bringing other people to open source, which I'm going to share, um which I'm going to share in some few minutes. So

Speaker 2: again , I feel very privileged to be here because my journey to open source actually started with Django Girls. And I'm a very proud jungle girl. So in June um 2017, I after my undergraduate studies, I happened to have found a link that was I mean advertised for people to learn how to, or girls to learn how to build websites using Django and Python. At the time, I did four years in school without learning Python And I had heard about Python, so I was interested and very curious to learn more about how I could achieve that.

Speaker 2: So I Attended the session and it was really great. I had Noah Alowu over there, who was my coach and who is currently an um organizer for this particular event. So I attended the session and it was really great. I think after the session, um I had One of the coaches called Andrew Smith, who is also back in Ghana, he encouraged me to try to give back to the community by also teaching other women how to code. Since I had learned how to also build uh my websites with Python and Django. So I took it up and I have

Speaker 2: um either helped organize or have been a mentor at different Django Girls events um in Ghana. And in total we've had more than like 25 plus events like in Ghana, trying to visit cities and then especially remote areas to introduce more girls to um Django or to the world of programming using Python and then Django. All together as well, we've had a lot of participants, like 500 plus, and we've done a lot of travels. Which I really also found very interesting. Um, because there were a lot of times um I would leave for jungle girls after my five to

Speaker 2: uh my My eight to five, yeah. And I would get to the the venue around 1 a. m. and by morning 8 a. m. we are we are we are we started the session and then we are teaching like these these young ladies and as you can see in this picture um I happen to have been the first female mentor um to have started um helping getting more women into um i mean into the world of technology through um jango girls Thank you. But I it wasn't really

Speaker 2: um Something I wanted to like stay that way for long. I actually wanted more women to be a part of Getting in other women to do jungle. And so throughout the times that we traveled and did this, we were always encouraging more women And now this was my first event in 2017. Fast forward to 2019. We hosted um the first PyCon Africa in Ghana and And we also had Django Girl Spike on Africa.

Speaker 2: And it was really a proud moment for me because at this event, we had an all-female coaches squad. And We only had like our males, I mean allies who were meta who served as meta coaches. So in essence, all of our coaches were females Which is actually a testament to all the work that we, I mean, we have been trying to do between 2017 and then 2019. I think personally this was really this really showed that there's been growth, especially in the Ghanaian tech community. And so I'm really, really grateful, especially to Manny Young and Michael Young as well for helping us

Speaker 2: achieve this So I'll speak a bit about how um I Tried bringing others into open source. Coming from the background of someone who didn't like computers and was also looking for The specific thing that I'm called to do, right? In the I mean in the workforce and all, it was very hard for me. But I took chances, I took opportunities, um, just that I would always love being in the background

Speaker 2: Whilst I get others to also do a lot of the work that we were doing to bring like more people to see what it looks like to do open source stuff. So the first person I would love to talk about is Joana. Joana has been my mentee for some years now. She has A background in biomedical engineering. And at the time, Pilates Ghana had um an event, and I needed Someone to MC for the event. I think that the event was actually around uh centered on mental health or Or

Speaker 2: so, and because of her background, I thought she would be like a good candidate to help with the event. Jonah joined in as an MC, helped us um With the event and after that I started getting Joanna to do some task like my dad will do for me. I started introducing Joanna to some of the little things that I was doing for Pie Ladies Ghana and I mean some of our um open source events. I would give her tasks like writing blog posts after events. And this was someone who was still in school and was reading biomedical engineering. But

Speaker 2: what this also turned out to be was that she started getting of of finding um her passion in data science. And Thankfully, I was able to help. I paired her with some of our Pie Ladies members who were already there. And Joanna is doing very well for herself now. She's Currently schooling in Paris and in a master's program and she's focusing full-time on data science. The next person I'd love to talk about is Vanessa. Vanessa is a jungle girl, and

Speaker 2: throughout the years that I've known Vanessa, she's Been doing a lot of communication stuff. I guess she was also on this journey of trying to find where she fits in. She schooled in the Ghana Institute of Journalism, but in a lot of ways. Vanessa found ways to contribute to the community, which is really one thing I'm big on. How can we get other people who are not necessarily codests into our community to be able to help us I mean, move forward to be able to help us achieve all of the goals that we set for our communities. Vanessa has been on this journey and is still on the journey

Speaker 2: of contributing as much as she can with the communications team um in in Pie Ladies Ghana. She's learned some coding and She's able to also interact with folks from our community and all, even though she's doing a lot of communications work in Ghana. Now, this is Joseph. When I met Joseph, Joseph was as shy as I am. And He he he was always really, I mean, shy to approach anyone. Um To even ask for help was like a big deal to um to to to Joseph.

Speaker 2: But during the time when we had um PyCon Africa in 2020. He was a part of the organizers. And I happened to have had very close chats with him and I realized his potential. He had lots of potential to be someone who would be able to impact more lives and then do a lot of work around what we were doing. um in open source in Ghana and then Africa. And so I would encourage Joseph to Do a lot of things, um, particularly holding his hand to also help him do some of the work. I would show him how I would do it

Speaker 2: and then encourage him to also come up with how he thinks he could approach it. And I find that it was really, really helpful. Now, um Joseph, who is um a DevOps engineer, um serves on the team at Python Ghana and Next month he's also leading a workshop at DjangoCon Africa. And I'm actually very proud of him and how far he's come. Another story that I would really love to share is that of Teresa. Teresa started also as a student. and also get to l um learn about Django whilst she was in school.

Speaker 2: Teresa is currently a back-end developer using Django as well. And I from my conversations with her, I know very well how much Django Girls um really helped her help shape her current um career prospect and she's actually really doing very well for herself. Now these stories mean a lot to me because it's Really a testament to all of the work that we have been trying to do to get more people into open source and impact particularly to use the Django framework. Um, so I definitely love sharing these stories. Now, the first four people I have shared.

Speaker 2: Um If you noticed where folks were trying to sort of find where they fit and also were trying to come out of their shell, right Now these two the next two stories I'm gonna share are um folks who are I mean have already been there as like engineers and then um try to come into open source to also try to give back. Now this is Aceda I said that is a data scientist, and so many ways I said that did a lot of things for our community She helped organize the first data science bootcamp for Pie Ladies Ghana, which saw us introduce 60 ladies to data science.

Speaker 2: She helped with coordinating mentors who came from all over the world, Australia, Taiwan, and all of that. I said down would reach out to me like when we have um meetups and events and all. I said that would reach out to me and would ask, Abigail, how can I help? I got to learn more about ACEDA and we started the Py Ladies Ghana data science community, which has been leading till date. Even though she's currently in the US, she's still leading this community and doing very, very, very great. And I'm so proud of her. The last person I'll talk about is Rexford.

Speaker 2: Rexford is a software engineer and developer advocate. He he's Very good at what he does in the world of coding and all. In different ways as well, in ways that people might not really think of Rexford has really, really been with us throughout this journey as a photographer, even though he's a seasoned software engineer. Rexford would do this voluntarily and I I believe that he deserved all the flowers that I could give him or we could give him. Because it's not easy to be at the background of the very things that excite you. I mean, he's all

Speaker 2: always there to capture the moment and not really get to enjoy some of the um the sessions and all. So Throughout this journey, I've had some challenges, like personally, and then also with regards to our community as well The first challenge I would like to talk about is about opportunities Now, we've been on the journey, or let me personalize this. I have been on the journey since 2017 to bring others Into the world of coding, the world of technology through open source

Speaker 2: and through events like Django Girls and Python events. But unfortunately, We struggle with finding opportunities for such people, especially folks who are junior developers. And this we we we we actually really try um to do the best that we can to try and find opportunities for people so that I mean You organize a very technical event. You had folks come in, they learn a programming language. What next? Right? So we've actually been on this journey of helping more people

Speaker 2: get their first career as Django developers or Python developers. But it hasn't really come easy. And I would entreat all of us here, if you're looking for developers and especially junior developers, please do well to look into the African community. Another challenge has been to also find paid open source. Paid open source opportunities. Opportunities that get you to contribute to open source and then get paid whilst doing it Since 2017, I have been on this path, myself and others. We have been on this path of contributing to open source.

Speaker 2: And it's all been volunteering. A lot of the times my parents didn't even understand why I would wake up to go out there to volunteer. They didn't understand why I would wake up and sit in a bus like for long distances to be out there um to volunteer to bring in more people into open source So these are some of the opportunities that we would definitely appreciate. Now finding resources has also been um a challenge, but then thanks to some of our international open source communities, we were able to find some some resources to help us in our journeys.

Speaker 2: Another challenge as well has been travel and visas. The first time I got an opportunity to speak at um a Django Con event. It was in 2019 at DjangoCon Europe. Unfortunately, I had a visa denial. In fact, that particular year I had two opportunities. And in both opportunities, I got denied a visa. And honestly speaking, it broke me down because from where I come from, applying for a visa is a whole sport on its own. The kind of paperwork that goes into it is is unbelievable.

Speaker 2: And so you would you would be stressed after even doing all of this and taking a rejection um was actually very bad, like did me very bad. But then um I'm thankful for um Other opportunities I've gotten, especially because I find that being in the US as a grad student has also opened a lot of doors for me. Found how it's it's it hasn't been that easy, but I believe that the system here um Sort of makes it easy to be able to apply for visas and all of that. And I've had some other opportunities to be able to travel to Europe to contribute to open source

Speaker 2: But for Africans, this really remained one of the things or challenges that we face as open source contributors. Next, I would love to talk about open source waffle. Now, I'm using this word, um, it's a tree word. I was trying to brainstorm on what to really name um this particular section of my talk. I didn't really find one, so I was like, okay, it wouldn't hurt to go um with a word that's in the Ghanaian language called tree. So in qi means helper. I would

Speaker 2: love to um throw some more light on Some folks who have really, really helped me personally and then also the communities I found myself in contributing to back home in Africa. The first person I would love to talk about is Daniele. Daniele is here with us as well in this conference. Daniele has been a very, very good person in terms of putting us out there with um. And I'm talking about the

Speaker 2: African Python software community. Daniele would always, you know, I I would I would always want to be at the background trying to Make sure things are happening. But Daniele would find a way to bring me up on stage. Daniele would find a way to get me to speak to an international audience in Europe. Daniele, I really, really appreciate everything that you are doing for me and other people in the open source community in Africa. He's currently a member of the planning committee at DjangoCon Africa. He's helped us also with some other events like PyCon

Speaker 2: Africa, he's been a part I know for Python Namibia as well. When it comes to the African Python software community and I'm really grateful. I guess like on behalf of everyone. Thank you, Daniele I would also love to share about Amanda. Amanda would share a lot of books. Um Should put them together and then have them posted or mailed to me back home in Ghana. And these resources were actually very, very, very good.

Speaker 2: for our growth as a community. And I'm grateful to Amanda. Amanda would recommend us for um Um some of the I'm so sorry, but Amanda would recommend us for some of the Some awards just so that we get the visibility that we need as people or individuals who are contributing to open source in Africa. And I also really appreciate her efforts because all of us who have been on this journey have been doing this

Speaker 2: voluntarily. I mean, it's really not easy trying to do this whilst also trying to find um to to work for your employer who actually pays you. I've actually had Times where my boss would caution me um in at at work. Not in a bad way though But I did a lot of um volunteering work that I saw that it started really affecting my my my day job. But then he would prompt me when he would see that I was going down the rabbit hole, right? Hi, Kojo Idrisa. Thank you so much for

Speaker 2: For all your contributions to the African Python community. Kojou Idrisa was a keynote speaker at PyCon Africa and he's in 2019. And He's coming back again as a keynote speaker at DjangoCon Africa next month. Kojo Idrisa would always check on me. He would try to find out what my career prospects are. what are some of the challenges I'm going through. And he would always try to suggest some of the things that I could do to be better. Thank you, Kojo. Um Don.

Speaker 2: So I met Don on Twitter. I I mean we've been chatting a lot on Twitter and I've seen all of the work that she's she's she's doing. And I happen to have met her in person at Django Korn US last year. Don currently is also on the team at DjangoCon Africa. We've had A lot of stressful moments in the last few weeks, and I've seen how Dawn has come through for us, and I'm really, really grateful to her The last person I would love to talk about is J. Mela.

Speaker 2: Um same way I met or I got to also know about um the work that Don has been doing. Um the same way I also got to learn more about Jay on Twitter. And I met him in person last year, and he's on this journey of grooming and bringing more Black Python developers together. And I believe that representation really matters. And personally, um Very much excited about what this project will do, especially for the African Python software community. Thank you, Jay. So throughout this journey, um

Speaker 2: I have Really found myself doing things that I wouldn't do. Um, things that I would love to hide. to do. But contributing to open source have has helped me develop resilience. It has helped me embrace discomfort. I was speaking to Drew this morning and I was telling him about how it's uncomfortable for me to actually speak. But it's necessary. So, what do I have to do? I have to do it anyways. But I appreciate that open source allows me to come out of my comfort zone to be able to Put the work that we are doing out there.

Speaker 2: Personally, I've also seen a lot of growth in my personal life because a lot of the times You are juggling, contributing to open source, and then you're nine to five. And so personal growth-wise, um learning how to Be patient with myself, shuttling things more because sometimes it can be overwhelming. A whole lot of stuff. But At the core of everything that I have done with regards to contributing to open source has been finding purpose. I graduated from my undergraduate study in the year 2017.

Speaker 2: I really wanted to do grad school. But then I had no idea what I wanted to do. Especially because I never liked computers. I would build stuff with jungle and all, but I was unhappy and I didn't want to do something that um I wasn't going to do with all of my heart. And so throughout this journey, I found purpose. Which has really been bringing other people into open source while also using those experiences to carve a career path for myself. I'm currently on a journey to becoming an open source programs manager. Using all of the

Speaker 2: All of the lessons that I have learned, organizing community events and then bringing other people together. I'd love to share something about myself with regards to the communities that I've been involved in and how I have contributed to these communities. Jungle girls. I think I've shared how I have done that earlier in my presentation. Grew from being a mentee, like just a mentee, to becoming a mentor, to becoming a jungle girls organizer. For Python Ghana, I've been privileged to have been the lead for PyLadies Ghana when it started

Speaker 2: and also helped build a community of women who are doing amazing things out there in cybersecurity, in web development, in data science and all. I've also helped with regards to all the efforts at PiData Ghana. Throughout my journey as well, and as again using the experiences that I have gathered, I've helped Other people set up their Pilates communities, specifically in Monrovia , Pilates Busaka that is based in Zambia, and some other pilotist communities as well. I'm a contributor also at Spy

Speaker 2: Ladies Global, where in the past I've helped In the communications team, and then also helping us set some of the goals and attaining them some time back. Um privileged also to have been a part of PyCon Ghana that happened in 2018. I've been an organizer and it's really an interesting ride. Also I have I am and I'm currently also um a contributor at PyCon Africa. Fingers crossed, we are coming together again

Speaker 2: to start preparations for another Pike on Africa. So watch out. I would during times where I had um visa denials, I actually stopped applying for um visa, I mean to attend. Events, international events, and all. I'm a fellow at the PSF and I've won a community service award as well, which Also, is an opportunity for me to be able to attend and participate in PyCon US. But unfortunately, I I decided not to try whilst I mean I was back home because of the experience.

Speaker 2: experiences that I have had. But even back home, I was contributing to um PyCon US online. um through volunteering. I've had the chance as well to also contribute in person as well at my first um PyCon US that happened um this year uh in Salt Lake. Um I've also had the opportunity to intend with a PSF and this was also my first paid open source um role. So it's actually really great to have such an opportunity to be able to Actually

Speaker 2: contribute to open source and then get paid while at it. I've also started a nonprofit organization called Everything Open Source. This I started because I wanted to go beyond Python. I wanted to see how we could bring more people into open source. Taking into consideration the different ways that people can contribute to open source. So everything open source It's an organization and we are exploring how to bring more people in into open source through coding and the no -code ventures.

Speaker 2: I'm currently also a researcher. What I'm doing now is to research on how we can improve DEI in open source community leadership. And I would say that this very community actually inspired this work. I think a year ago we had uh Django um board elections and I would I would see the likes of Marlene, the likes of J. Miller talk about how um the leadership team wasn't inclusive enough. And so through research, I'm trying to see how I could help the community I mean, for us to actually also get

Speaker 2: or improve our DEI efforts in our leadership I'm also currently serving on the team at DjangoCon Africa, which is happening next month. And on this note, I would love to Invite you all to DjangoCon Africa. It's happening in Zanziba, Tanzania, from the 6th to 11th of November. And we are also on this journey of um helping more people um come together so if you can you can scan this code and then um Try and then getting more people to our conference if you are unable to make it

Speaker 2: Now this is a picture of my first Jungle Girls like event or the my j first jungle girls encounter This is actually where it all started. Jungle Girls Accra 2017. Very much Grateful for the folks who actually started this initiative and then also for the folks who brought this initiative to Ghana. Because for people like me, I'm not sure how I would have found my purpose. And I'm very much grateful to all the people who have helped me in carving out this. Particular career path that I am currently on.

Speaker 2: Now, I believe that I have talked a lot and I've shared a lot of pictures, especially because I believe that The future is open, and in order for us to really achieve all the goals that we have in open source, we need the people We need the people. So how are we going to help in bringing more people into open source? In bringing more people, especially people like me, who years ago didn't really know what to do in terms of career-wise How are we ensuring that folks who do not necessarily love coding can be able to contribute to our community?

Speaker 2: I think this is a good thing to really ponder on. And I'm grateful that I got this opportunity to share how I have found purpose. In open source through community building. And I hope that my story inspires you as well to continue giving back to your local communities. Thank you.