HTTP 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.

Andriy Redko ¶

What’s your name?

Andriy Redko

What Apache project are you involved in?

Apache CXF

Where in the world are you from?

Canada

What was the best bit about ApacheCon?

For me ApacheCon is all about community. I met so many great people, had a lot of thoughtful conversations, heard about dozens of very interesting projects I had no idea existed. It is a terrific event.

What was the best new project you heard about at ApacheCon?

The last ApacheCon brought Apache HTrace to my attention. This is very interesting project in the niche of distributed tracing, and I was desperately looking for such a solution to build Apache CXF features on top of.

What was your favourite ApacheCon talk, and why?

I liked very much the “Introduction to Apache Kafka” talk, it was very well delivered and received.

How did the Travel Assistance program compare to your expectations?

By all means, ApacheCon was possible for me only because of TAC. I was not be able to make it without assistance. I am very grateful to TAC for picking me and giving me a chance to be a part of ApacheCon. This experience is worth repeating and I am looking for ways to make it this year.

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.