The Apache Software Foundation
TAC
Cloud stories from past Travel Assistance Recipients ¶
This is part of our series of stories from past ApacheCon and Apache Big Data attendees whom the Apache Travel Assistance committee helped be at the event. To learn more about TAC, visit the main TAC page. For more stories, see the TAC stories index page.
Rafael Weingärtner ¶
What’s your name?
I am Rafael Weingärtner.
What Apache project(s)/Open Source Software project(s) are you involved in?
Apache CloudStack and IOTA
Were you a student/academic at the time of ApacheCon?
Yes, I was a Ph.D. student in Computer Science
Where in the world are you from?
Brazil
What was the best bit about ApacheCon?
The opportunity to meet great people from all around the world. Not just technical folks, but also people who know how to create and manage huge projects on a daily basis.
Also Lightning talks; I swear that I am not only saying that because there were free beers and snacks ;)
What was the best new project you heardabout at ApacheCon?
Chronix, a database system based on Lucene and Solr that is optimized for timeseries. That was kind of unexpected to see a project like that that can solve some of the problems I am facing in my Ph. D. It was also interesting to see other scholars actively participating and engaging in the Apache world. The Chronix was a nice example; it is mainly developed by a Ph.D. student.
What was your favourite non-talk part of ApacheCon?
The event at the Steamworks Brewing Company. Great beer and lots of fun.
Who was the best person you met at ApacheCon, and why?
Daan Hoogland; this guy is awesome. He is in the Apache CloudStack PMC, and we have been working together for over 4 years. We exchange emails weekly, and ApacheCon NA was the opportunity to meet and share a beer. Daan is not just a great coder and PMC member, but also a great friend.
What unexpected things did you learn at ApacheCon?
Apache Fey, which is part of Apache IOTA. This project is what I was looking for to serve the base for a system that I have been building.
What would you say to someone thinking ofapplying to TAC for the first time?
Go for it ;)
Nitin Kumar Maharana ¶
What’s your name?
Nitin Kumar Maharana
Which ApacheCon/Apache event did you attend?
ApacheCon and Apache Big Data North America, Miami, Florida, 15th - 19th May 2017.
What Apache project(s)/Open Source Software project(s) are you involved in?
Apache CloudStack.
Where in the world are you from?
India
What was the best bit about ApacheCon?
It was an amazing opportunity to meet with techies from all over the world. Listen to their experiences in building large scale open source projects.
What was your favourite ApacheCon talk, and why?
I liked a couple of talks, but my most favourite ones were the lightning talks. Because I got exposed to many Apache projects in a very short period of time. It’s a must-attend if you visit the event.
How did the Travel Assistance program compare to your expectations?
It was simply beyond my expectations. Everything was super smooth, starting from the application to attending the event in Miami and returning to India. Everything was taken care of very well by TAC.
What would you say to someone thinking of applying to TAC for the first time?
No need to think much, just rush and apply. It’s a great opportunity you should not miss if you are short of cash. The best part is you would be meeting with so many like-minded people.
Ignasi Barrera ¶
What’s your name?
Ignasi Barrera
What Apache project are you involved in?
I’ve been actively involved in Apache jclouds for about four years, since a little bit before the project joined the ASF. I am the project’s current Chair, and about 9 months ago I became a Member of the foundation.
Where in the world are you from?
From sunny Barcelona!
What was the best bit about ApacheCon?
Discovering that Apache, at its core, and despite being a big organisation, is like a little family. I was really surprised how open and welcoming everyone was. I had the opportunity to talk with TAC, infra, and many people directly involved in the foundation structure, and I always felt like I was actually part of the same thing. Meeting the people who make Apache and discovering how open everyone was, was one of the best things I remember from ApacheCon.
What was your favourite ApacheCon talk, and why?
I really enjoyed David Nalley’s keynote. There is quite an extended perception in people around the world, outside the ASF, that Apache projects are old school projects, often leveraging obsolete technology. There is a quote I love from Rich Bowen that says, “Apache has a legacy to project, but also a future to invent,” (and projects such as the httpd server or Spark are perfect examples for that) and David’s keynote illustrated that pretty well and demystified that perception by showing how important for the industry Apache is. Not only for the technology and solutions their projects bring, but also for the way they are governed, how the community collaborates to create them, and how that open and collaborative model is the pillar of their success and an open source reference.
What would you say to someone thinking of applying to TAC for the first time?
Just apply. They will find a very friendly environment and an excellent opportunity to meet, among many others, the people who make Apache possible.
What did your project get from having you at ApacheCon?
I had the opportunity to talk with committers and PMC members of other projects that are built on top of Apache jclouds. At ApacheCon we had to take some unpopular decisions, such as dropping support for unmaintained providers, or rejecting some pull requests that had little hope to progress, and one of the objectives I had was to directly discuss with the jclouds ecosystem what impact that could have, how the projects could collaborate better, and how we could better align our roadmaps.
Gabriel Beims Bräscher ¶
What’s your name?
Gabriel Beims Bräscher
What was the best bit about ApacheCon?
It was one of the most intense weeks in my life, as I was constantly learning about new cultures, projects, people, places, technologies. To be honest, at first I was afraid (as a young guy, a mere masters student); however, everyone treats you equally, it does not matter who you are and where are you from, because everyone knows that you are part of the ASF community. That feels great and made me confident to interact and learn even more.
Who was the best person you met at ApacheCon, and why?
It is hard to tell; lots of great persons!
TAC: For sure Melissa from the TAC program is one of them; she treats every “TACer” (people – as lucky as I – who were selected by the TAC program) as a son; Sergio Fernández and Christofer Dutz helped us all.
Speakers: Many of the speakers that I helped were very charismatic and generous, some of them: Luciano Resende (also Brazilian); Shane Curcuru; Daniel Izquierdo; Dzmitry Pletnikau; Giles Sirett; Will Stevens.
TACers: Andrea Patricelli (my roommate) a very friendly Italian; Svante Shubert, a guy who could make anyone laugh (note: he is German); Pedro Giffuni; Paul King; Darshan; and many others.
What was your favourite non-talk part of ApacheCon?
The interaction with people: the first night when the TAC gathered us at a bar; the last night of the Apache Big data, when we got another good time to get to know each other and enjoy a good beer/wine with snacks; going out to explore Seville.
How did the Travel Assistance program compare to your expectations? First of all: I had high expectations! However, I received more than expected. The travel was great, the process after I was selected was easy and all information was clear.
What would you say to someone thinking of applying to TAC for the first time?
It is a great experience for a programmer, researcher, and human being. This opened my mind to new cultures, Apache projects, technologies and contacts from Apache and the project that I am involved in (Apache CloudStack). As a speaker and also invited by the TAC program, I gained confidence for presenting projects and interacting with people from different cultures.
In exchange we, as “TACers”, have to help with the conference, mainly introducing speakers. The TACer has to help the speaker set up, and make sure that he/she is ready and comfortable for the presentation. That also helps us learn how to interact with the audience.
What did your project get from having you at ApacheCon?
With the TAC project, I got the chance to travel and present as speaker a bit more about Apache CloudStack. My presentation (Why Apache CloudStack) provides feedback of why people should consider CloudStack and a discussion of why it is not as popular as it should be (considering how great piece of software the ACS is). Additionally, I presented a bit of a project that I am working on, which is a plugin for the Apache CloudStack.
Jeff Genender ¶
What’s your name?
Jeff Genender
What Apache project are you involved in?
Camel, CXF, ServiceMix, Mina, TomEE, ActiveMQ
Where in the world are you from?
Colorado
What was the best bit about ApacheCon?
Great opportunity to meet others on projects from all over the world and put names to faces
Who was the best person you met at ApacheCon, and why?
Everyone… because everyone is cool. ;-)
What unexpected things did you learn at ApacheCon?
Code with beer
What was your favourite non-talk part of ApacheCon?
Keynotes and networking
What would you say to someone thinking of applying to TAC for the first time?
Highly recommended. It’s a great way to get to these events when funds may be short. It’s an opportunity.
What did your project get from having you at ApacheCon?
Meeting with some of the folks and being able to talk about things that may take more time than on the lists. Being able to exchange ideas before bringing them to the community. Face to face can have a huge impact on attitude and interaction moving forward, and it’s something that can be bestowed to the projects. Sometimes it’s tough to put tone in email, so it’s good to share in a personal manner.
What new things did you get into thanks to ApacheCon?
I wouldn’t say it got me into anything new, but certainly underscored my feelings about Apache and the value it brings to me and my contributions. It re-invigorates about why we do the things we do in open source and the impact it has on the world.