Episode 131: Bolaji Ayodeji on Open Source Community Africa (OSCA)

Guest Bolaji Ayodeji Panelists Richard Littauer | Justin Dorfman |
Ben Nickolls Show Notes Hello and welcome to Sustain! The podcast
where we talk about sustaining open source for the long haul.
Today, our guest is Bolaji Ayodeji, who’s a Software Engineer,
Content Creator, Community Engineer, and currently works as a
Developer Advocate at Commerce Layer. Bolaji is a member of the
Sustain community and has done so much with Open Source Community
Africa (OSCA). Our conversations take us through learning how
Bolaji got into open source, being a part of the OSCA community and
the Sustain Africa session, and what OSCA is all about. We’ll also
hear about the communities and companies that are part of OSCA,
things we can do to help the next generation of open source
contributors and developers from African nations, and Bolaji
highlights two Sustain sessions that he thought were really cool
and what he enjoyed most about them. Go ahead and download this
episode now! [00:01:39] Bolaji tells us how he got into open
source. [00:03:05] We learn how Bolaji ended up being a part of the
OSCA community and how his experience was joining them. [00:04:20]
At the OSCA event there was a giant Sustain track, so Bolaji talks
about how that happened and what happened there. [00:09:04] Now
that there’s been a few events that happened, Bolaji fills us in on
how the conversation has been evolving, and he tells us about
DataFest in Africa. [00:12:47] Justin talks about Bolaji’s blog and
his tutorials around data science and he wonders if he’s giving any
talks about data visualization and if there’s any organizations
he’s working with that he can take their data and visualize it to
the community. [00:15:30] We hear about the communities and
companies that are part of OSCA. [00:18:21] Find out how many
people came to OSCA this year, and how many people that attended
are working on open source as part of their jobs or in addition to
their jobs. [00:20:02] Bolaji shares his views on what we should be
doing to ensure the next generation of open source contributors and
developers from African nations are incentivized and able to join
in that community and contribute. [00:23:16] Richard asks Bolaji if
there has been a lot of buy-in about open source from other
countries in Africa who’ve come to OSCA, is there a particular
reason open source blossoming in Nigeria, and how is it being
spread out to places like Ghana or other countries. [00:25:25]
Bolaji explains if there’s anything large companies can do in
developed nations to help the open source community in Africa.
[00:27:22] What sessions was Bolaji most excited about at the
Sustain meeting. [00:29:36] When we talk about documentation in
OSCA, Richard asks if as a community, Bolaji talks in English or if
there’s small subgroups which speak in languages also spoken by
participants in open source. [00:34:51] Find out where you can
follow Bolaji and OSCA on the internet. Quotes [00:26:37] “The same
things that people in the western world have access to, Africans
also working in open source should also be able to have access too
without bias.” Spotlight [00:35:49] Justin’s spotlight is his
Non-Code Contributor Newsletter. [00:36:21] Ben’s spotlights are a
blog post by Abdulsamod Azeez on Contributing to Open Source as a
Data Scientist, and a list of Open Source Data Science Projects you
can contribute to by Aden Haussmann. [00:36:54] Richard’s spotlight
is Heather Piwowar. [00:37:24] Bolaji’s spotlight is TypeScript
Error Translator by Matt Pocock. Links SustainOSS
(https://sustainoss.org/) SustainOSS Twitter
(https://twitter.com/SustainOSS?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
SustainOSS Discourse (https://discourse.sustainoss.org/)
podcast@sustainoss.org (mailto:podcast@sustainoss.org) Richard
Littauer Twitter
(https://twitter.com/richlitt?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
Justin Dorfman Twitter
(https://twitter.com/jdorfman?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
Ben Nickolls Twitter (https://twitter.com/benjam?lang=en) Bolaji
Ayodeji Twitter (https://twitter.com/iambolajiayo) Bolaji Ayodeji
LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/iambolajiayo) Bolaji Ayodeji
website (https://www.bolajiayodeji.com/) Commerce Layer
(https://commercelayer.io/) Open Source Community Africa
(https://oscafrica.org/) Sustain Africa 2022 Community Report
(https://blog.oscafrica.org/sustain-africa-2022-community-report)
DataFest Africa 2022 (https://datafest.africa/) Sustain
Podcast-Episode 122: A conversation with Stefano Maffulli of the
OSI (https://podcast.sustainoss.org/guests/maffulli) The Non-Code
Contributor- Issue #35
(https://www.getrevue.co/profile/tncc/issues/the-non-code-contributor-issue-35-1192373)
Contributing to Open Source as a Data Scientist by Abdulsamond
Azeez
(https://abdulsamodazeez.com/contributing-to-open-source-as-a-data-scientist)
Open-Source Data Science Projects You Can Contribute to Today by
Aden Haussmann
(https://towardsdatascience.com/open-source-data-science-projects-you-can-contribute-to-today-ee766f4b8494)
Heather Piwowar Twitter (https://twitter.com/researchremix?lang=en)
TypeScript Error Translator-Git Hub
(https://github.com/mattpocock/ts-error-translator) Credits
Produced by Richard Littauer (https://www.burntfen.com/) Edited by
Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/)
Show notes by DeAnn Bahr Peachtree Sound
(https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Special Guest: Bolaji Ayodeji.