Emily Stamey

Developer & Human. Finding my voice.

Category: community

Speaking at OSCON

Emily speaking at OSCON

Last week I traveled to Austin, Texas and the O’reilly Open Source Conference to share a talk called What’s Your Skateboard?  This is a talk I enjoy sharing.  It gives strategies for organizing and planning work.  I started out talking so quickly that I tripped over my tongue a bit.  I got it under control and conveyed the useful strategies to my audience.  In another week, I’ll be giving this in a workshop format at PHP[tek], and I’m really excited about that!  A 40 minute time slot, such as at OSCON, doesn’t leave attendees time to try it out.  The practice will become a lot more clear when attendees can get their hands on some post-it notes and organize work.

In June, I will be giving this talk again at We Rise, and I will give both the talk and the workshop at Dutch PHP.  After that things will settle back down for me with travel and speaking.

What Community Means to Me


When did I join the PHP community?



Who is in the PHP community?





We are Community and So Can You!



Are *YOU* Inclusive? Take this test and find out!

We’ve had lots of talk about inclusivity in our community. A group can only be as inclusive and welcoming as its members, right? We know the saying, “A rotten apple spoils the bunch”.  Bad apples affect the inclusivity of a community. You can’t control a rotten apple, but you can prevent it from spoiling you and those around you.

So ask yourself, “Am I inclusive?”

We all want to say yes, but how do we know for sure? I have an example to help you answer. Imagine a time when you were talking with three or more people at a conference. There are many other people at the conference. If someone walked near your group, did you make room for them? Did you open the circle and invite them into your discussion? Did you introduce them to the others? Did they instead linger in the outskirts or decide to walk past, playing it cool. When that happened, had you noticed them looking at your group?  Had you made eye contact with them?

This is something I see happen at conferences, and it is both a great test and something easy to fix. I find welcoming a person feels great! The conversation may be interrupted briefly, but you can quickly get back on track.

I have also made eye contact with a person who looked like they wanted to join a group I was in, and watched them walk away instead. I recognized the nervous feeling on the approach and the attempted nonchalance when they walked on to some other place. I’ve been that person, shy to approach a large group.  We probably all have.

It is hard to break into a circle of people together, to squeeze yourself in, not knowing if you’re welcome.  But when the circle opens up to you, there is no doubt you are welcome.  So now, how will you answer the question?

Are YOU inclusive?

Celebrating Accomplishments

Lately I’m thinking about my accomplishments this year in tech.  I feel much more a part of the greater development community than I ever have before.  I owe a lot of that to my Co-Organizing the TrianglePHP meetup group and my TA-ing with Girl Develop It.  I have also overcome some of my hesitation to contribute code in Open Source again.

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