Talks Kojo has given at conferences, user group meetups, and other venues.
Talks Kojo has given at conferences, user group meetups, and other venues.
I'll be proposing a new category of code contributor I'm calling "Code Contributor Mentor", and also enumerating the need to recognize, recruit & support non-code contributors. As a largely volunteer-driven community, the Django code base and community rely on their contributors. In this talk I'll focus on two different categories of contributors the Django community needs: - Code Contributors - Non-Code Contributors The first part of the talk will propose a new category of code contributor: Code Contributor Mentors. These contributors are meant to provide an intermediate layer of support. They would benefit both current project maintainers (who are often overworked volunteers) and potential new contributors (who are often overwhelmed with how/where to start or continue). The second part of the talk will focus on the often-overlooked need for non-code contributors. Django (as well as Python and other related projects) are large enough that they need contributions beyond code. These contributions range from needs on the global level, on the DSF & PSF boards, to local meetups & conferences. But these needs are often overlooked since they're not code-related. The goal of the talk is to both raise awareness of issues, but also propose potential solutions.
Kojo Idrissa was an accountant who got an MBA and taught at university in two different countries. He's now a parent, software engineer, intercontinental keynote speaker, DjangoCon US organizer and the DEFNA North American Ambassador #NorAmGT. He's spoken at tech conferences about software engineering practices, spreadsheets, contributing to tech communities, Dungeons & Dragons, inclusion, and privilege. He’s made a few small FLOSS contributions to CPython & Jinja, as well as Drupal (a LONG time ago). He’s also made contributions to Codecombat, where he helped others make their first OSS contributions, and PyVideo, where he updated the Tags section of the Contribution guide for their Data repo.