Community Mentorship and Friendship in the Open Source Community: Me and My Mentor

Never did I expect to discover a leader who is spurring collaboration within the open source community as a role model in the form of Danese Cooper. During the Zoom call, she passionately expounded the ethos of open source, emoting about the cases in which open source can be applied to solve problems. She further elaborated on how to contribute effectively to the community. I never anticipated finding a role model through FINOS, yet my Zoom call with Danese Cooper revealed such. As a Makerere University software engineering student with dreams of working within the open source community, I was inspired by her devotion to spearheading collaboration within the field. She opened my eyes to the potential of contributing to open source and motivated me to continue pushing for success. Despite my previous efforts resulting in disappointment, I was inspired to look into alternative options after my unsuccessful attempts at securing internships that didn't align with my career objectives. As the saying goes, "When one door closes, another opens." This led me to explore open source as a way of establishing my presence. Subsequent to connecting on Twitter and LinkedIn a few days earlier, I got in touch with James McLeod, the Community Director of FINOS, via email. Luckily, he quickly set up a Zoom meeting with Rob Moffat, Peter Smulovics, and Stephen Goldbaum. The Zoom call proved to be an excellent chance for me to demonstrate my skill set and how I might be of great benefit to the entire FINOS organization. This gathering represented my first-time entry into the FINOS environment, and I was delighted to be part of its dynamic atmosphere. I was in an unreal state to find myself among a gathering of software engineers with a great enthusiasm for open source, willing to generously give 45 minutes to a call centered on reviewing and aiding in my onboarding. After that beneficial phone conversation, James offered to take me through the open-source readiness of activities. Since then, the experience of absorbing knowledge and working together with someone as perceptive as him has been remarkable. Starting my experience with FINOS marked the beginning of my journey. In the time since, I've grown to become an addition to the gathering of information, especially in the world of Morphir. This has helped me gain a greater comprehension of open source and grown my admiration for the communality of collaboration and innovation. I am excited to look forward to the hopeful possibilities in the open source and innovation field. Throughout our collaboration, I regularly noted areas needing attention and then did something about them. We often reviewed the progress together and, along with James, tried to resolve issues, which was especially significant in our work on docausaurus. During that time, we concentrated on improving panels and fixing problems that arose in the morphir project's microsite. I have not only benefited from valuable technical knowledge through this collaboration, but have also been able to forge relationships with many people in the finance and technology industries throughout the world. A major achievement of mine was being applauded for my work at FINOS during the Q3 community call. I was fortunate enough to take part in the Global Awareness Accessibility Day (GAAD) hackathon. Our team, CodeWarriors, managed to devise a solution known as Accessify, which was developed to address the usual issues faced by programmers. To our delight, our solution won the Hackathon, highlighting the success of our joint endeavour. My goal is to take part in creating and constructing solutions vital to our regular functions. I want to gain a more profound comprehension of how these solutions are connected to open-source technology and the ever-changing realm of finance. Ultimately, I want to share my insights in these areas through writing more about them, thereby increasing my understanding at the same time. I am thankful to FINOS and James McLeod for the creation of an atmosphere that adds to collaboration and teaching. Gratitude to the FINOS team for generating a community that integrates all of us. I send my best wishes to James in his new position at NatWest Group. I appreciated you taking the time to read this. Stay safe and we'll talk soon!

Source: https://medium.com/@ronaldssebalamu/my-mentor-and-me-the-friendship-in-the-open-source-0e61abed3f62?source=rss------fintech-5