My 2018 In Totality — Travel, Community, Open Source
Just a little overview of little things I achieved in 2018 all around building developer communities, open source, speaking at events and the travel episodes I had.
N/B : This Article is still in draft, more content to be added by end of week.
So, for 2018, I wasn’t going to miss writing my yearly review as it were in 2017. This is the year that I achieved my goals by the first half of the year. Thanks to THEE.
Community, it was incredible I say
2018 has been the most admirable year for myself. From doing what I love; writing open source little code, travel and speaking on international stages in Uganda, Kenya and the United States.
Now, let me keep the long talk short. So in May, I received an invitation from Google Developers to attend two different Summits, the Global GDG and Community Groups Summit and Google’s Annual Conference, Google IO 2018.
Speaking on Community Leadership in Sunnyvale California
I had an opportunity to speak at the GDG Summit in Sunnyvale, California on how to Build Great Learning Developer Communities.
I also was at Google IO 2018 and for an Invite only Community feedback session with the top Google Product leadership where I gave feedback on Chrome as a product, Google’s web developer technologies and Google Assistant
Well, that was one of my most high profile engineering indoor meeting with a huge company like Google. Honestly, I felt great. I met awesome people at Google like, Dion Almaer and Ben Galbraith.
Attending the International Women Techmakers Summit in Nairobi, Kenya
I had an opportunity to be part of the Women Techmakers Summit that happened in Nairobi Kenya. This time not as a speaker. Haha. But as an attendee. Privileged to join awesome women doing great things with technology in Africa. That was great yet again!
Speaking at the SSA GDG and WomenTechmakers Summit, Nairobi Kenya
I also had an opportunity to speak on How To Grow Better Together at this year’s SSA GDG Summit to Community Leaders from over 30 countries in Africa.
Speaking at DevFest Mbale in Uganda, the River Nile visit
Late in November I also had an opportunity to go speak at a DevFest in Mbale, Uganda. It was my second visit to Uganda.
I met new people, made friends and toured quite enough of Uganda. I also couldn’t miss to visit the source of River Nile. It was beautiful I say!
I was speaking on how to build progressive web experiences and doing Developer Outreach for an amazing project, PWAFire.Org. Just to add up on an amazing work Marta Wiśniewska has done in Poland with PWAFire.Org
Finally, once again met Robert Johns, doing what we do best; empowering the developer community with little skills we have. Thanks to Hassan and Nazrin of GDG Mbale, Uganda for the invite!
Building of a new developer community, EngineOne Developers Nairobi Chapter
I had an opportunity to be part of yet another amazing developer community that aims to spark a conversational developer ecosystem around the future of technology with possibilities that likes of Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain are bringing entirely in how we are going to build software.
With local chapters in South Africa, Nigeria, Mozambique and among others, Kenya couldn’t miss this loop. I am glad that our Local Nairobi Chapter is growing and that we have an exciting developer community with it.
We even had an opportunity to get featured in iHub’s (Venue Sponsor) yearly review as an active Developer Community. Read more here. We have progressively grown to a community of 335 members. And that’s incredible!
Cheers to Guidione Machava for such an amazing opportunity you gave together with the Lepsta team. 2019 is going to be even much more lit!
Join our amazing community on Meetup here
The Big 5 Construct East Africa, speaking on Technology, Design and Construction
I also was a speaker at the Big 5 Construct East Africa conference that happened in Nairobi at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre on how technology is bringing design and construction into the future.
This event consisted of 220+ exhibitors from 33 countries, 40 CPD certified workshops (mine included) and 7000+ construction professionals. Wow, this was incredible! My session had the largest ever registration. So honored to be part of this.
Lead Organizer for DevFest Rift Valley, 2019
To close that party down for Community, I had an opportunity together with an awesome team here, to host Developers for our Annual Developer Conference in the Kenya’s Rift Valley region. 2019 is already announced!
That’s always awesome. It was our second year hosting DevFest Rift Valley. Have a tour of the entire event here. Thanks to Aniedi Udo-Obong and the entire Google Developer Ecosystem in the SSA for the support!
My Open Source 2018, the creation of PWAFire.Org
So 2018 is also a great year for me in my personal development as a software engineer. Project PWAFire.Org is the main open source project I have been working on for the last one year. Now with Marta Wiśniewska.
With Project PWAFire.Org, you will be able to learn how to build progressive web experiences and how to easily implement some of the amazing features we have already made the source code open source for and also from our developer docs directory
I am excited about contributing to the building of the modern web and more specifically a Progressive Web First. Learn more about PWAFire.Org here.
In mid January, I am running a free 101 hangout on Building Progressive Web Features And How Best To Do It with classes running from 101 to 105. If interested, just DM me your email address and Country of residence on my Twitter Handle
Now, Bye Bye!
To conclude, I would like to say thank you to everyone of you who has held my hand this year and in any way contributed to my growth this year! I am super thankful to you all! So grateful!
PS : Will be adding little more content : )
Can’t wait to face off 2019 bigger!
