March 2019 Summaries

Melissa Fabros, a software engineer at Kiva, navigated a unique path to her current role, beginning with a passion for programming in middle school that she maintained through a degree in English and American Literature. Her career pivot from academia to technology was driven by a renewed curiosity in coding, leading her to roles at Google Summer of Code and Hackbright Academy, where she transitioned from a student to an educator. Mentorship and community support, particularly from organizations like Women Who Code and Delta Analytics, played a significant role in her career development, allowing her to contribute to open-source projects and teach machine learning courses internationally. Fabros views leadership through the lens of mentorship and is inspired by the technical leadership at Kiva, which aligns with her vision of fostering growth and opportunity for others. Looking forward, she is eager to delve into ethics and AI, building on her experiences with fast.ai to empower individuals from diverse backgrounds with machine learning skills.

Erin Spiceland, a self-taught software engineer at SpaceX, exemplifies resilience and leadership as a Native American woman who overcame personal and professional challenges to succeed in the tech industry. Born in rural Georgia, Erin left college to begin her career in software development, gaining expertise in various programming languages and technologies through self-teaching and practical experience. Despite personal trials, including surviving domestic abuse and making significant sacrifices for career advancement, Erin remains dedicated to her work and her role as a mother and role model for her children. She defines leadership as empowering those around her to achieve their best while valuing personal well-being and effective communication. Erin's journey highlights her commitment to breaking barriers and inspiring others, particularly her children, by demonstrating that one can build a successful career and life despite adversity.

GitHub Satellite, a major developer event outside the US, is set to take place in Berlin on May 23, focusing on the theme of a community connected by code. The event will feature sessions from leading developers, maintainers, and GitHub product experts, addressing topics such as team growth, code security, and effective use of GitHub tools like Enterprise and Actions. Notable discussions include supporting maintainers of open source tools, open source technologies' impact on social issues, security advisories for open source projects, innersource collaboration patterns, and managing open source programs in enterprises. An optional Workshop Day on May 22 offers hands-on experience with these products, and early bird ticket pricing provides a discount.

Heidy Khlaaf, a Research Consultant at Adelard LLP, plays a pivotal role in evaluating safety-critical systems and developing standards for safety and security applications. Despite facing early challenges as a woman of color in computer science, she found support through organizations like the Computing Research Association's Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research, which provided her with essential research opportunities. Her notable work includes the TIGARS project, which addresses the assurance of autonomous vehicles and seeks to influence policy and regulatory standards. Khlaaf's career journey involved a significant risk when she changed advisors during her PhD due to mental health concerns, ultimately leading to a successful defense and a role in industry research. Passionate about climbing, she values work-life balance and plans a six-week climbing trip to South Africa. Her story is highlighted during Women's History Month as an example of women making history in tech.

Celebrated during Women's History Month, Kathy Pham is a prominent figure in the tech community, known for her work as a computer scientist and product leader, as well as her roles at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center and Kennedy School. She has been instrumental in integrating ethics into computer science curricula through the Responsible Computer Science Challenge and has co-led significant initiatives like the United States Digital Service at the White House, expanding it from a small team to over 200 members. Her career reflects a blend of serendipity and hard work, characterized by a commitment to ethical tech, leadership that empowers others, and a balance between professional and personal priorities, including supporting her family during her mother's cancer battle. Kathy's diverse experiences underscore the value of adaptability and the impact of treating people well, which have opened doors to numerous opportunities throughout her career.

GitHub has become a valuable tool in education, enhancing student engagement and employability by integrating real-world workflows into the classroom. Since 2012, GitHub Education has been used by approximately 21,000 teachers, and recent research presented at the SIGCSE conference has confirmed that its use predicts positive learning outcomes, such as improved collaboration, project management skills, and a greater sense of belonging in the developer community. Students have reported more effective feedback and understanding through GitHub, though it typically takes 2-2.5 months for them to become comfortable with the platform. GitHub Education has provided its product free of charge to over 100 schools, including prominent universities, to further support the development of 21st-century skills, with the initiative seen as beneficial in diverse educational contexts from liberal arts to crisis mapping.

Developer collaboration, particularly through platforms like GitHub, is being explored by Special Rapporteur Clément Voule as part of a United Nations initiative to understand how the rights to free assembly and association apply online. This investigation, leading to a report for the UN Human Rights Council, highlights the role of online platforms in enabling asynchronous and remote collaboration, thereby expanding the opportunities for developers to associate and work together without the constraints of physical location or time. GitHub contributes to this dialogue by promoting practices that respect these rights, such as limiting content removal to permissible restrictions under human rights law, providing clear rules and opportunities for appeal, and offering resources like community guidelines to foster inclusive and welcoming environments. This initiative aligns with GitHub's commitment to promoting healthy online interactions and supporting open-source communities, as evidenced by the engagement of UN representatives in understanding and advancing these digital rights.

Rachel White, currently the Developer Experience Lead at American Express, is a multifaceted technologist and artist known for her contributions to software development and the tech community. With a background that includes roles at Microsoft, IBM, and Adobe, Rachel has become a prominent speaker on topics such as Node.js, JavaScript, AI, and the Internet of Things. Despite starting her career with a challenging first job in Philadelphia, she relocated to St. Louis and quickly secured a position in tech, which paved the way for her success. Rachel emphasizes the importance of community and networking for career growth, encouraging budding developers to attend meetups and conferences to build valuable connections. Taking a break from conference speaking to recharge, Rachel plans to explore new technologies like shaders and VR, focusing on personal growth and creative projects. She is celebrated during Women’s History Month alongside other women leaders for her ongoing impact in the tech industry.

GitHub is updating several of its policies, including the Privacy Statement, Subprocessors and Cookies Policy, Terms of Service, and Corporate Terms of Service, to align with product evolution, legal requirements, and user feedback. These updates address issues like Brexit and changes in cookie and subprocessor usage, as well as clarifications on prohibited uses due to export controls and sanctions laws. The proposed changes are available in pull requests within the Site Policy Repository, allowing users to review and comment on them until April 12, with the final updates being merged on April 19. This process aims to leverage the familiarity of GitHub users with pull requests and open-source project collaboration, fostering engagement and transparency. The policies are licensed under CC0, enabling users to adapt them for their own needs.

The fourth annual International Conference on Game Jams, Hackathons, and Creation Events (ICGJ) will be held at GitHub HQ on March 17, marking it as the only academic conference globally dedicated to the study of game jams and hackathons. Chaired by Annakaisa Kultima, founder of the Finnish Game Jam, the event will feature a keynote speech by Rémi Verschelde, Project Manager for Godot. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage with a variety of academic papers and witness a showcase of games and projects developed during these creative events. The conference, organized by Lee Reilly, Senior Program Manager at GitHub, will run from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm in San Francisco.

Computer science educators face challenges such as increasing class sizes and limited resources, prompting a search for automated solutions to streamline coursework and reduce administrative tasks. At the Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), sessions highlighted tools and strategies for automation, such as those implemented by Dr. Dan Wallach at Rice University, who adopted GitHub Classroom to prevent server overloads and manage assignments for his 200-level course. Dr. Paul Salvador Inventado at California State University Fullerton integrates unit-testing frameworks with Classroom to handle large student numbers efficiently. Additionally, Harvard's CS50 course has developed GitHub-based tools like check50, submit50, and CS50 Lab to facilitate program testing, submission, and lesson creation for a massive student base. These tools, paired with GitHub Team, which is free for faculty, offer educators control over coursework management, access to students' code, and integration benefits, enhancing the scalability and efficiency of computer science courses.

During Women's History Month, women leaders in technology, like Laura, the Director of Engineering at CloudBees, are celebrated for their contributions and ongoing impact. Laura, who has a background in digital media communications, made a significant transition from software engineering-adjacent roles to writing deployable code, initially working on digital solutions for managing MSDS sheets. Her career journey highlights her involvement in open source projects supporting Docker and her commitment to enabling teams in her leadership role rather than making technical decisions herself. Despite being risk-averse, Laura took pivotal career risks by joining CenturyLink Labs during Docker's infancy and later moving to CodeShip, experiences that taught her the value of trusting her skills and seeking impactful work. Her approach to leadership emphasizes creating environments where others can excel and develop into leaders themselves.

The second annual Godot Game Developers Conference (GDC) Meetup is scheduled for March 21 at GitHub HQ in San Francisco, offering a platform for developers of all levels, including AAA, indie, and hobbyists, to connect with core contributors and users of the Godot Engine. Attendees will have the opportunity to hear from Godot co-founder Juan Linietsky and engage in demos and playtesting, with snacks, drinks, and Godot-powered entertainment provided. The event highlights Godot's rapid growth as an open-source project and its increasing presence in game jams such as Global Game Jam and Ludum Dare. The meetup aims to foster community engagement and showcase Godot's capabilities, inviting participants to explore projects like the 2017 Game Off winner, Daemon vs. Demon.

GitHub is hosting its annual GDC Party on Tuesday, March 19, from 7 pm to midnight in San Francisco, aimed at attendees of the Game Developers Conference (GDC). The event will feature drinks, Wi-Fi, and indie games provided by itch.io, creating a LAN party atmosphere where participants can play games, showcase their own, and network. Attendees are required to show proof of GDC registration for entry, and those wishing to consume alcohol must be 21 or older with a valid photo ID. The event encourages early arrival as it tends to reach capacity quickly, and while tables and some equipment will be available, attendees should bring fully-charged laptops and controllers. The party is organized by Lee Reilly, Senior Program Manager at GitHub Developer Relations, known for supporting developer communities and organizing events like hackathons and game jams.

GitHub developed a Go library named Vulcanizer to manage Elasticsearch clusters more efficiently by providing a high-level API focused on administrative tasks, rather than indexing and querying data, which existing libraries cater to. Initially, GitHub's internal tools relied on proprietary Bash and Ruby scripts, which were difficult to open source due to their bespoke nature and dependency on GitHub's infrastructure. By transitioning to Go, inspired by other successful internal projects, GitHub aimed to create composable and reusable software that could be open-sourced. Despite challenges with proprietary protocols and dependencies, GitHub decoupled Vulcanizer from its internal libraries, enabling its use with diverse ChatOps infrastructure and service discovery tools. Vulcanizer offers a simple command-line interface for tasks like querying cluster health, managing node allocations, and updating cluster settings, encouraging community contributions and ensuring best practices in engineering and release management.

The GitHub Student Developer Pack, offering a range of valuable tools, played a pivotal role in Spencer Kaiser's transition from a marketing career to a software development path. Initially frustrated with repetitive tasks in his marketing job, Spencer returned to Southern Methodist University to study computer science, where he was introduced to Git and GitHub. The Student Developer Pack provided him with access to numerous resources, including GitHub, DigitalOcean, SendGrid, and Namecheap, which helped him overcome initial challenges in software development, such as compiling C++ programs and building full-stack applications. These tools not only facilitated his learning but also inspired him to explore side projects and experiment with new technologies. In his current role as Principal Architect of Emerging Technology at American Airlines, Spencer leverages his experience with these tools to explore emerging technologies like drones and machine learning, and he emphasizes their importance when interviewing junior candidates. His journey underscores the value of the Student Developer Pack in equipping students with practical skills and accelerating their development journey.

Greetings, Tampa Bay! Join us on March 25 for our Craftwork event. This workshop is open to developers of any skill level who want to learn how to use the GitHub API to build better developer workflows. GitHubbers will walk you through the process of creating your first GitHub App. This workshop covers the following topics: Introduction to the GitHub Apps flow Probot, a great tool for getting started building GitHub Apps Hosting code with Glitch Beginners welcome Craftwork is a hands-on workshop for learning how to build GitHub Apps—tools that can help make you and your team more productive. The atmosphere is casual and informal; we will work together and help each other build our first GitHub Apps. You will be able to work at your own pace with the help of a GitHubber nearby, just in case you run into any trouble. You’ll leave with a working GitHub App that’s deployed and ready to use. But you’ll also have the confidence to continue building the tools you need to be more productive with your open source project, or at your work. Oh, and we’ll have stickers for everyone, too! Details and registration Who can attend? Beginner and experienced developers alike who are looking to extend GitHub with apps When? March 25, 2019, from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm ET Where? Suncoast Developer Guild, 2220 Central Ave, Saint Petersburg, FL Don’t have a GitHub account? Be sure to create one before the event. It’s fast, easy, and free. Food and refreshments will be provided. If you have any dietary restrictions, please let us know during registration. RSVP to join us at the Suncoast Developer Guild Tags: events Written by Brian Douglas @bdougie

The February 2019 edition of Release Radar highlights a variety of noteworthy software releases, each bringing new features and improvements to various platforms. Homebrew 2.0 expands its package management capabilities beyond macOS to include Linux and Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), simplifying installations and preserving disk space. Buildbot 2.0 enhances its continuous integration framework by streamlining APIs and dropping Python 2 support. Gutenberg 5.0 introduces new blocks and UI improvements to WordPress, while Jetpack 7.0 enhances WordPress functionality with a Giphy block and deprecates Google+ sharing. Hugo Academic 4.0 facilitates website creation for educators with new user profiles and widgets, and Google open-sources ClusterFuzz, a fuzzing tool known for uncovering numerous bugs in open-source projects. Grafana 6.0 adds a query-based Explore view and React-based customizations for data visualizations, and Git History offers a visually engaging way to explore file histories in GitHub repositories. The article encourages continued innovation and invites developers to share future releases.