Gavin Davies of unified.diff and Cardiff Dev Workshop, presented at the Bristol IT MegaMeet 2013 No IT professional is an island. Or at least, we shouldn't be. Good software companies want people who are brave enough to open source their knowledge. Sharing your knowledge pushes you to really know what you’re talking about! This talk looks at different ways to engage with the technical community - meetups, open source, online chat, blogging, social coding, code reviews, hack nights and more - and talk about how they can both challenge and encourage us to raise our game technically and professionally.

1. Coding in Community
unified.diff

2. What is coding in
community?

3. Codin' in a box
Stereotypes, there must
be more to life...

4. Is solo coding bad?
● No
● Yes
● Kind of
● Sometimes
Source: derivative work: JovianEye

5. Dangers of being a lone coder
Image: public domain, http://pixabay.com/en/computer-user-angry-danger-42657/

6. My own experience as a solo coder
Image by wiredforlego (creative common

7. ● Joined company with more vibrant tech
community
● Got involved in open source
● Started going to tech meetups
● Hack nights
● Had the courage to get my code reviewed
● Started blogging, discussing ideas
What changed?
Image: Felix Burton

8. My wishlist
● I wish I'd had a sense of how much I didn't
know.
● I wish I hadn't thought I was so "complete"
as a software developer.
● I wish I had been more humble.
● I wish I had worked harder to find the wider
technical community.
● I wish I had treated clients with more
respect.
Image: Joe Peter Brown, creative commons, http://www.flickr.com/photos/jbsnaptures/3011951715/

9. Dangers of being a lone coder
Bad habits unchallenged
Becoming "precious"
Fearing pressure testing
Narrow focus
Loneliness
Image: public domain, http://pixabay.com/en/computer-user-angry-danger-42657/

10. How community can help

11. Contributing to Open Source
● Courage
● Github/Bitbucket
● Get your code
reviewed!
Source: http://opensource.org/trademarks

12. Hack nights

13. Open Sourcing knowledge
● Blogging
● CoderWall protips
● Book writing
● Podcast
● Tech meetups
public domain image

14. How about doing a podcast?

15. Meetups (thanks Aurelien!)
1. User groups
2. Workshops
3. Coding dojos
4. Barcamps
5. Hackathons
6. Conferences
7. Code retreat/masterclass
8. Startup weekends

16. How unified.diff do meetups
● Since Feb 2012
● Free
● Non-competitive
● Promote meetups
● 25-75 attendees
● Format:
○ Talks/panel
○ Chat
unified.diff

17. How cardiffdevworkshop does
meetups
● Since Nov 2012
● Free
● Teaching based
● 10-20 attendees
● Format:
○ Talks/panel
○ Chat

18. Benefits of meetups
● New ideas and tech
● New friends
● Interesting debates
● Teaching consolidates knowledge
● It's fun!

19. My tips on starting things
● Just do it!
● 2 people is a start
● Get account on
Meetup.com
● Pinch follow list
from similar
meetups on Twitter
;-)
Source: Alma-de-Gato

20. Other community things
● Code reviews
● IRC/chat
● Pair programming
● Mentoring
● Skills exchanges

21. Benefits
● Commercial benefits
○ Recruitment
○ Broader skillbase
○ Improved morale
● Individual benefits
○ Broader perspective
○ New skills
○ Teaching consolidates skills
○ Meeting new people
○ Being constantly challenged

22. Coding in Community
unified.diff
@unifieddiff
@cardiffdevworkshop