The one certainty I have about open source software

Photo by Hanny Naibaho on Unsplash

This is the short version of something much longer I have been thinking about.

Many things are currently being said about Open Source development, its maintenance, and how people who contribute towards it are supported.
It's a big, complicated subject with lots of strong opinions and no easy solutions.

I do, however, think there's one simple thing that anyone who uses open source software can do to help.

Say Thank You.

How do you say thank you?
Here are a few ways:

• Send them a thank you tweet or email.
• Leave a review or rating in the store/marketplace/repository where you got it from.
• Donate, if/where appropriate.

Here are a few links to a few of the places you may be getting the results of the hard work of other developers.
Visual Studio extensions | VS Code extensions | Azure DevOps extensions | NuGet | Chocolatey | NPM

Help make open source developers feel happier and more appreciated by finding something you use at one of the links above and saying thank you.

You benefit too. Being grateful makes you happier. Harvard medical school say that's the case so it must be true.


Have you thanked an open source developer today?

Can I put the best parts of a user group/meetup in a podcast?

tldr: I'm going to start a new podcast that will just be developers talking about what they've developed. If you want to be on it get in touch.

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I organized and ran user groups for the best part of ten years. Firstly, I took over DevEvening, and then I started the Windows Phone User Group which eventually became Windows Apps London.

Of these groups, one of the things I was most proud of was the ability to get regular attendees to talk about what they were working on or had built. Many group organizers will tell you that this can be very hard to do.
Having people talk about their actual experiences was also one of the most requested things whenever I asked attendees about what they wanted at future meetings.

My family circumstances changed a couple of years ago and we now live in a remote area that makes hosting in-person user groups/meetups difficult. However, recently, I've been thinking about how I can take some of the best parts of the groups I used to run and do something that would work regardless of location.

So, I'm going to try this:
I want to take the short, simple demos that were so popular at in-person events and create audio versions of them and package them like a podcast.

Yes, a visual format might be better for some things but I'll start with just audio and maybe extend to video in the future based on feedback.

It will be simple.
For many people, standing up and giving a talk can be daunting. I made it simple by asking the speaker to answer three questions:

1. What have you built?
2. Why did you build it?
3. What did you learn in the process?

I'm hoping this structure will work for a podcast/audio version too, as it's simple but provides opportunities to develop in different ways as appropriate.
As with the short demos people used to give, it will be between 5 and 15 minutes long. Anyone can talk about what they've made for 5 minutes and will easily find they can say much more.

Talking for 5-15 minutes about something you are an expert in is easy. (If it's software that you developed, I consider you an expert in it.)
I'm also hoping this will avoid people being put off by not requiring a lot of preparation or being worried about "filling an hour".

If you've developed something, however big or small, other developers want to hear about it.

Expect lots of links in the show notes.

For now, I'd like to just focus it to Windows. Hey, it's what I know a bit about and having a level of targeting/focus will, hopefully, help with finding an audience and setting appropriate expectations.

If you've built something for Windows (however you define that), be it an app, a tool, a library, a service, or something else and would like an opportunity to tell people about it, then I'd love to have you on my new podcast.