Cloud Native Computing Foundation Kubernetes Community Days (KCD) Africa 2022, 24 Jul 2022

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From YouTube: KCD Africa 2022 KeyNote - Contributing to Kubernetes by Somtochi Amauche Onyekwere

Description

Somtochi Amauche Onyekwere is a Developer Experience Engineer at Weaveworks

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KCD Africa 2022 is the 2nd iteration of the Kubernetes Community Days Africa, a CNCF-powered free community event. Visit https://kcdafrica.com for more information.

A

So today, we'll be having our first keynote speaker uh some touchy on ukraine. She is, uh she works with works as a developer. Experience engineer and also contributes to the uh kubernetes project. Hi somtochi.

B

Hello how's it going hello, hello, anita how's, it going.

A

Yeah going good, everything is going fine.

A

Yeah, I think sometimes you can take it away from here. Okay,.

B

Okay, okay, welcome to community days africa for the second year in a row. We are excited to be here um a bit sad that I was is only virtual, but I know that we're still going to have lots of fun and just a short intro um abu bakr already did most of that. But yeah. My name is um a developer experience engineer at weave works.

B

I weave I work most of my day-to-day is around contributing to flux, which is at an open source project under the cncf, the cloud native computing foundation, much like kubernetes, and I am your yearly reminder to contribute to kubernetes. You know and open source in general.

B

So I want to start off by saying that you have something to give right. I I know most times I start off this talk with. You know the benefits of open source, which is always there, but there's also that these projects, like kubernetes, doesn't have sufficient contributions for, like all the issues, and that needs to be worked on. So you have something to give, and of course we also always I trade that it's not just code.

B

You know it could be docs, kibanes has a website. You know it's very easy. It has a lot of articles. You know, there's a lot of issues open on the github repo. So if you're a technical writer, that's what you're into there's a group, especially interest groups, which is what we call so focus groups in kubernetes around docs. You can definitely join in and you know get started from there if you are into community management program management. You know that sort of thing is your flow.

B

That's still fine and there's also space for people that want to contribute that way too. If you are a designer, you know you want to get into open source design. There's a c ui. uh We have a there's, a kubernetes dashboard, so people there are designs around that. You know designs around what we do so, even if you're a designer you just steal the space for you and if you're unsure like there are also different programming languages, even if you don't write go, which is mostly what kubernetes is written in.

B

You know you can't take a look at the humanities organizations. They are. You know client libraries written in other other languages. You can find a point to contribute, and I also wanted to zoom in and say you know just get started like. I was looking through my contributions to kubernetes yesterday, as I was trying to prepare the talk, and I saw that you know the the sweater I'm wearing is a cubanity swag.

B

I got from coming from contributing to the kubernetes community repo and I basically just updated a zoom link, so you don't have to start with like this massive through request. You know you could literally the the humanities repositories has a lot of good first issues right there, a lot of issues that are, you know, low-hanging fruits that they are trying to tag, make it easy for you to identify.

B

So if you go on almost any repo, you you'll probably find a good first issue that you could get started with. That is not too complex, and if you just want to, you could just try out the kubernetes community repo there's actually like pretty easy tasks. To pick up there, like, I literally just updated a a still zoom link, and that was it like. I was like. Oh, my pr is merged. So but of course we don't just want you to. You know, make these small contributions and go away.

B

These contributions are sort of supposed to be a stepping stone for you to make more quality contributions. Just to get you started, you know give you that small ginger, like you can do this. You get so we understand that sometimes um contributing to kubernetes a large project. Like kubernetes. You know there are so many new moving parts. There are different, repos, there's so many people it can be challenging. It can be daunting. It can be like. Oh, my god.

B

Where am I going to get started with like even when I'm contributing to like any new project at all? It's. It is like that. uh You just like we said you know, pick a low hungry food. You know try and, of course you should know what kubernetes is you should have. You should at least have used kubernetes. You know you can play around with seats with a local client cost kind cluster kubernetes running in docker, so you could play around with it. You know have an idea of these also join the slack channels.

B

You know try and join some meetings. Trying to understand. What's going on, you know feel free. Ask some um ask questions like so far because the humanist community has been like really welcoming. They are really open to are nice to um new contributors. There's a whole seek around special interest groups, so there's a whole seed around contributor experience. You know trying to make the experience better for people who are just coming into the community so surely like you're. Definitely welcome so of.

B

Of course, we we you when you start contributing like is, is network in effects right like the country, the humanities community grew massively, because you know this person starts contributing and it's like. Okay, you can start contributing. You know it's like. mmm What's you know a much positive way, but what I'm trying to say is that you could literally be here like next year, encouraging people to contribute to because you got started like yeah. So the main takeaway is to get started right and then build up from there.

B

We don't just want you to we, maybe just join the slack channel and not do anything and or you know just make a doc's contribution like in as much as we encourage with you know the small contributions we want. You to you know, keep up with it. We want you to build up from there. You know, there's, there's actually a part for contributors in kubernetes. You know you join, you can be a contributor you can from there you you, you know.

B

If you've made a couple of peers, you you become a member, you know you can't become a sick lead, you can become a reviewer like you review peers and you can't approve. You know, there's a step. You know the more you contribute. You know the more roles that you can be given within the community. So, of course you know there are companies, google, microsoft, large companies that around kubernetes you know you get to work with those engineers right.

B

It's it doesn't matter where you're from you know you get that world-class experience that we're always talking about. You know you learn in the open, there's, there's, obviously a value in that you know. There's let's say you are just working on just your your your little project. You know pushing to just your your github repo. Like that's great, we we obviously love scythe projects, but you don't get that much eyes on it right when you make a pull request to a a repository as large as um humanities.

B

You know you have people who are going to take a look at what you've done and say. Okay, you know this is good, but maybe you should change it to this. You know it could you could they comment on your pull request and you make changes and you learn like that and also there are job opportunities around kubernetes and it's obviously a plus if you have contributed before so.

B

um This is very similar to the talk I did last year, but I also want to add on something that we recognize our like our role as people who are reading the community in encouraging people to contribute right. We um like last year, I feel like what we didn't do so well. I was reflecting on it was that we didn't have like a follow-up plan for people who were going to get into you know africans, particularly who are going to get into contributing to kubernetes. We sort of just made a talk, and this around contributing.

B

You know brought people to share their experience, contributing to you know, humanities and open source in general, but there was little follow-up and that's part of what we're going to do better. This year um uh we are trying to get a slack channel, particularly for african devs, on the kubernetes slack. So you know as soon as you join. You already have like a place where you probably know one or two familiar places and it's easier to ask for help like I got a couple of dms from people like.

B

Oh, what do I do you know, but I don't want it to be like a single point of contact, you know there's a slack and then anyone people who are already members, you know can't help out. So we're going to be doing a lot more following up we're going to be trying to you know, encourage people we're not just going to make it like. Oh once, a year, uh okay, someone's asking for the slack link we'll post that much later, you will post that little.

B

What I'm trying to say is that we we are not just going to just keep talking about it. We are going to actually try and you know, put some weight behind our words. uh Probably organizing monthly meets contributors meeting for africans and other people who are welcome in the community. Maybe half people give talks you get so we are also.

B

We also recognize the work that needs to be done on our part, as existing community members to grow the community to grow contributions, especially from africans in the con um humanities contributions. But, of course, as much as we have to do the work we have to make you welcoming, we want to make it easy for you guys. You know you also have to step forward. You know you have to take steps. You know um someone says you take baby steps and next thing you're flying right. So yeah you have to take that step.

B

um You know join the slack. Please join the slack channel uh once once the the um join the cube. I need to slack if we have a particular slack for africans. If that gets created, we are filling it up. We would you know a lot you guys. So basically, we want to be able to track people who are coming in from this conference or any other. You know, conference community efforts that we're having we also be able to you know form a community of africans within kubernetes community and obviously it starts from you.

B

So that's basically our intro into this conference like we want more people, we want more participation. We want more diversity, of course, but of course we have to make ourselves available. So please, when you're done with this. You know just think you could. I know that as much as it can be really hard to get started, take a step, that's basically the summary of what I want to say and, of course, open source, as as we grow our open source contributions in all these large projects.

B

You know it's also like a positive development from us from africa. You know we had the oscar fest in abuja last month. You know it was crazy what people are doing in the open source space. You know it's inspiring, seeing africans, people like you out there, you know being rock stars, not rock stars, but at least contributing to open source making. These big changes in different projects you get is a general win for us as collective people.

B

So I'm going to summarize this by please don't just listen to these talks and you know feel inspired and not do anything with it. You know. That's, that's not! The point you know feel inspired, make a move. You know we're going to try and encourage you each step of the way. Thank you very much. I hope you enjoy the rest of the talk of the of the conference. Sorry.

B

I think you're, muted.

B

uh His audio his audio seems to be out.

A

Yeah don't mind me lots of buttons to touch that was awesome. um I think one question that a lot of people want to ask is.

B

A

Contribute to kubernetes what programming languages or technologies do I need to know. Let's say you want, I know you don't have to be technical, a contributor. You can contribute to dogs, uh organize meetings, organize this developer at this deaf ex or something department. But let's say you want to go technical. What are the skills or languages? You need to know to do that.

B

Yeah so uh mostly kubernetes is, is written in go, but we actually have client libraries in other languages. You know so you can take a look at the kubernetes repo. There are there's actually more than one language that you can't contribute. So, of course, if you want to contribute to the core of kubernetes, it's written in golang, but even if you don't there's, there are different client libraries that you can. You know check out. The website is um a html css.

B

The kubernetes website, of course, is the routinely used css javascript, so that too can work out so yeah. There are different languages that you can contribute to in kubernetes, but the most prominent one is golang.

A

A

We don't have any questions in the chat. If you are watching live, you can ask your questions, drop it in the chat or uh tweet your questions and surely uh passed some too yeah. um One other question I would have is yeah. You know how are the meetings of most of the communities because I know most of the uh communities communities are largely based in the u.s, so we're going to do meeting for midnight or ideas.

B

Yes, some some sigs tried to alternate the time zones. They are still in as much as a lot of people are like you know, based in the america and europe. They are still. You know, a bunch of people in other time zones and that they try to take that into account. You know, sometimes some people alternate the times. You know this week. They do it. You know in a time good for this particular people in this particular time zone and the next time they swap the time it beats.

B

So that is more comfortable, but most times you should be able to join, it might be a bit in the evenings like five six more. You know nothing that you can't manage.

A

Yeah awesome, I think we also have contribution from saiyan patek. He said golang, but not limited to it. I guess it's referring to language in the cloud communities. Rust also has a presence, java, etc also there. Thank you very much. Okay,.

B

I'll say a question: can I contribute using terraform? uh Terraform is sort of an infrastructure, as called as a service tool used for spinning off infrastructure. I haven't seen any repository with just terraforming. Terraform is basically like you're trying to build infrastructure so yeah. No, I'm not sure you can contribute through terraform through using terraform. You can probably you know, make some ducks around.

B

You know spinning up cubanese's clusters using terraform yeah, but I haven't really looked it into it, though I don't think so, but you can definitely build up from there right if you're, using terraform already. That means you have some knowledge about infrastructure. You know and using it of idea any meetups or communities in southern africa.

B

It seems like most of this stuff happens. Okay, um humanities communities, africa is for the whole of africa. You know, uh I know the the in-person meetup was supposed to happen in lagos, but it's actually. It actually covers the whole of africa. And of course, if you feel like there's no community where you are, you can always always always and reach out, and you know try to get one started. You know it's always always start. It starts with one person right so yeah. I think I'm over time. So thank you.

A

Yeah and we are actually looking forward to hosting in multiple countries- uh maybe we try lagos again next time or we try cape town, uh accra, etc, we'll be going all over the continent at least we'll get to know our brothers and sisters that are all over the continent.

A

Yeah, okay, uh I think sayam also mentioned uh here that you can create terraform modules. Yes, and I think one way you can also contribute is you can contribute your knowledge of terraform to uh the terraform? uh um What do they call it? The package or modules that are provided by on the terraform registry. That way you can improve on the api and and others uh yeah and um sam is also mentioning that you can reach out.

A

uh We can always reach out to him and he would love to help out grow the cloud native in north korea. Thank you very much for that.

B

Yeah sure we're always excited to see people ready to mentor and help us that's how the community grows.

A

Yeah, okay, I think we also have one we are still within time, so we can take as much as we can. I think someone is sharing here with regards to tara from considered joining the terraform providers channel. Yes in the communities, it's all about building of the terraform communities provider. Thank you very much. This is uh an awesome contribution.

A

Okay, awesome: I think um we can let some togo. Thank you very much for joining.

B