WTFM : Write that funky manual with Ryan Weaver

Our first-ever episode of the Change Mode podcast is kicking things off nicely with a wonderful guest from the Symfony core team, Ryan Weaver. The Symfony docs lead and SymfonyCasts writer keeping us all in check when it comes to Symfony development. Join us for this episode as Ryan shares how to get started in open source, his methods for creating and managing great documentation and screencasts (including those dreaded translations), and how to balance open source and family life.

Donate to Ryan’s GoFoundMe page to support him in his battle with cancer.

• 0:22 — Intro: The Change Mode podcast powered by Upsun
• 4:29 — Meet Ryan Weaver: Symfony docs lead and SymfonyCasts extraordinaire
• 6:18 — The world of PHP and Symfony docs from a core team member
• 7:57 — It all started with Symfony 2: how to get into open source
• 9:41 — When does open source become open source?
• 12:19 — From young, bad developer to Symfony docs lead: getting into Symfony
• 16:08 — The quest to solve developers' problems and bad UX with docs
• 20:09 — Can’t we just open a ticket? The smallest entry point to open source
• 21:16 — Monetizing open source
• 25:17 — How to get paid to do open source
• 25:38 — Balancing open source, coding, and family life
• 32:24 — The Symfony ecosystem: Drupalisms, Ruby on Rails, and new JavaScript
• 36:32 — Can you contribute to SymfonyCasts?
• 37:54 — How to decide what goes in docs and what goes in screencasts
• 40:04 — How to maintain doc translations? Are we bound to English forever?
• 43:51 — The most important lesson in knowledge sharing
• 45:47 — What’s your dream day?
• 47:18 — Traveling at the speed of light with a dream invention
• 48:31 — What’s your greatest power?

A huge thank you to Ryan for joining us for the first episode of the Change Mode Podcast. It was a pleasure to chat with him about his open-source experience and what led him from a self-described bad developer to teaching thousands of developers the ins and outs of Symfony on SymfonyCasts.

Follow Ryan on his social channels linked below and if you can, please donate to Ryan’s GoFundMe page in support of his ongoing battle with Glioblastoma.

• GitHub
• LinkedIn
• X (Twitter)
• YouTube (SymfonyCasts)

Shoutout to our incredible podcast host this episode, Marine Gandy, our resident Drupal expert and DevRel Engineer at Platform.sh. There’ll be plenty more from Marine coming soon, stay tuned!

Follow us on X to stay up to speed on the latest episodes.

Episode 2 of Change Mode! Sit down with us as we chat with Lætitia Avrot, Practice Leader, Postgres and Security at EBD, Postgres Europe Treasurer, and founder of Postgres Women. Lætitia shares her journey in building such an impressive resume, her thoughts on why developers need to get better with databases, and provides insider insights on the Postgres community—including SQL norms, how to submit your feature, and when to expect the next update.

• 01:42 — What does Change Mode mean?
• 04:02 — Meet Lætitia Avrot, our PostgresSQL insider
• 05:05 — What does a Field CTO do?
• 06:06 — Database Admin, the role you don’t want to need
• 07:12 — Lætitia’s journey into Postgres
• 09:59 — “Postgres is to other databases, what Linux is to operating systems”
• 10:34 — Developers need to know how to write SQL
• 11:56 — Diving into SQL standards
• 15:59 — Can anyone join the SQL committee?
• 18:00 — Governance and changes, how Postgres is a truly open-source project
• 22:02 — The best way to take part is to join Commitfest
• 24:12 — The Postgres release cycle: no governance, no deadline
• 26:29 — Postgres Women and the importance of women on stage
• 29:15 — Cross-community open-source contributions
• 30:33 — The secret to maintaining attention when presenting
• 32:31 — New year, new job title
• 35:05 — Speaking at 30 events a year and the best jetlag hack
• 39:34 — How Lætitia contributes to other communities
• 41:49 — If you had permission to do anything for a day, what would you do?
• 42:39 — If you could invent a new permission, what would it be?
• 43:24 — What do you think is your greatest power?

Thank you to the wonderful Lætitia for joining us for this episode and sharing her open-source story, you can stay up-to-date on her work on LinkedIn and X.

Do you have an open-source story of your own that you want to share? Join us for an episode of Change Mode, apply now to be a guest.

Shoutout to our incredible podcast host this episode, Marine Gandy, our resident Drupal expert and DevRel Engineer at Platform.sh. There’ll be plenty more from Marine coming soon, stay tuned!

Follow us on X to get the latest updates on upcoming episodes.

Join DjangoGirls board members, Aisha Bello and Leona So, for this week’s episode of Change Mode as we celebrate 10 years of this incredible non-profit.

Created to inspire women from all backgrounds to get interested in technology and enter the world of programming, Aisha and Leona share their journeys into open source and their roles in DjangoGirls today. Dive into how they built their own Python communities, ran their own local events, and the importance of creating safe, welcoming spaces for women in tech.

• 00:30 — Share your open-source love story
• 01:05 — Celebrating 10 years of DjangoGirls
• 03:13 — Introducing our guests, Aisha Bello and Leona So
• 04:30 — Leona’s journey into open source: from maths teacher to DjangoGirls
• 07:47 — Aisha’s open-source story: building a Python community in Nigeria
• 13:39 — The creation of DjangoGirls Manchester and Chester
• 16:39 — Never underestimate the power of the open-source community
• 18:26 — Do we need in-person events to truly build a strong community?
• 23:25 — The DjangoGirls podcast: a long-distance relationship
• 28:24 — How to balance work, life, and open source
• 34:47 — What’s next for DjangoGirls?
• 37:44 — The importance of belonging for women in tech
• 42:00 — If you had permission to do anything for a day, what would you do?
• 46:22 — If you could invent a new permission, what would it be?
• 48:17 — What do you think is your greatest power?

Thank you to our incredible guests, Aisha and Leona, for joining us for this episode to discuss their journeys as women in tech and development. Follow Aisha and Leona’s incredible work with DjangoGirls on X and GitHub.

Do you have an open-source story of your own that you want to share? Join us for an episode of Change Mode, apply now to be a guest.

Shoutout to our incredible podcast host, Marine Gandy, our resident Drupal expert and DevRel Engineer at Platform.sh. There’ll be plenty more from Marine coming soon, stay tuned!

Follow us on X to get the latest updates on upcoming episodes.

Dive into the world of hardened JavaScript, LavaMoat, and JavaScript security with Zbyszek “ZB” Tenerowicz (@naugtur) in episode 4 of Change Mode. From at-home HTML trial-and-error to building inclusive 3D gaming engines, ZB dives into his open-source journey and the incredible projects he continues to work on every day. Including a passion and dedication to organizing and public speaking at international developer events. Let’s get into the episode!

• 00:22 — Introducing Zbyszek (ZB) Tenerowicz, JavaScript security expert
• 02:00 — The journey to open-source and LavaMoat
• 03:22 — From at-home HTML to Silicon Valley
• 08:57 — Security at Metamask, the self-custody wallet
• 10:11 — The creation of LavaMoat
• 14:53 — What is hardened JavaScript?
• 21:02 — Security and JavaScript, keeping up with NPM
• 25:21 — Who’s contributing to Endo? And how you can too
• 29:22 — Getting into public speaking
• 31:21 — Organising international developer events with MeetJS Poland
• 36:35 — The open-source community and dream project
• 39:20 — Inclusive gaming, building 3D game engines
• 43:10 — If you could invent a new permission, what would it be?

Thank you to ZB for taking us on his journey from at-home, trial-and-error HTML to leading JavaScript security at LavaMoat and Endo. Check out the links below to learn more about ZB’s ongoing projects and stay in the loop with his work.

• GitHub
• X
• MeetJS
• LavaMoat
• Endo

Do you have an open-source story of your own that you want to share? Join us for an episode of Change Mode, apply now to be a guest.

Shoutout to our incredible podcast host, Marine Gandy, our resident Drupal expert and DevRel Engineer at Platform.sh. There’ll be plenty more from Marine coming soon, stay tuned!

Follow us on X to get the latest updates on upcoming episodes.

Embark in an unconventional open source journey with Pol Dellaiera in episode 5 of the chmodcast. It all starts with saving every euro to buy his first computer as a kid… Then it goes to Drupal, Symfony, and now Nix, where Pol’s contributions as a maintainer with commits rights make the lives of PHP developers easier than ever. Package manager, operating system and even functional language: Nix does it all. Let’s dive in!

• 00:20 — Episode introduction
• 01:45 — SymfonyCon Brussels
• 03:00 — Introducing Pol Dellaiera
• 05:03 — A love for computers that leads to a career in IT
• 08:31 — Open source journey, from Drupal 5 to Symfony to Nix
• 18:31 — Installing NixOS and saving configuration files
• 21:45 — Maintaining and adding packages to Nix
• 24:20 — Nix language
• 26:36 — Example of a contribution to Nix
• 30:33 — How many people work on Nix?
• 32:43 — How to use and contribute to Nix?
• 34:40 — What’s in the future for Nix? (Flakes!)
• 37:33 — Silly questions time!
• 41:10 — Next episode teaser

Thank you to Pol for taking us on his journey, but it doesn’t end there! He just published his master’s thesis about “Reproducibility in Software Engineering”, 20+ years after completing his bachelor’s degree! Check out the links below to learn more about Pol’s ongoing projects and stay in the loop with his work.

• Mastodon
• GitHub
• Blog
• Master’s thesis “Reproducibility in Software Engineering”
• Nix & NixOS

Do you have an open-source story of your own that you want to share? Join us for an episode of Change Mode, apply now to be a guest.

Shoutout to our incredible podcast host, Marine Gandy, our resident Drupal expert and DevRel Engineer at Platform.sh. There’ll be plenty more from Marine coming soon, stay tuned!

Follow us on X to get the latest updates on upcoming episodes.

Summer Special. In Episode 6 of The Change Mode Podcast, host Chad Carlson sits down with Randy Fay, the lead maintainer of DDEV, to dive into the world of development environments, TRS-80 nostalgia, and the evolution of open-source communities. Randy takes us on a journey from his early days in programming to his pivotal role in creating DDEV—a tool that’s changing the game for web developers using Docker. With a dash of humor, Randy breaks down how DDEV offers a consistent, isolated workspace across operating systems and why this is a game-changer for devs juggling multiple projects.

Whether you're a seasoned dev or just tech-curious, Randy’s insights on community-driven development and DDEV’s roadmap for 2024 will keep you hooked. Plus, he shares the importance of financial support from sponsors like Platform.sh, which helps the project thrive. Don't miss out on learning how DDEV is empowering developers worldwide and what exciting new features are coming soon—trust us, it’s a conversation you won’t want to miss.

• 02:30 - Randy's early interest in programming, starting with a TRS-80 Model 1
• 04:15 - Transition from teaching to programming, starting with documentation
• 06:45 - Early work on home automation and mobile data (CDPD) projects
• 09:30 - Introduction to PHP development and the Drupal community
• 11:45 - Explanation of DDEV and its purpose in web development
• 14:30 - Origins of DDEV from the “Drud” company
• 17:00 - Impact of Docker on local development environments
• 19:15 - Discussion of DDEV being written in Go and its advantages
• 22:30 - Focus on contributor training and growing the DDEV community
• 24:45 - Financial support for DDEV, including sponsorship from Platform.sh
• 27:30 - Introduction of Stas Zhuk as a paid maintainer
• 29:15 - DDEV's plans for 2024, including improved add-on ecosystem
• 32:45 - Impact of add-ons on community involvement
• 35:00 - Randy's interests outside of software (mountain biking)
• 36:15 - Thoughts on documentation and effective communication
• 38:30 - Randy's greatest strength: supporting and helping others
• 40:00 - Projects Randy is most proud of, including DDEV and CDPD work

Thank you to Randy for taking us on his journey, but it doesn’t end there! Check out the links below to learn more about Pol’s ongoing projects and stay in the loop with his work and in the DDEV loop.

• DDEV
• GitHub

Do you have an open-source story of your own that you want to share? Join us for an episode of Change Mode, apply now to be a guest.

Follow us on X to get the latest updates on upcoming episodes.