Open Source for Good with Kevin Fleming
09/02/21 • 27 min
Bloomberg has been fostering open solutions for the financial industry for quite some time, so it should come as no surprise that they also have been actively engaged in the open source community, with an eye toward promoting more rapid innovation across all aspects of the organization worldwide. Today, we're talking about open source for good with a Member of the Bloomberg CTO Office, Kevin Fleming. Kevin focuses on Bloomberg’s technology community engagement, including the company's involvement in open source projects and standards. He has been an open-source developer and project manager for nearly three decades and, in today’s episode, he shares what the term ‘open source for good’ means to Bloomberg and how it fits into the company’s strong philanthropic history. Tuning in, you’ll learn about the reciprocal relationship Bloomberg has built with the open-source community, some of the hurdles Kevin has had to overcome in implementing the open-source programs at Bloomberg, and the main benefits of these programs for Bloomberg and other organizations, plus a whole lot more! We hope you’ll join us.
Key Points From This Episode:
- How Bloomberg benefits from open source technology, including better tools, community participation, and skill building for their engineers.
- The reciprocal relationship that Bloomberg has built with the open source community.
- How the concept of ‘open source for good’ fits into Bloomberg’s strong philanthropic history.
- How the program changed over time and what they learned from its successes and failures.
- Learn about Tech at Bloomberg, the company’s innovation communications brand.
- Kevin describes the time and resources that go into user experience design at Bloomberg.
- How open source software has evolved to become increasingly end user facing.
- Some of the hurdles that Kevin has had to overcome, such as figuring out how to educate ‘non-technologists’ about open source.
- The main benefit of Bloomberg’s open source programs: continuous education for software developers in a rapidly evolving landscape.
- Why Kevin is hopeful that we’ll see more Fortune 500 companies taking on similar programs.
- The spirit of collaboration rather than competition that could grow this idea.
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Bloomberg has been fostering open solutions for the financial industry for quite some time, so it should come as no surprise that they also have been actively engaged in the open source community, with an eye toward promoting more rapid innovation across all aspects of the organization worldwide. Today, we're talking about open source for good with a Member of the Bloomberg CTO Office, Kevin Fleming. Kevin focuses on Bloomberg’s technology community engagement, including the company's involvement in open source projects and standards. He has been an open-source developer and project manager for nearly three decades and, in today’s episode, he shares what the term ‘open source for good’ means to Bloomberg and how it fits into the company’s strong philanthropic history. Tuning in, you’ll learn about the reciprocal relationship Bloomberg has built with the open-source community, some of the hurdles Kevin has had to overcome in implementing the open-source programs at Bloomberg, and the main benefits of these programs for Bloomberg and other organizations, plus a whole lot more! We hope you’ll join us.
Key Points From This Episode:
- How Bloomberg benefits from open source technology, including better tools, community participation, and skill building for their engineers.
- The reciprocal relationship that Bloomberg has built with the open source community.
- How the concept of ‘open source for good’ fits into Bloomberg’s strong philanthropic history.
- How the program changed over time and what they learned from its successes and failures.
- Learn about Tech at Bloomberg, the company’s innovation communications brand.
- Kevin describes the time and resources that go into user experience design at Bloomberg.
- How open source software has evolved to become increasingly end user facing.
- Some of the hurdles that Kevin has had to overcome, such as figuring out how to educate ‘non-technologists’ about open source.
- The main benefit of Bloomberg’s open source programs: continuous education for software developers in a rapidly evolving landscape.
- Why Kevin is hopeful that we’ll see more Fortune 500 companies taking on similar programs.
- The spirit of collaboration rather than competition that could grow this idea.
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Previous Episode
Documentation and Open Source with Anne Gentle
There is a perception in the tech world that developer documentation is boring, and it can be a major challenge to get people to contribute to open source docs. Luckily, today’s guest, lifelong learner Anne Gentle, is always up for a challenge. Anne’s open source journey began by volunteering for organizations such as One Laptop per Child, and getting involved with book sprints. This was a way for her to learn about innovative techniques being used in open source which she was missing in her job as an everyday technical writer. The value she gained from entering the world of open source documentation, and the value she could see it provided to organizations, inspired Anne to write a book; Docs Like Code. In today’s episode, Anne shares some of the principles she covers in her book, explains the parallels that exist between documentation and software development, dives into some industry changes which have transformed documentation over the past few years, and offers valuable advice for anyone interested in getting involved in open source.
Key Points From This Episode:
- Anne explains where open source and documentation intersect.
- Why Anne chose to get involved with open source volunteering.
- A variety of other reasons that lead people into the world of open source volunteering.
- Growth in the number of open source writers over the years.
- Using GitHub as an example, Anne explains the value of open source to organizations.
- Why DOCSIS code techniques pair well with open source.
- The motivation behind Anne’s book, Docs Like Code.
- Industry changes which influenced the documentation changes.
- Parallels between software development and documentation.
- Advice from Anne regarding putting systems in place for writers.
- How the CICD has been helpful for documentation.
- The factor that is vital to successful documentation.
- What Anne wished she knew more of before entering the open source world.
- Anne’s biggest surprise when she started working in open source.
- How the open source ethos is applicable to Anne’s current role.
- Valuable advice from Anne for anyone interested in open source.
- Google's Season of Docs program, and the impacts that Anne expects it to have.
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Next Episode
Women in Open Source with Lynne Chamberlain, Denise Schannon, and Katie Gamanji
Today, Alan Clark hands the reins over to special guest host, Katie Gamanji, Ecosystem Advocate for the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). Katie’s mission is to ensure that end users are successful while also bridging the gap between practitioners and projects within the ecosystem. With Linux and SUSE recently celebrating their 30-year and 29-year anniversaries, Katie is joined by two remarkable women in the open source space, who share their contributions to Linux, the challenges they have faced in their careers, and the inspiring stories of how they overcame those challenges to get where they are today. In this episode, you’ll hear from Lynne Chamberlain, President of Regulated Industries at SUSE Rancher Government Solutions, an industry veteran in the federal space with more than 20 years of executive experience. Lynne plays a critical role in enabling open source adoption with a specialization in enterprise Linux, Kubernetes management, and edge solutions to accelerate the pace of innovation within the U.S. government. We are also joined by Denise Schannon, Director of Engineering for the Cloud Platform team and responsible for delivering the SUSE Rancher product. While at Rancher, she has spanned multiple roles, including QA, technical writing, training, and project management, before settling into engineering management. Tune in today to gain some valuable insights and actionable advice from Lynne and Denise!
Key Points From This Episode:
- Lynne and Denise share their experiences of working with Linux and in open source.
- The contributions Lynne has made to the open source community that she is most proud of.
- Why Denise says she is most excited about contributing toward documentation.
- Hear about one of Denise’s biggest challenges: battling insecurities as a doc writer.
- The challenge that Lynne had to overcome: helping her government customers understand open source as a secure, viable product.
- Denise shares her experience of working at Rancher while also collaborating in open source.
- Learn more about SUSE RGS, Lynne’s role there, and how open source factors in.
- Find out how Lynne got introduced to programming, Linux, and open source by accident.
- Why Denise pursued a career in open source and her experience as a woman in tech.
- Denise opens up about how her abilities have been doubted because of her gender.
- Lynne emphasizes the importance of staying true to yourself as a woman in a male populated industry like tech.
- Denise on why she is pleased to see how far women in tech have come.
- Lynne on why she believes that the open source field is open to initiating more women.
- Lynne’s advice for women starting careers in Linux and open source: pave your own way!
- Denise echoes the value of finding your support system and leaning on it; just go for it!
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
SUSE Rancher Government Solutions
Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF)
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