Jonathan Bossenger

This post is the first in a series on exploring my role as a developer educator in an open-source project. To read more of the posts in this series, check out the developer educator tag archive, or subscribe for updates at the bottom of this post.

Lately, whenever folks ask me to introduce myself, and what I do, I use something along the following lines:

I am a developer educator at Automattic, where I am sponsored to work with the WordPress training team, creating educational content for developers, at learn.wordpress.org.

Afterward, I often wonder if this explanation makes sense, or if it fully captures what I do, what my role is in the company I work for, and what that means for the open-source team I work with every day. Sometimes, I’m not even sure if this explanation fully makes sense.

This post, and others that will follow it, will attempt to explore what it means to be a developer educator for an open-source project.

What does ChatGPT think?

AI is all the rage at the moment, so I thought I’d ask ChatGPT to explain what it means to be a developer educator for an open-source project.

The answer was, unsurprisingly, pretty good.

Being a developer educator for an open-source project involves several key responsibilities:

1. Creating Learning Resources: Developer educators craft tutorials, guides, documentation, and other educational materials to help developers understand and contribute to the open-source project. These resources should be clear, concise, and accessible to developers of varying skill levels.
2. Facilitating Learning: They may organize workshops, webinars, or training sessions to teach developers how to use the project’s tools, libraries, and APIs effectively. These events can be both online and in-person, depending on the needs and preferences of the community.
3. Supporting Contributors: Developer educators provide support and guidance to new contributors, helping them navigate the project’s codebase, development processes, and community norms. They may offer mentorship, code reviews, and troubleshooting assistance to help contributors overcome challenges and succeed in their contributions.
4. Promoting Best Practices: They advocate for best practices in software development, including code quality, documentation, testing, and collaboration. By promoting these principles, developer educators help maintain and improve the overall quality of the open-source project.
5. Building Community: Developer educators play a crucial role in building and nurturing the project’s developer community. They foster a welcoming and inclusive environment where developers feel empowered to learn, contribute, and collaborate with one another.

Overall, being a developer educator for an open-source project involves empowering developers to learn, contribute, and succeed within the project’s ecosystem, while also fostering a vibrant and supportive community.

https://chat.openai.com/c/96c55a2e-8451-43ac-8cc1-9511dc13d150

But what does all of that mean in the real world? What does the day-to-day, week-to-week work of a developer educator look like? What skills, experience and abilities are needed to succeed, and how does one measure success in such a role?

These, and other questions about what I do, are what I hope to dive into, uncover, and share with you in the coming weeks and months.

I do hope you’ll join me.

Want to be notified the next time I publish a post on this subject? Just pop your email in the box below, and hit that subscribe button.