Every year-end I feel time flies, and this year is no exception. But I believe as long as I make progress compared with last year, the year is not a failure. This is my third year writing a year-end recap. This time I started early, so I will write a bit more.
Life#
On the personal side, I reached a major milestone: I got married. The wedding on 2022-09-30 went perfectly. The only regret was that some friends and classmates could not attend, but I am grateful for their blessings.
I am also grateful to the two best men (my college roommates) and one bridesmaid (my wife’s close friend) for making the day memorable.
Work#
I joined the KubeSphere team in 2021, responsible for part of the community operations. In the first half of 2022, several teammates left, leaving only me and Michelangelo Yang. The load became heavier.
For me, challenges and growth are intertwined.
The two main challenges were:
- What new paths could we explore to grow the community beyond the current foundation?
- With just two people, how could we keep the community running while still expanding?
Fortunately we solved both, though not perfectly. I will write another post to summarize the solutions.
As for growth, I see three areas:
- More learning, thinking, and discussion. I often discussed community priorities and planning with Michelangelo Yang and the user committee. Some discussions were public (Advocacy-and-Outreach SIG meetings), some private.
- As a result, I led more initiatives: user committee development, Open Source Summer participation, meetup organization, and podcast launching.
- As a result, my capabilities improved: communication, leadership, self-drive, and planning.
There were still shortcomings: some planned work was delayed, and new experiments were not enough.
I hope to break through more in the new year.
Here I want to thank my partner Michelangelo Yang, and the KubeSphere user committee leads: Yin Min in Hangzhou, Zhang Haili in Shanghai, Pei Zhenfei in Guangzhou, and Zhou Zhengjun in Chengdu. They gave me the most help and support. I hope we continue to work together in 2023 to grow the community.
Reading#
In 2022 I read several books about open source. It was my first systematic study of open source and was very rewarding. I already summarized them in a previous post if you are interested.
I also joined a reading group started by OSCAR Open Source Reading, with speakers Professor Fan Xiaoqing (Minzu University) and Teacher Shi Yi, who has long worked in open source. The format was excellent; participants shared their views and insights. It was a great exchange.
Open-source participation#
So far, my open-source participation has been mostly passive and tied to my job. My PRs were mainly content updates on the KubeSphere website. I did not join open-source events this year, which is a pity.
In 2023 I hope to participate more in open-source events (especially operations-related). If time and energy allow, I want to contribute more actively.
Output#
In May 2022 I launched this blog. With help from my public account, I started sharing my work experience to help newcomers. I have published eight related posts. The readership is not high, but I believe it is worth doing.
I do not have a strict content plan. I write when I have something to share. If you have ideas, feel free to discuss with me (as long as I can write about them).
I still know too little about open source and community operations, so beyond writing, I want to learn more from peers and exchange ideas. You are welcome to reach out.
Feel free to add me on WeChat.
Closing#
2022 was a difficult year for many of us. But if we were not defeated, we can still cross the chasm. I will end with a line from Li Bai: “There will be a time to ride the wind and break the waves, and I will hoist my sails to cross the vast sea.”
There is a comment system on this blog. You can log in with your GitHub account to leave a comment. I work in open-source community operations. I am far from an expert, but I would love to connect and discuss. My WeChat ID: zhaofawei26.