The episode features Patricia Brun Torre at the CloudFest Hackathon, where she shares her experience as a non-developer participating in the event. Patricia, a WordPress contributor, shares her initial apprehensions about attending a hackathon as a non-developer and highlights the value of non-technical skills in such environments.
She discusses her involvement in a project, her tasks in managing GitHub, and her interactions with other attendees, emphasizing the importance of diverse skills and open-mindedness. Patricia encourages individuals with varied skills to participate in hackathons, showcasing the enriching experience and the opportunity to learn and collaborate across different tech communities, ultimately promoting personal growth and meaningful connections.
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Episode Transcript
BobWP:
So I’m here BobWP at the CloudFest Hackathon. And you may say, why is Bob at a hackathon? First of all, I’m a media partner and I’m enjoying talking to everybody. Plus it’s a very high energy experience as an developer. So you’re saying, hey, you have to be a developer to be at a hackathon. I have the perfect person to tell you, no, you don’t have to be. Patricia, we’re going to have her introduce herself and tell you about her experience of why she decided to get involved with that hackathon, even though she’s not a developer. Hi Patricia.
Patricia:
Hi Bob. Thank you so much for having me here. Yeah, indeed. I have always thought that I had not a place at the CloudFest Hackathon for the past years. And one of my friends, Florian from Lausanne, I attended the WordPress meetup in Lausanne and he came in the previous years and I thought, okay, that’s nice. It’s at Europa park, the roller coasters are open. I would like to join, but I’m not a developer. For me, I thought hackathon means to hack. Hackers are developers in my mind, but now I know a little bit better. So first, I’m a WordPress contributor in the community team, organizing events such as the meetups in Geneva, the WordCamps in Switzerland, and this year as well, WordCamp Europe. I’m a co-organizer for the WordCamp Europe 2024 and last year WordCamp Europe 2023. In essence, I was invited to a panel how to contribute to WordPress without knowing how to code.
And that was very nice to realize how important non-developers are also part of every project, for example, documentation translation, that’s so important. This year I was talking with my good friend Anne Mieke Bovelett about her project here at the hackathon. I think I talked with her in December 23 and she said, oh, you know what, you would be very useful on my project because you rock at research, you have research skills and also good relationship with a lot of people. So that could be very useful on my project. You want to come and I was so thrilled to know, what me at the hackathon. Oh yeah, I’m participating to her project and for now my tasks are to manage the project on GitHub. And I must say that now I’m a bit more at ease with GitHub, thanks to joining recently the GatherPress team.
I learned a lot about GitHub project and issue and to follow the project that opens a Kanban board to do in progress and done, so that’s important. So that’s what I could do with all the persons in the project, which is an accessibility project called “Can Everyone Use?” Yes, talking to everyone in the team, we are preparing the translations for the tool. We are managing the thing on GitHub, so that’s also very important. And yesterday, the first day of the hackathon, I went to every other project tables and I spoke with many developers and asking questions to gather data and analyze what they’re using about development framework, UI, libraries, and yeah, it was important for the people in our team to know what other people use and what we can make to have those more accessible actually.
BobWP:
So what I’m hearing is that people out there may not know they have the talents even though they’re not a developer, that will really help at a hackathon. And at the same time you’re going to probably learn a lot about things you don’t know that will inspire you to continue doing things and maybe even learning more. So what do you say to everybody out there. Be like Patricia. Go to a hackathon.
Patricia:
Yeah, be like me and apply next year. So what I would say is if you have any skills, and I’m sure you have because everyone have one or several, you can join and be useful in a team. Obviously it’s a team to develop things, but other skills is necessary. You have to be open-minded and willing to learn. Of course, if you are too shy, this may not work. But if you are willing to learn and talk with a lot of people and do the work, you are totally belonging here. So you can apply at the end of the year, I think for next year CloudFest Hackathon. And it’s also a very nice experience. It’s a bit the same energy that I see in WordCamps.
And also a very interesting part is I’m very used to go to WordCamps, so I’m very much into the WordPress community. But here I met Joomla team and people from TYPO3 development and it was really interesting to talk with the Joomla people because the first evening I met them after the bar in the hotel lounge and they said, yeah, we are Joomla and everything is already accessible in our tool. So I say, can I sit with you and have a talk? And it was really interesting to share ideas and talk and learn. I always like to do when someone knows something that I don’t know.
BobWP:
As you can hear, not see, yeah, this is the thing to do. I actually had somebody suggest I put together some kind of WordPress podcasting, some kind of project next year. Now I don’t have any idea what that would look like, but you never know what will transpire. But yeah, so it is an experience you will never regret if it’s something that fits your goals and what you want to do. And a great way to meet some very cool people. So thank you Patricia, and thank you for coming to the Hackathon.
Patricia:
Thank you so much. And it’s such a pleasure to see you.
