My OpenSource Journey
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The document chronicles Stephen Senkomago Musoke's journey in open source software development over years, highlighting his self-taught background, experiences, and the evolution of his career from technical roles to project management. It emphasizes the importance of collaboration, mentoring, and contributing to the community, while also reflecting on personal growth and the challenges faced in the tech industry. Musoke advocates for continuous learning, sharing knowledge, and embracing the open-source ethos to enhance skills and create greater opportunities.
My OpenSource Journey
- 1. MY OPENSOURCE JOURNEY Strong Opinions, Strongly Held By Stephen Senkomago Musoke @ssmusoke H A C K T O B E R F E S T
- 2. WHY ME? ¨ Self taught software tinkerer who loves growing techies ¨ Working hard at a normal regular family life ¨ My fair share of failed, successful, mind blowing and soul haunting projects ¨ Served clients in UK, US, Australia, Europe, South Africa ¨ 12 years setting up, growing & running a Ugandan custom software development shop ¨ 16 month Executive management stint - Worked in and ran a large international custom software service provider in South Africa & Uganda ¨ 4 years back to full time software delivery practice 2
- 3. THE EARLY YEARS – USER 3
- 4. THE EARLY YEARS q First computer contact – May 1996 (S. 6 vacation) q Part time vacation job – editing a Linux user manual & troubleshooting modems q Started Unix scripting and MS Access database development – using a reference manual q Lost my first and last file on a floppy disk – led to file management OCD q Great compliment to Civil Engineering degree q 2nd year Industrial training in University of Zimbabwe through internship – writing VB Civil Engineering tool 4 Always work yourself out of a job ~Charles Mukasa Your competition is not your neighbor, but people in US, China, Europe who have more resources than you ~ Charles Mukasa
- 5. EXPOSURE q Started custom software delivery services in Kla – mix interns & full time staff. Website development & outsourcing q Tech q Java à PHP (3/4) q MS Access à Oracle à MySQL q Tech growth – Javaworld, The Serverside, SQL 92 (no internet) q Influences: The ServerSide.com, Apache Foundation 5 Focus on one thing and do it right ~ Charles Mukasa
- 6. THE GROWTH YEARS - SHARING, LEARNING 6
- 7. GROWTH YEARS – BUSINESS LEADERSHIP q Tech Stack q PHP 3 & 4 q MySQL 3 and 4 q XOOPS, Joomla, Smarty Templates q Zend Framework q Protoype, MoTools, JQuery q Eclipse -> Zend Studio q Leverage pre-built libraries over writing custom code q Stack Overflow grew on me – answering questions q Whenever I was helped by someone I would share the experiences by writing on my blog – https://ssmusoke.com 7 Stand on the shoulders of giants
- 9. THE CHANGE – NON TECH STINT q Mercy Corps – finance, tech, agriculture – 1 year q ThoughtWorks q 4 roles in 2 years: Project Manager, General Manager in a box (SA), General Manager (Kla), Lead Consultant q EELD – insights into my personality, why I am the way I am q Stress related burnout – first ever q Realized: executive management is not for me I am a techie, at heart and in disposition so focus on technology based work streams 9 Find something you love and you will never work a day in your life Say yes first then figure out the rest ~Branson
- 10. TECH GALORE q Started at UCSF in METS Program q Working with UgandaEMR – facility based EMR system for public health facilities based on OpenMRS q Installed in ~900 public health facilities q Over ~1500 people trained to use and maintain EMR q Public support via Whatsapp/Email q User manual & technical guide q Modified agile delivery process q Play multiple roles - architect, tech lead, developer, trainer, business analyst, technical PM, product manager 10 Stand on the shoulders of giants, however feed the giants so that they are strong enough to keep carrying you ~ SSM Good developers write excellent code, great developers write no code, zen developers delete code
- 11. FANATICAL ADVOCATE q OpenMRS q dev/1 to dev/4 in 18 months q Reference Application Technical Lead – January 2017 to May 2018 q GSOC Mentor in 2017, 2018, 2019 q PHP q Active follower of Symfony & Larvel for side projects q API First development q CI/CD – automation from code to production q Loud local Open Data advocate 11 The best way to learn something is to teach it Every problem is a special case of a general problem There are no new problems under the sun, someone else has already faced it and tried a solution – Find it and build on it
- 12. WHAT IS IN IT FOR YOU q What ever tools/frameworks you use q Write documentation q Support newbies q Provide support q Share Experiences with others – blog, talk q Buy commercial support q Donate via Patreon etc q Support through programs that support open source GSoC, Google Code-In, Rails Girls, Facebook Developer Circles 12 Make your mark on the world as you walk through it
- 13. WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS q Great tools are built in open source q You can grow your skillsets and open up opportunities q Improve your coding skills q Learn a specific tool and problem domain q Interact with a diverse group of people around the world, solving different but potentially related problems q Contribute to new knowledge in the world 13 The best tool for the job is the one you know how to use
- 14. IN CLOSING DO NOT BE TOO BUSY Enjoy your projects, family and life Keep learning Read Stand on the shoulders of Giants Share your stories with others Discipline, Discipline, Discipline AND MOST OF ALL Keep driving to get better every day 1 4
- 15. THANK YOU For questions or suggestions @ssmusoke http://ssmusoke.com