Djangonaut Showcase Session 5

Speaker 1: Hi everyone, welcome to the Janganot Space Showcase for session 5. It's almost 8 years that we are together and looking back, this journey has been phenomenal. Today we are here to celebrate everything that went into these weeks, the learnings that we have had, the curiosity, the courage, and the community that we have built along the way. So what and why Janganaut Showcase? It is our mini cosmic conference of lightning talks where the whole community comes together to reflect on this session. It's a space to, you know, highlight not just what we have built, but who we have become while building it.

Speaker 1: So this showcase is all about celebrating those wins that have been big or small, the code and non-code contributions, the PRs, the debug battles that we have had, the conversations maybe The questions that you have asked that you were afraid to ask initially, and all those moments where you chose to show up even when it was tough. So yes, today we are not looking out for the perfect speeches or the perfect presentations. We are here to take pride in our journey that we have been made surrounded by people who understand the efforts that we have made behind each step that we have been here. So surprise who all would be speaking today.

Speaker 1: Today we have speakers from different roles, from different teams and different projects all across the session. And each one of us Shimeziu, Hawaiyang, Tim, Mar, Hiram, each one of these speakers have seen the session from a different angle. And I am super excited to see how these stories of every speaker will resonate. To capture the full picture of these eight weeks and yes, we listen them all along together. What you'll hear You'll hear a mix of experiences. Some might be technical, some might be personal, different perspectives as we discussed, all reflecting the diversity of our community. Our speakers will be sharing things like what they have explored in these eight weeks, what they plan to explore maybe in the next weeks

Speaker 1: coming together. Learn lessons they have learned, moments, journeys, or everything in five minutes lightning talk format. So, how you all can engage with them? As you listen, I extend my invitation to each one of you to support us. To react in chat, send emojis, cheer the speaker on, and later on we'll have a small Q<unk>A towards the end. So, yes, let's kick start the talks and celebrate the learnings all along In the spirit of Django Not Space, we have the first speaker, Shimezeu, the Django Not from Theme Saturn of Django Debug Toolbar. Over to you, Shimezeo.

Speaker 2: Hello everyone. My name is Ch Mizu, but for short you can call me Mizu. I am from Nigeria, from West Africa. And I came from like I joined Django Notes right after finishing my Google Summer of Code projects from the WACTO organization. Well, so that's that's like the bit about me. Now my motivation for joining the Django Nut Space program was because I I like the idea of giving back and with Django, Django has been a really good framework to me. So I felt a bit bad that I had not been able to make any significant contributions. And I wanted to try my hand that. helping to make Django

Speaker 2: a better framework. That was my primary motivation. But when I tried, it was a bit difficult finding easy first pickings, finding issues to contribute to and pull requests. So I realized I needed I needed a couple of hands to walk me through the process. Now, fast forward to when I got into the Djangonaut Space program. Yeah, so it's sort of divided into what I did and what I learned. Because in terms of pull requests, I did not get that many pull requests merged, but I learned a lot of things. Um it mostly revolved around these two concepts, Django tasks and Django channels. So my first uh issue was to try to put supports for the Django

Speaker 2: channels into the bulk two bar. And after a bit of trial and error, trying different things and a couple of meetings with my navigators got to realize one thing and that was that the Django debug to be in its states did not support Django channels. And the next issue I picked up was for Django Tasks, which is still something in the works, but the proof of concept works. There's a pull request available for it. So like that's for what I did Now as for the parts of what I learned, I got to learn a lot about not just the debug tool by itself, but how the monkey patching works with some like inner parts of Django. I got to read more about some Django stuff because the moment I stepped into async Django territory, it was a different ball game for me.

Speaker 2: And there was Lots of reading and catching up to do. I got to discover about Daphne. I got to work with some ASGI files, which I had previously not done before. So it was a lot, but compressed in the eight-week period, it stopped looking like a lot. It felt like it was just something I could take my time, read through and Things flowed much better. Now for the reflection. At first I felt I wasn't doing so great a job because it's easy to fall into the trap of using issues and pull requests merged as a metric for success. And I also felt bad that I was not understanding things as fast as I would normally have liked, but

Speaker 2: again, after a couple of conversations with both my navigator and my co -um Django Nuts fellows, because when you get the perspective from other people in the same program with you, you realize that, oh yes, it's overwhelming for not just you but a lot of other people as well. Sometimes even for the navigator, as my primary navigator was also a first-timer at the Django Not Space Program. So I learned to slow down and then I got to realize one thing that it's a marathon, not a sprint. The idea of the program is to get people contributing So it's not just like an eight-week long program. It's more or less like an eight-week orientation program

Speaker 2: towards contributing in the long run. So it became much easier to delve into things. I made lots of good friends, got to learn a lot about Django as a whole, got to learn about some inner workings too, like the Django working groups And yeah, it was pretty much a fun experience for me in that regard. Now, the next steps for me, I would like to finish up on my Django Tasks pull request. I also have a conversation I'm supposed to initiate in Django Forum, which is related to that. And I want to apply to a Django working group because I like the idea of it. I want to keep contributing long term to not just the Voktober, but Django as a whole.

Speaker 2: And hopefully I would like to be in a position where I can help volunteer and maybe mentor or collaborate with someone on a Django program. Thank you.

Speaker 3: Thank you so much.

Speaker 1: That was

Speaker 3: an inspiring talk.

Speaker 1: We love how your journey you have explained and all those goals that you have for future. Hope so. We see you in working groups as well. And as you said, not an orientation, like just an orientation program We hope it really kickstarts your journey within the Django. Okay, so yes. Next up we have Hawaiian. a Django Naut from Team Neptune who has contributed to the core Django project. So yes, Hawaiiang? The stage is all yours.

Speaker 3: Yeah. Hi Fox, is my audio coming through okay?

Speaker 1: Yes, all good.

Speaker 3: Yeah. I'm Hayang or Jangonak from Team Neptune. Today I wanna talk about the Jangma journey I'm most proud of this year. what I learned from it and what I hope to continue doing in the future. Um as a Python plugin developer, I've been always been interested in the Django community and I wanted to contribute to Django 's open source as a way to strengthen the ecosystem and connect with developers around the world. So that's why I joined Django North. And uh here's what I learned.

Speaker 3: First, the power of sharing and asking When I shared what was blocking me and asked questions, I could solve problems much faster. Yeah, sure, AI can help but having wonderful teammates and this supportive community was what truly mattered. Mm. For me, I did pair programming with my teammates. We reviewed my PR comments together, including documentation related feedback, and figured out what to do. And it was really helpful. And second, focus on why, not just what.

Speaker 3: Um when I was solving issues, I mostly focused on what needed to be changed. I just followed others suggestions or examples but didn't always think deeply about why I uh why it was necessary But recently I tried to understand the reason behind each change. And by doing this, I started to see how Django actually works and why certain choices were made. It made me feel like a true contributor. So mm after Django notes I'll keep sharing and asking questions

Speaker 3: within the Django community. Even though this program is ending, it really feels like the beginning of my Django contribution journey And if possible I love to help organize uh the next Django note session and Uh I'm uh interested in the Django AI team. Yeah. So I also wanna help create the same kind of comparable space in Hai Lai Desoul or Tjango, Korea by organizing translation sessions or open source seminars

Speaker 3: So the beginning uh beginners were encouraged to contribute. Yeah, this is my story Being part of Django Nuts was a true honor and thank you all for creating such a safe and supportive space. Thank you.

Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Hawaiiong. Having translation sessions on open source program is a really, really amazing thought. All our power, all our kudos to that. We're glad that how you mentioned the power of sharing within the community has helped you focusing on the why aspect and not just the what aspect that you have been doing So we hope that the upcoming Shangonauts also take slight responses from these and they also get along within their journey. Okay, so yes. Next up we have the founder, the navigator, the session organizer. Our support, Tim Schilling, for Django debug

Speaker 1: toolbar of Team and helped along as navigator for Team Saturn this time around. So yes, dim.

Speaker 4: Hi people. Hi folks. Yeah, I'd like to spend my time talking about expectations versus reality. And so there's several memes out there about this. When I was looking for photos, this one made me laugh. Um, so for people who aren't aware, it's of the character Thomas the Tank Engine baked as a cake on the left for the expectations, and then on the one on the right. Um well that's probably something you're more likely to find in a horror movie. Uh but before we continue, we do need to acknowledge a few things. One, that ugly cake probably tastes amazing. Like it's still butter and sugar after all and it's really hard to mess that up. Two, the nice cake was at least was put together with at least one other ingredient. And I I don't remember what the name is

Speaker 4: But it's what gives it that solid smooth look. And so clearly the other person didn't have that. And they were so they were never going to match the look of the nice cake. And a lack of equipment is simply that. A lack of equipment. And then lastly, the person tried. Like just because it doesn't look like an actual toy you can play with doesn't mean it wasn't a good attempt. It's awesome that they made that attempt, and that's commendable. So despite the face looking like something that will haunt my nightmares, this is pretty cool. And so now I'd like to talk about Jot Space. So we all have our own expectations when it comes to participating in open sp open source. In some cases, our expectations may exceed what's actually possible. However, if we reframe the ambitious expectations as aspirations, we can be a little easy on ourselves when we

Speaker 4: when we reflect on our journey. So I'm curious how many people have had one of these expectations for Tjanginaut Space. Me personally, I'm going on session five now, and I think I finally stopped believing that meetings are ever gonna be easy. Um each session, I definitely think I'm gonna make a bunch of new best friends. Uh the next session, uh the next one, I'll become a the the Django expert doesn't really hit a home for me anymore. I've seen too much. I'm well aware I'm never gonna be the Django expert. Uh the last one, I I still always believe it. We've got eight full weeks. That's so many weekends to get stuff done. Next slide, Priya, please. And then there's reality. People get jobs, we have life changes, schedules

Speaker 4: schedules change dramatically, it becomes very challenging to schedule a regular meeting. Remember that friendship? It's kind of hard to connect with strangers that you've never met before and you don't know what you have in common. Or the code one, it's three weeks in, you've got a documentation only PR, it's got 20 comments, and you're still missing that little green check mark. On the time aspect, yeah, it's eight full weeks, but then you remember weekends are when you're supposed to have fun. You got people inviting you to go to shows or a concert or go camping. Next slide, please. The reality is, open source is something we do during our extra time. It's our lowest priority. And it's meant to be achieved slowly. To that end, we should look at DjangoNot space as a jumping off point, or in our space theme, as an ignition.

Speaker 4: Next slide. So what I'm working on, and what I invite you all to do, is to form gentler expectations. So keep aspiring for that greatness. You need that motivation. But understand that these are long-term aspirations. Expectations are for the short term and something that we can control that week or even just that day. For me, that's being present, communicating, and simply making the attempt. And even if our attempt is to create a cake which could traumatize a small child, if we change our perspective, we'll realize we still ended up with cake. Thank you.

Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you so much. It was an energetic talk. It was expectations versus reality talk, of course. And it really speaks in the spirit of the Chang 'an space. Thank you for giving that cake analogy. It was amazing to see. I hope if we were in person we would have had this Whole big cake and we'd be celebrating that along maybe someday hopefully.

Speaker 4: Those cakes are so hard to make when there's multiple tiers. I've tried and like yeah, it never goes well. It's so hard.

Speaker 1: This gives me an icebreaker question to ask later. What kind of cake would you bring if you're on a cosmic conference for Juggernaut Space? Remind me later. First we'll move on to the next talk which we have from Mar who is the Django Naut of Team Mercury and has contributed tremendously to Django CMS. So over to you, Mar, help us tell us about your journey and how your experience in Janganan space has been.

Speaker 5: Hello everyone. And yeah, so when I joined the program, I was hesitant because I haven't I'm not really a heavy user of Django. Uh I have worked with Python a lot of years, uh, but I've always wanted to contribute to to open source because I'm a big fan. but never you know could never find myself uh the way to to do it uh because it's it's daunting. So this this program I think uh For me it it has uh worked very well. I I took it very seriously. I think uh some uh in my team, and me and my colleague uh Vanessa, which we paired on a lot of these tickets

Speaker 5: we were able to to get some things. Although you see the list is very big. Most of those are not really pull requests that got merged. but rather little improvements on bugs that could not be fully solved but at least made better or things that were discovered and then we opened a bunch of new tickets about them on or some just some documentation improvements but uh but yeah I think uh every little counts And uh my takeaways from the program, uh I wrote a a a blog, um a post on my blog, uh reflecting on everything, but mainly for me uh it's been uh a confidence boost.

Speaker 5: because uh I finally broke that that first uh barrier of contributing something to open source that uh got uh accepted and was not just me trying to uh yolo some PR out of nowhere and expecting it to to get married with. And then it was also a rewarding experience because uh It's rewarding when you see that uh something that you make becomes part of uh of a code base that a lot of people are are gonna use. I also thought the program was fun and welcoming. Everyone was just so nice and helpful and celebrating or others'

Speaker 5: achievements. And of course there's also the the lessons learned because as you say this is just like the first step into um open source rather than a goal itself. And for me is that uh the takeaways are that there are many ways to contribute to open source other than just uh with code. Like any engagement that you have with the community via tickets or discussions also progresses things and makes things better. So also means contributing. And yeah, collaboration and discussion in in the end, uh you spend more time doing that than writing code.

Speaker 5: Uh And just uh be patient because as someone uh in this talk has said before, uh you can't uh expect uh open source uh which is done in our free times to move uh as fast as things move uh. on a company so the the vibe is completely different. Thank you so much to all of us and it was great and I hope I can stick around too

Speaker 1: That was fantastic. I really loved how you highlighted your whole arc of open source being daunting that each one of us would have experienced at some point in our lives. And the open source burnout of how it's like a volunteering work and I'm glad that you had fun while dealing with all that and get your key takeaways and achieve uh targets achieved so thank you so much and as you said thank you to all of us So yeah, next up we have Hirim, who's the Django Naut from Team Mars Django. Hirim is not with us in this particular meeting since of course the classic time zone problems.

Speaker 1: So we have a recording from Hiram. I would play that for everyone and hope to send some encouragements and uh what the key takeaways from the talk from Hiramber in the chat and Discord chat of course. So yes.

Speaker 6: Hi everyone, my name is Harim Choi and I'm from Korea. Today I love to share my wonderful journey with Jangana Space Before joining this program, my life as a developer has started to feel a little dirt. I was writing code every day, but the excitement I once felt when I first started coding was slowly fading. Then Janguna's face entered my light This program brought energy, curiosity, and joy back into my everyday routine. It reminded me why I first fell in love with programming because Of the joy of learn

Speaker 6: learning, creating and solving problems together. I also truly love sharing my experiences with others and hearing their stories Through this program, I'm found a community that celebrates eport as much as Lyger. And I was inspired by the encouragement and positive energy I listed there. Before this, I had only participated in developer communities in Korea, but through Jangola space I had the chance to use English and connect with people people from all around the world. It really helped me broaden my perspective and

Speaker 6: see things in a new way. And contributing to Django had always been one of my biggest dreams as a developer. But honestly, I had postponed it for years because it felt too overwhelming to do alone. Through Django space, the dream finally came true With the help of my teammates and communities, I learned to read jungles, source code, write tasks, make my first contribution. and even contribute to the Django newsletter. When I submitted my first pull request, I felt both nervous and proud.

Speaker 6: It was a big step forward and this was the hardest part waiting and fixing I worked on my PR fixing code updating commits and doing my best to apply all the all the feedback I listed But it wasn't easy. I wasn't fully familiar with Django 's project structure and sometimes I wasn't sure what I could safety change. Actually my first PR hasn't been merged yet, but I'm still working hard every day step by step to make that first merge happen someday. Through this experience, I gained more than technical skills.

Speaker 6: I found confidence, perspective, and a deep motivation to keep contributing. Now I see open source as a living community where people share, grow and support each other. For me, Jangular Space wasn't the end of a program, it was the beginning of my open source journey. And someday I hope I can help someone else take their first step just like others helped me take mine Thank you for my teammates and everyone in this community for bringing warmth, encouragement and meaning back into my developer life. This journey has reminded me why

Speaker 6: I love coding and why community truly matters. Even after Janguna's face ends, I hope to keep contributing to Django and continue growing through open source. And I hope that World Django developers in Korea will join this amazing program in the future. Thank you, Changanuspace.

Speaker 1: Thank you, Hiram. Brilliant talk. More power to you. That was amazing. Hope to talk to you soon uh later on as well. It was an amazing way of how Harry mentioned of how she wants to like lead the next Upcoming folks as well. So hope so we have more juggernauts from Korea next time. Okay, yes, that was all from the speakers today. Now The space is open for questions for everyone. Anything you had in mind while listening to the talks or you wanted to ask or just brew up some conversations or I would say cosmic conversations over coffee.

Speaker 1: So yes. To break the ice. I I'd not do the cake question, I'd say just one word that you have been feeling right now after listening to all the talks. Uh I say I'm grateful. I'd start first. Tim?

Speaker 4: Inspired would be the word I'd go with.

Speaker 1: Yeah, nice. Hawaiian.

Speaker 3: Uh yeah. Even though it this isn't the the official clothing ceremony yet?

Speaker 1: Yeah Yeah, a one word.

Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. Uh-uh, yeah. Through this program I found uh sense of belonging outside of my company and it landlast me.

Speaker 1: That's amazing sense of belonging that has been instilled. Shmezou

Speaker 2: I'd say happy because it's nice hearing people achieve their goals, and it also sounds from the number of people that want to keep contributing that Django Nuts itself is achieving its goals as well. So happy is the world.

Speaker 1: Yeah, we're also happy to listen to that. Rachel.

Speaker 7: Um, don't put me on the spot or anything. Thanks. Um proud, I'm proud of the community and the organizers for pulling this together and and creating a nice path for everyone to have success in the program, all the Jenga nuts and proud of the Django nuts for stepping up and putting themselves out there in a space that maybe is a little bit scary and being vulnerable and trusting us that they'll be okay and and find their own success. So I'm proud of y'all did that. Great job.

Speaker 1: Thank you. Mar.

Speaker 5: Um uh I felt all warm and cozy hearing all of the uh humble learnings by by everyone and how they they want to uh stick around and and keep uh keep growing on their journey.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Okay, anyone who'd like to go on next

Speaker 8: Yeah, I guess I guess I would like to go next. Uh so well for me it's uh it's more of, you know, um uh having like a taste of uh leadership uh and her team and understanding that well um it takes it takes more than just uh code uh to excel in uh a career as a software engineer. but more of you know having to influence and having this impact that you have in uh you know the open source community. So thanks thanks once again, Priya and the organizing team. Yeah Because otherwise if maybe it wasn't like that, then no one would really like to stick around. But I guess it's it's it's a better experience for everyone. So thanks, thanks once again.

Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. Anneville?

Speaker 7: Yeah, I uh I feel very touched by these wonderful talks and um

Speaker 3: I can really feel how like open source contribu contribution and especially Jenko Not space is so much more than contributing code. It's like the community, the sense of belonging. And also for my side, thank you so much for for this.

Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you so much. Anyone else would like to talk about it or ask questions? The space is open. Yes, Rafaela.

Speaker 5: First of all, I would like to thank all of the speakers because I I was uh I was really moved uh by all of your thoughts because I think I could remember I think I remember the feelings when I did uh join uh Django Not Space uh uh

Speaker 6: as a participant. So uh having the chance to uh listen to your all of your uh of your journey it's was really uh it's it it it's something that really uh touched my soul and I would like to ask you uh for uh uh for anyone who want to uh to to reply to this I would like to ask uh what uh do you suggest for your past self or maybe someone that faced um the open source contribution for the first time what's your suggestion question could be for you or another contribu

Speaker 6: new contributor.

Speaker 1: That's a great question to all our speakers for today. Well would who would be like to answer this question? You can

Speaker 6: yes, to any to anybody that want to really reply. I can go first if uh if Yeah, that's okay.

Speaker 1: Yes, definitely.

Speaker 6: I will like to I I think I also said my baby multiple times. but I I would like to uh repeat to myself, uh suggest to myself, my past self, to um ask as many questions uh as I need to too because uh um meeting the uh the community and having the chance to to uh have um space where uh where where we can learn together and we can uh improve. Uh it's really it's really important also for for you for for myself but also for everyone else because uh I noticed that maybe um a question that comes uh

Speaker 6: in my mind maybe it's not uh something that um has never asked before. But if it's uh has i if it has already asked before, uh at least I have uh something to learn. And uh if I share uh the same question uh maybe other people have the same doubt, the same question, the same uh the same problem. So it has a multiple uh purpose to ask uh to ask question So uh I would like to um to encourage myself to to to don't be afraid to ask questions.

Speaker 1: Definitely, yeah. Asking questions could like look daunting initially, but we have to dare it greatly when we're in open source and get started with a dare to ask questions, dare to Walk around the PRs in of course a humble and polite way, keeping in mind the respect and inclusivity of the community. So panel discussion, open for the panel discussion. What advices or suggestions would you like to give to your past self or someone who's starting out in the open source? Or the future jamnauts.

Speaker 5: Um

Speaker 1: yes, we we can go one by one. Uh Mar.

Speaker 5: Uh okay, so um for me maybe the the biggest realization is that uh open source is uh as much as uh as as much the community as it is the code itself. And to work issues out, uh you need to uh to talk with someone rather than just trying to solve everything via code. So yeah, discussing with the community first and became becoming involved rather than just uh It's more it's it's a lot more than just code. There are design decisions or a lot of things that that you have to to take in mind

Speaker 1: Yes, community involvement and the support that we get from the community is brilliant. I believe next up was Matthew was talking around.

Speaker 2: Yeah, you can just call me Mizwo subsequently, but yeah. So the advice I would give any other like any um future jangle nuts would be it's okay to feel nervous, it's okay to feel overwhelmed, you don't have to know everything. In fact, if you knew everything, chances are you wouldn't be a Django note, you would have already been like a maintainer or something. So but like it's also important to realize that the navigators, the captains, the people you reach out to were once up once upon a time at the position you are in where they felt clueless. So I think the navigators are good at reminding you that, oh yes, that we understand how you feel.

Speaker 2: Don't feel nervous. At least even if you feel nervous, don't Let the nervousness be a hindrance from moving forward. So yeah, be comfortable in reaching out to anybody in the community and yeah, just feel at home to use that in quotes. Yeah.

Speaker 1: Thank you for the advice. We can take one more question. Before we wrap. Anyone has any questions in mind or some reflections? Help, all good. Okay. Then uh thank you

Speaker 8: I guess

Speaker 1: Yes, please.

Speaker 8: Sorry. So to me, I would say that um this program is more of uh you know like a journey than a marathon. And uh every challenge that you face or perhaps every uh you know win that you get is like you know like a building block towards um towards progress. So nothing should either demotivate you or discourage you to uh be able to, you know do more and I think to to me that's that's like uh you know an attitude that I would you know have and maybe I would encourage you know anyone who would be coming to open source because it matters like a lot to be able to uh move on despite you know maybe the discussion or perhaps what's not working right

Speaker 8: or perhaps you know uh excitement and stuff like that. Yeah.

Speaker 1: I love that how you mentioned about the building blocks concept and I'd like to give a little touch to that that maybe all those building blocks are with different members of the community and when they all come together bringing those different different building blocks, that's how the whole uh community tower, that's how gets like skyrocketed. So yes. Yes, and that's how the cake is made. Definitely. Cool. Okay. Thank you so much everyone for joining. It was amazing to listen to all of you, the experiences that you have shared with us and your journey for this Jaggernaut Space showcase. Hope to see you all in the upcoming showcase To listen to more folks and celebrate more victories for the Cosmic Conference.

Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining. Hello everyone. Welcome to the Django Space Showcase I'm so glad that you all are here today. We have almost spent eight weeks learning together, contributing, questioning, sometimes stretching ourselves, and most importantly showing up together as a community. Looking back, this journey has been truly special. Today is that moment to celebrate everything that went into these weeks, the curiosity you brought, the courage you practiced. the challenges you've worked through and the community that we have created all along the way. So Janguna Showcase This is our cosmic conference of lightning talks, the reflections

Speaker 1: and shared experiences that we have all come together to reflect on how it had been in this journey. This isn't about the great contributions or just about the issues that we have been discussing maybe over track or anywhere related. It's uh also about who we all have become while doing it, what we have learned, both code and non-code wins. the PRs that we have merged, every debugging marathon, every conversation that had helped us move forward or sometimes that pushed through the self-doubt. We are here to discuss about that. We're not here for the flawless talks or like the most perfect perfect presentation. We are here to honor each other's journey.

Speaker 1: We are here to be surrounded by people who have understood our efforts and would be there. After this as well. So, yes, take pride in yourself of what you have achieved in this program and what you want to achieve Further and let's recognize the efforts. So, who'll be speaking today? We have voices from across the teams and projects who have contributed in different ways, who have looked across this. program in different perspectives, yet bringing the whole different diverse perspectives together in our welcoming community So the 8v8 week picture would be formed by Annelle

Speaker 1: Collins Eddie Daniel today and what they have Experience so far, you'll hear a variety of reflections, both technical, non-technical, personal insights, some memorable wins, some lessons learned, and how the journey they have felt So, yes, settle in. Cheer for the cosmic celebrations, how you can engage. I invite you all to react in the chat. Send emojis, ask questions towards the end of all speakers once they have presented. And Feel free to engage with the conversations. Let's kick start of the lightning talks and celebrate the learnings So welcome again. First up, we have Annabel

Speaker 1: who is the Django Naut for Team Neptune and has contributed to the Django Core project. Over to you, Annabel.

Speaker 3: Thank you very much. Hello everyone. When I applied for Django Not Space, like all of you, I was asked which area of Django I was particularly interested in.

Speaker 7: I replied that I was interested in the ORM, although I'm not some sort of SQL expert, which somehow I felt I needed to be in order to work on an ORM ticket. But a documentation ticket would be fine, right? So I assigned myself a ticket with a title document that first filter chain to a related manager is sticky. I thought This is an easy entry point to the ORM. I just have to reproduce the queries in the ticket and document the unexpected behavior of the filter method. Easy! While digging deeper into the query examples and the unexpected filter behavior, I realized that I had to understand the underlying SQL queries in a bit more detail.

Speaker 7: It took me a while to understand what the ticket was actually about.

Speaker 3: When I tried to figure it out on my own, I actually got a headache and at some point I thought Let's face it, this is too difficult for me. Next slide, please.

Speaker 7: But then I got lots of help from the DjangoNot

Speaker 3: Space community and beyond. And that allowed me to learn so much

Speaker 7: and become more confident Simon Charret's talk, What the Join, helped me understand how the Django ORM joins database tables under the hood. I had some helpful discussions in my team. Shout out to Team Neptune and in the Django Tickets channel on Discord. After submitting a pull request, Django Fellow Jacob Walls review comments really helped me refine the documentation of the surprising filter behavior.

Speaker 3: Next slide, please I'm glad I didn't give up because I learned so much along the way.

Speaker 7: I learned how to work with a test project, how I can print out the underlying SQL statement of a query

Speaker 3: and that I can experiment with SQL queries in the Django database shell.

Speaker 7: I learned that I can share reproducible queries with a very helpful tool called DryORM

Speaker 3: And

Speaker 7: yes, in the end, I was able to understand and document the sticky filter behavior reported in the ticket. And my PR actually got merged yesterday On a meta -level, I learned that it's important to ask for help. A short piece of feedback from a more experienced person can go a long way. And while I'm still on my journey, I would say the ORM is complex, yes, but you can understand it. And you don't have to understand it all at once. You can take it one query at a time. So that was it from my side and thank you very much for your attention

Speaker 1: Thank you so much. One query at a time. That's definitely a proverb from now. Congratulations on your PR merged. Well done. Sounded really great to all of us. And thank you for giving shout out to the rest of our community members as well. So yes, celebrating together in the same spirit, we have Collins, who is the Django Not of Team Jupiter Backtail. So over to you, Collins.

Speaker 6: Yeah, thank you for this opportunity. So Hello everyone. Uh I want to share a bit about my journey within the Django Note space. So when I first joined I was honestly nervous. I used to think open source was only for highly experienced developers. um maybe people with like twenty or thirty years of experience at minimum But my captain and my navigator really changed that for me They kept reminding me that

Speaker 6: open source is for everyone and that even small contributions matter a lot within the open source community. I can say that that encouragement really pushed me forward to take the first step And I eventually made my very first contribution to the Wagtail Bakery demo. It felt really exciting, but at the same time it was really scary. But my navigator gave me feedback. Walked me through the different approaches and helped me understand the adult process.

Speaker 6: And let me tell you, that was the moment everything started making sense What I can say is that this experience showed me that open source is not just about code. It's about collaboration, learning from each other, and seeing how different people think through problems. And honestly, let me just tell you, open source is really fun. It's like solving puzzles. I think this has been one of my This has been a really fun thing to explore as a newbie.

Speaker 6: One thing that really surprised me is how the Django note space feels like a family. It's a place where you're not just pushing code. You're sharing wins, sharing frustrations and even life updates And every two weeks, without fail, someone checks in on you.

Speaker 7: We suddenly get a DM on Discord. How are you feeling? Have you met with your captain?

Speaker 6: Are you okay?

Speaker 7: Even on days where you are feeling down, just seeing that message

Speaker 6: just lifts you up. It reminds you that you're not doing this alone. There's a community backing you up. So for me, this journey was more than learning Django or contributing to the open source It was about finding a community that supports you, a community that guides you, and a community that celebrates your progress. And that's something that I'll always carry with me. Yeah. So thank you for listening

Speaker 2: and thank you to the whole Django Note family. Yeah, really appreciate it.

Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Collins. That was really heartwarming and thoughtful walkthrough. I could see folks smiling and nodding along. Thank you so much. I'm so moved and inspired by listening to you. Uh next up uh we have Eddie, who's the jangonaut of Team Mars and has contributed to Core Django. Over to you Eddie.

Speaker 7: Alright. I remember asking myself, what does it mean to be a developer? because um at some points we ha we have users that relies on that rely on the code that developers are building. But on the other hand, we also have the developers that rely on other projects like those in open source, the Django project for example. So I was feeling like we are all users of something and getting involved in Django notes was a way to approach that question for me.

Speaker 8: Django note space for me was

Speaker 7: um the opportunity to build to break things, to fix them and to rebuild my relationship with the framework, with the tool I'm using and It's more about confidence right now, not just codes, because yes, technically I've been

Speaker 6: uh I've improved a lot. And mainly because of

Speaker 7: the ticket I was working on, the one that is my main focus.

Speaker 8: It's about

Speaker 7: on where I'm challenged. that has been there for 15 years. So at first I was really intimidated by the ticket because it's been there for so long.

Speaker 6: But it was talking about exclude and I was thinking um

Speaker 8: exclude is really basic and I know it, I like it, so yeah, I

Speaker 7: work on I'm glad that finally I was able to suggest a solution that has been approved and thanks to my mentors, thanks to the captain. those who review my PR and for those who are watching this I would like to say um it's okay not knowing

Speaker 8: how

Speaker 7: to do things but if anyone is interested in open source yes

Speaker 8: the program like a program like Django note

Speaker 7: is a safe space to to try your ideas and to grow up not just technically but also with the community.

Speaker 8: The main thing that I will Keep is contribution to open source is more like knowing the limits of your tools and learning how to push them forward.

Speaker 2: Thanks.

Speaker 1: Oh thank you so much, Eddie. Loved how you navigated those 13-year-old PR. It really needs confidence to do that. So yes, thank you so much. Next up we have Daniel, who is the Chango Naut of Theme Saturn and has contributed to Django Debug Toolbar. Saturn uh Daniel, the stage is all yours.

Speaker 8: Uh thanks, Priya. Uh hope uh my voice is loud and clear. And uh my name is Daniel, Daniel O'Kort. Uh O'Kort means uh rain. So when I'm speaking, it's it's like it's raining, like yeah. So I 'll rain for for this time around. So uh well, my experience with uh Django Note uh space uh has really been amazing, I would say. At the beginning of the year, I I just uh left the job because I I wanted to, you know, to connect back with uh you know, something that has been part of me since I was young and that was software engineering after switching industries. And then after you know

Speaker 8: trying out uh to look, you know, how I can get my foot into the open source I I I fumbled on many, you know, resources and many platforms, but I ended up, you know, uh learning on you know Django note space and I was like okay I think I should give it a try but I think the turning moment was when I I was you know I was uh attending PyCon uh Uganda and uh there was a Linux kernel developer who was giving like a talk. And he was talking about open source. So I was like, okay, let me let me try out. So there was a tool that I was using and it was called, I think, a dependency injector. I was writing some unit tests. So when I saw some, you know, documentation, you know, issue, I was like, okay, I think I can fix this.

Speaker 8: So I went and then I made a PR and then the person who called me and was like, you can make it, you know, PR and then uh fix that. So once I fixed that, I was like, I think maybe I should give back to the community because it felt like I used Django for a long time and uh there was no way that I could you know justify It's like as if I've been stealing quote or something for that kind. So uh that's how I got myself here. And uh to just say what I worked on, I would say basically The ticket for generating the documentation locally for the Django in D Bagtuba Like has really been something that I feel proud that I was able to uh lay my hands on and work on it.

Speaker 8: And that's why I think uh that emoji there of a smile accompanied you know the bullet point because it it was really amazing. But I think what was most important like uh when I was in this program is that um I came to realize that uh development is not necessarily about uh writing code and testing code and debugging and stuff like that. It's something more much more broader and it's something that you know um When you're starting out as a developer, sometimes you're not exposed to the fact that you have to communicate your thought process, you have to understand the other, you know, side. so that you can agree on something because sometimes what you have in your head is not necessarily what someone else has in

Speaker 8: has in their head and and so vice versa. So when you come and you know uh lay out your uh thought process you come to a conclusive you know um should I say a solution that you know works both and uh you know makes uh you know progress So I would say that's something that I really, you know, learned, even though it's intimidating, uh, you know, going into the maintainers DM and asking questions sometimes it feels dumb but but then you have to get over it because you know if you don't if you do not do it then you won't get ahead and stuff like that. So it's kind of like playing ping pong or perhaps like table tennis or something like a back and forth process. So uh what mattered most to me uh was like the team

Speaker 8: felt more like a family and I would say just The word team itself, like uh coinc coincidentally, uh like team shilling, like he each and every time that you know, maybe perhaps We were from a weekend, like we we just connected, like talked about pets, talked about stuff, and it wasn't really like that much draining, like on my side. It didn't feel like a nine to five job or anything of that kind. And That's the kind of energy that I think, you know, pushed me forward to really, you know, uh give it time and be able to uh make you know meaningful contribution. But then um besides that, I would say that there is this one ticket that I also liked. It wasn't something that much serious.

Speaker 8: But uh team was in a suggestion that, you know, can we get some more green lights after, you know, dependency updates and all that stuff. And I was like, yeah, so there was a ticket that I just updated the dependency and um the pipeline was again back to green. And that kind of felt like, you know, like a superhero or something of that kind. And to me it's It's it's it's a it's a more win, I would say. It's it's more than I I don't know how to compare it, but I think it's something that really stood out for me, knowing that at least even the smallest bit that you contribute Really, you know, matters like a lot to uh bring something like you know a release version or something of that kind. So and um I would say Uh more PRs are still coming. Uh this is not the end.

Speaker 8: I know the time has been uh short and uh you know uh challenges in and out there by the time zones and you know constraints like on resources and stuff like that. But yeah, I'm still learning, I'm still growing, and uh I'm still contributing and uh I'm still willing to be mentored by the best. because if you learn from the best then you're always the best. So thanks Priya and thanks the organizing team for this session. Thank you so much. Asan Tisana. That's how it's it inside

Speaker 1: Yes, thank you. That was so, so beautifully expressed all the Munich contributions or the way especially you highlighted about The communication thought process, how to lay it out there, and the special superhero powers. Cheers to all the learnings. Thank you, Daniel, for sharing it with us So that's it. That's from the speakers for today. Now the space is open for questions for everyone. To engage in the conversations or ask questions from our speakers. You may drop them in the chat or use the raise hand feature to ask the questions

Speaker 1: and we can go one by one. Yes. Rafaela, please go ahead.

Speaker 6: I would like to ask you uh for uh every um every speaker that uh share our thoughts, I would like to ask you what uh uh what could be the uh the suggestion that you could give uh f uh to a first-timer contributor or or your past self when you uh first join Django Not space. If you have a suggestion.

Speaker 1: That's a really thoughtful question, Rafaela. I'd love to see insights from folks around this. Okay, the panel discussion of our speakers would go who'd want to go first. Please raise your hand. All right. Yeah, Anne and Pooh. Yes.

Speaker 7: I can say something. Yeah, don't Uh I mean if you ask yourself am I good enough? Can I contribute something? Of course you can contribute something. You can contribute in many different ways and there are many people to help you so don't be don't be shy just try try it out

Speaker 1: Yes, trying it out. Thank you for the advice. Anyone else would like to talk about this, the suggestion that they'd you'd like to give to your past self or the future junkonauts, I'd say. Yes, Daniela.

Speaker 8: Yeah, so what I would uh like to say is that uh there there will always be that smaller voice uh in your head. when you're you know planning to go into uh the maintenance DM or perhaps in the platform that oh this question is stupid this question is uh But if you choose only learn how not to listen to that voice and uh ask the question respectfully, then most of the answers and most of the intimidating situations will always be avoided because I think to me that's what uh stood out most because I I I wasn't feeling that much confident in the first place. Everything just, you know. s sounded like as if it was new, but as soon as I learned to understand that okay, it's okay to ask those questions and sometimes your

Speaker 8: maintainer won't even have the I mean uh the the the the captain or perhaps the navigator might not even be having the answer to it but then uh with the more and more you know of you know suggestion and just you know uh opening up your mind like you always arrive at the you know solution and which is like a win-win for for both so do not be scared to ask you know questions

Speaker 1: Yes. Putting oneself out there, asking questions in a supporting community is really important as Daniel mentioned. And of course the competence and confidence comes along the way So yes, Collins?

Speaker 6: I think something that I would advise someone who's new to to open source. is to take feedback positively. Like

Speaker 2: feedback isn't criticism. It's just guidance to help you improve more on what you're doing. Yeah.

Speaker 1: Very well said. Feedback. Giving a feedback and taking a feedback both of the things, Suzanne, is an art in itself. So yes, there's no silly questions. Yes, there are no silly questions Anyone else would like to highlight on this aspect or would want to ask some other question, please go ahead and as said, ask questions.

Speaker 1: Yes, and Nesto.

Speaker 7: Hello, thanks thanks for the presentations. Think the it shows uh a very nice uh amount of work that got got it uh that was done in to enter the the to start contributing to open source and I think it's it's as it was said there is no smart nothing as a small contribution, every contribution is welcome. And it's up upon us to show the other people outside the open source that we welcome their their contributions. I wanted to say that that and and other things that I want to say regarding the the dumb questions. A friend of mine once said

Speaker 7: Uh the only expert is the one that has already made every mistake possible. And We we all can learn from from making mistakes and we should encourage other people to to uh To be aware that making a mistake is part of the learning process. You learn only doing making mistakes and recognizing the mistakes and fixing the mistakes. You don't you don't you are gonna you are not going to learn uh asking chat gpt about something because chat gbt is going to give you an answer without explanation and sometimes it may be even

Speaker 7: wrong the explanation that it gives you. And the only way to learn something is to do it Hopefully you can get this right the first time and if you if you need one or two more approaches to solve this this problem Be sure that you're going to learn more from this process. And that's what I wanted to say.

Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Ernesto. That was an insightful take. And an amazing advice for each one of us. We can take one more question before we wrap this up. Uh, yes, Collins

Speaker 7: I do have a question for you, the the Django note organizer organizers. Like how was the experience for you during this period?

Speaker 1: Thank you for the question. All the organizers who we have here would like to answer this question first. Please share your experience with us. I'd go first. For me, it has been phenomenal. I really love organizing Javanot space and talking to people, knowing their perspectives on open source, knowing how they engage with the community, and more importantly learn from each one of them in this journey every day. From weak managing daylight saving times to managing timelines. It's it's it never feels like work.

Speaker 1: It always feels like coming back to home and having a happy discussion, happy contribution organizing this even despite you know, a rough work day or something like that. So thank you so much. Firstly, thank you each one of you for making it possible. For making this community so welcoming. It feels grateful to be part of this Yes, and we have amazing session organizers here with us.

Speaker 7: I'll I'll share mine if that's all right. Um I was gonna say every session we have You never know what it's gonna look like. Ever we have different volunteers of officers, of captains, navigators, and a whole new group of Django Knots joining. They don't know how it's gonna go. They trust us to lead them and to to have a good program for them and hopefully it's it's gone well um from these, you know, talks today it seems as it has Um, but it's always interesting. You never know the personalities you're gonna get, how they're gonna mix and mingle, but we always um and this session is no different. There's always some you know amazing experiences and um and PRs and conversations and new personalities and connections that come out of it.

Speaker 7: And every time it's it's really rewarding to see Um, for me it's the human connections. Um, I could care less about the PRs, but I mean, I have to say I do because that's what this is for. But I'm here for friends and like the community and connecting and the jokes and the pet pictures and um in supporting each other um when we have bad days for example and checking in on each other like Colin said. Um so thank you for being here and being a part of it. Um really keeps me kind of um volunteering here and keeps me around.

Speaker 1: Thank you, Rachel. Yes, Rafaela.

Speaker 6: Yeah, thank you so much, Collins, for this question because uh when this is my first time that I uh organize uh organizing diagonal space so the first when I I um uh expressed my interest. I was like, uh you know I'm not good enough. I never done this before. What are we gonna do? Do this But uh uh actually the the team uh uh that we have in the session was was amazing. I I I think uh we we did um uh great connection to each other and uh it was uh there was uh lots of work to do

Speaker 6: and um something uh of course I didn't expect uh to but I what I really appreciate uh is the fact that uh uh the environment was so uh s so important um because uh uh I I knew uh uh almost all of the organizers um and having the chance to learn something new and uh also um And this n I would like to thank you all of your um all of the speakers the today and yesterday because uh I think it reminds me how

Speaker 6: important is not just for us to organize things, but also for people that appreciate what we are doing. And it uh I am s I am speechless but by this this the the the talk that I Thank you for for what have you uh have you done um during the this session. I think it was amazing. You did wonderful things.

Speaker 1: Thank you, Rafaela , for sharing that with us, Shahamad. Um, I think Tim's um was up first, so maybe can be first. Okay, sure.

Speaker 4: Thanks. Uh yeah, I I actually don't have much to add. Rafael kind of stole it with like, yeah, sharing uh positive feedback. That was what I was gonna say. Yeah. So I I I really did like what Dan and you pointed out of like quieting that voice in the back of your head. And so as a session organizer, uh like Rachel was saying, you put it together and you do a bunch of this work up front. We were not really sure what you're gonna get, and so when we see these amazing showcases and like see how it's impacted the individuals, um Yeah, that feels really good. And I highly encourage everybody, if you do come across this beyond even this session, and open source in general, there is not enough positivity being shared back to people who are volunteering. So uh if we can do a better job of quieting that voice in the back of our head to

Speaker 4: share these good feelings to other people too. Yeah, it would be very helpful.

Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you Tem for sharing that. Ramad.

Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I think everyone has just said everything I was going to say. So um Yeah, I I I mean starting from I I remember when I um applied as as an officer, I didn't I remember not even choosing like being a session organizer because I I didn't know what to expect And I wasn't even sure I could like um I could be an organizer or something. So I I remember just applying for my captain and then seeing how it goes and then Team say no, John 's trying a been a session organizer. And um I think the experience has been really amazing for me. Um having to like chat with all of the Django nodes and then speak with them.

Speaker 3: And just like following up on conversations and basically the whole experience. The community has been awesome, like literally the best. Starting from like when I was a Django node captain till now, the community has been really great and um I really do appreciate everyone. And um I hope I get to see some of you participating as organizers as well, or even captain or officers. And um yeah, thank you everyone.

Speaker 1: Thank you, Rama. Thank you, Collins, for asking that question. Lots and lots of appreciation for Miguel, Fradvan, and Tom as well for shaping this session's journey. And of course, our past session organizers as well. And maybe the future ones would be joining next. Go fill out the form in case you're interested. So, yes, thank you so much for joining in, for sharing your experiences, for making us feel happy about The Jangoinaut Space Session 5, and for having the showcase. Thank you so much for joining in. Thank you for giving your precious time.

Speaker 1: Hope to catch up soon.