Fireside with Voxgig Richard Rodger: Voxgig CEO, founder and author

Today, we’re chatting with the head of Open Source at Sentry, Chad Whitacre. Everyone knows that once a startup begins to make the move from garage band to stadium tour, they’re going to need some investors. But how do we bridge the gap between them?

Chad’s background as a developer has undoubtedly contributed to his talent for communicating with developers in his current role. But beyond that, he and the whole Sentry team have slightly bigger ambitions in mind for the future.

They have begun work on something they call the Open Source Pledge, and Chad breaks down for us exactly what this entails, and how it will incentivise organisations to prioritise contributing to the open source community in the same way they prioritise profits.

He also takes us through the history of Sentry, and how their roots in the open source community have cemented their commitment to ensuring its continued survival. If you’re passionate about open source, and seeing maintainers get their dues, then you’ll want to hear this.


Reach out to Chad here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chadwhitacre/

Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast

Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups:
https://voxgig.substack.com/

Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Awards are often maligned for being more concerned with who you know, rather than what you know. But can developer awards be an outlier in the field? According to Laura Vass, our guest on today's episode, they absolutely can.

Laura is the Co-Founder of Pronovix, an open source developer portal. She is also one of the organisers of the DevPortal awards. She joins us today to chat about setting up and running an industry award, and how her own sensitivities to others has been an asset in navigating different personalities in the space.

As well as all of the above, Laura is the host of the podcast API The Docs, leaving us in awe of how she has had any time to chat to us about her many pursuits.

On Pronovix, she tells us about their start as a self-organising company, before it had become trendy, and how they are navigating the transition to a more organised structure amid their increased growth.

Reach out to Laura here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauravass/

Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast

Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups:
https://voxgig.substack.com/

Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

We’ve got an episode for our writers out there today! Ryan Donovan joins us to discuss his 15 years of experience in technical writing, and just how that experience is serving him in his current role - senior content marketer at Stack Overflow.

One thing to know about Ryan is that he is a stickler for getting technical details right, a great quality to have in a technical writer. He even stays away from audience suggestions for topics, as he is careful to always be confident and accurate in his writing. He hosts a podcast under Stack Overflow, as well as writing their newsletter.

As Richard acknowledges, you may need a technical mind to master computer science, but for a technical writer, a willingness to learn anything and everything might be a more apt skill.

Ryan discusses the benefits of being your own harcore tester, treating your own technical writing as if you’ve never seen it before. If you can’t follow your own writing, then you can be pretty sure no one else will either! This a wonderful, writing-focused episode, we hope you enjoy it.

Reach out to Ryan here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-donovan-1477b64/

Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast

Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups:
https://voxgig.substack.com/

Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Don’t you just love a familiar face? We certainly do here on the Fireside with Voxgig podcast, as we’ve got another guest coming back for a catch-up interview! Sandy Dunlop is a mythology expert and brand identity consultant. He helps brands to define their identity with the help of ancient myths and legends.

In his last appearance on the podcast, he told us about the power of storytelling. This time, he brings us some fascinating insights on how ancient Irish communities mirror the modern advent of Developer Relations. It might seem like a jump, but this discussion is full of amazing a-ha moments of recognising connections between these two worlds!

It all starts with the oral tradition. We can already see the connection here with meetups and conferences. The ancient Irish communities relied on storytelling to bond and gather socially, but also to pass on important messages to their community and their descendants. How do you make sure a message gets passed around? You write it in the format of an exciting story. As Sandy points out, the people in a community, even today, with the most respect, are not always the people in power. Often they are the people who speak directly with the community, who listen to them and actively provide resources. In fact the modern developer advocate may not be so different from the ancient bard with their harp, singing ballads of battles and romances.

This is somewhat of a break from our usual discussions here at the Voxgig podcast, but in a way it's one of the most insightful and apt discussions we’ve had yet. This is a special one, be sure not to miss it:

Reach out to Sandy here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandy-dunlop-7637101/

Check out Sandy’s services here: https://www.alexanderdunlop.ie/
Or here: https://bardmythologies.com/

Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast
Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups:
https://voxgig.substack.com/
Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Today we’re speaking to Tun Shwe. Tun is the VP of data/DevRel at Quix, and he came on to chat to us about Quix’s work creating real time data developer tools and he also gives us an insight as to his experience working at a completely Python focused company.

Catering to only one programming language may sound like a dream (especially to those running APIs and struggling to please everyone), but there’s still a lot of hardcore engineering that goes into their daily routines.

Python may be one language, but like every language it has dialects and accents, some of which are so distinct as to almost qualify as their own thing. The diversity in how and why people use the language means that Tun and Quix are very much kept on those toes, despite the concept of a singular language implying simplicity.

Lastly, he goes into how his own experience learning from open source has influenced him in his staunch support of the continuing use of open source to educate and spread ideas.

This is a wonderful episode for those curious as to the inner workings of a single language organisation.

Reach out to Tun here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tunshwe/

Find out more and listen to previous podcasts here: https://www.voxgig.com/podcast

Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly updates and information about upcoming meetups:
https://voxgig.substack.com/

Join the Dublin DevRel Meetup group here: www.devrelmeetup.com

Stephanie Prenderville is here to tell us why and how generative AI is on its way to making us more human than ever. Stephanie is a talent development director and Founder of People, Strategy and Change consulting.

Stephanie’s curiosity, and desire to understand others has taken her across so many industries, but she’s here to tell us about the work she does to improve the way teams work and what that looks like as an optimist.

Stephanie is a proponent of the “people first” approach, and she walks us through the simple logic behind this mentality and why it should currently be spreading like wildfire.

We were delighted to have Stephanie on for this chat, and we can’t wait for you to hear it.