"Every Little Helps" - being a small cog

My journey from closed-source system to open-source project, learning as I built and finding highs and lows in putting together a system that suddenly became used by the global public

Transcript

1. Rick Trotter - April 2013 “Every Little Helps” > Being a small cog Thursday, 25 April 13
2. Long ago, not so far away Thursday, 25 April 13
3. Long ago, not so far away ✤ I was part of a small team forming a new church in Teesside Thursday, 25 April 13
4. Long ago, not so far away ✤ I was part of a small team forming a new church in Teesside ✤ We had no offices, no building, no admin staff. Thursday, 25 April 13
5. Long ago, not so far away ✤ I was part of a small team forming a new church in Teesside ✤ We had no offices, no building, no admin staff. ✤ The leaders purchased into an online SaaS product at £300 per quarter to help manage contact data Thursday, 25 April 13
6. Long ago, not so far away ✤ I was part of a small team forming a new church in Teesside ✤ We had no offices, no building, no admin staff. ✤ The leaders purchased into an online SaaS product at £300 per quarter to help manage contact data ✤ I got a bit angry about the awful interface of the product and epic annual costs Thursday, 25 April 13
7. So I built my own system Thursday, 25 April 13
8. If you build it, they will come... Thursday, 25 April 13
9. If you build it, they will come... ✤ I fired up Microsoft Notepad on my Pentium 3 laptop Thursday, 25 April 13
10. If you build it, they will come... ✤ I fired up Microsoft Notepad on my Pentium 3 laptop ✤ I logged in to my linux box over SSH and created a new database Thursday, 25 April 13
11. If you build it, they will come... ✤ I fired up Microsoft Notepad on my Pentium 3 laptop ✤ I logged in to my linux box over SSH and created a new database ✤ I imported our data from a CSV output and made lots of diagrams on paper Thursday, 25 April 13
12. If you build it, they will come... ✤ I fired up Microsoft Notepad on my Pentium 3 laptop ✤ I logged in to my linux box over SSH and created a new database ✤ I imported our data from a CSV output and made lots of diagrams on paper ✤ I spent a month tinkering Thursday, 25 April 13
13. If you build it, they will come... ✤ I fired up Microsoft Notepad on my Pentium 3 laptop ✤ I logged in to my linux box over SSH and created a new database ✤ I imported our data from a CSV output and made lots of diagrams on paper ✤ I spent a month tinkering ✤ Kongreg8 was born Thursday, 25 April 13
14. Things started taking shape ...If you think this was ugly, you should have seen my competition... Thursday, 25 April 13
15. Yay, Capitalism! Thursday, 25 April 13
16. Yay, Capitalism! ✤ Things were progressing fairly quickly Thursday, 25 April 13
17. Yay, Capitalism! ✤ Things were progressing fairly quickly ✤ People started to take notice of what I was doing Thursday, 25 April 13
18. Yay, Capitalism! ✤ Things were progressing fairly quickly ✤ People started to take notice of what I was doing ✤ I had some UK churches paying £200pa for my system Thursday, 25 April 13
19. Yay, Capitalism! ✤ Things were progressing fairly quickly ✤ People started to take notice of what I was doing ✤ I had some UK churches paying £200pa for my system ✤ I had dreams to expand my business domain to encompass hundreds of churches across the world Thursday, 25 April 13
20. Yay, Capitalism! ✤ Things were progressing fairly quickly ✤ People started to take notice of what I was doing ✤ I had some UK churches paying £200pa for my system ✤ I had dreams to expand my business domain to encompass hundreds of churches across the world ✤ I thought about some magazine marketing Thursday, 25 April 13
21. Yay, Capitalism! ✤ Things were progressing fairly quickly ✤ People started to take notice of what I was doing ✤ I had some UK churches paying £200pa for my system ✤ I had dreams to expand my business domain to encompass hundreds of churches across the world ✤ I thought about some magazine marketing ✤ Pound signs started to appear in my head Thursday, 25 April 13
22. Cosy comments follow you Thursday, 25 April 13
23. Cosy comments follow you ✤ Clients started massaging my underused ego muscle: Thursday, 25 April 13
24. Cosy comments follow you ✤ Clients started massaging my underused ego muscle: ✤ “the system just keeps getting better and better!” Thursday, 25 April 13
25. Cosy comments follow you ✤ Clients started massaging my underused ego muscle: ✤ “the system just keeps getting better and better!” ✤ “we tried other systems but, for us this is the cheaper, better option!” Thursday, 25 April 13
26. I planned and prepared... ✤ I put together training courses ✤ I created full user manuals ✤ I started looking at running courses ✤ I was ready to kick start HARD SELLING! Thursday, 25 April 13
27. Superhero to Superzero Thursday, 25 April 13
28. Superhero to Superzero ✤ Other things in my life started getting hard Thursday, 25 April 13
29. Superhero to Superzero ✤ Other things in my life started getting hard ✤ I started losing paying clients in the economic downturn. Thursday, 25 April 13
30. Superhero to Superzero ✤ Other things in my life started getting hard ✤ I started losing paying clients in the economic downturn. ✤ I needed to think about rebuilding my quick-build, creaky codebase. Thursday, 25 April 13
31. Superhero to Superzero ✤ Other things in my life started getting hard ✤ I started losing paying clients in the economic downturn. ✤ I needed to think about rebuilding my quick-build, creaky codebase. ✤ I lost my day-job Thursday, 25 April 13
32. Superhero to Superzero ✤ Other things in my life started getting hard ✤ I started losing paying clients in the economic downturn. ✤ I needed to think about rebuilding my quick-build, creaky codebase. ✤ I lost my day-job ✤ I lost all self-esteem. Thursday, 25 April 13
33. Life slapped me in the face Thursday, 25 April 13
34. Life slapped me in the face ✤ I was at my lowest point in my life. Thursday, 25 April 13
35. Life slapped me in the face ✤ I was at my lowest point in my life. ✤ I realised I needed to turn my project Open Source one day while reading a letter from my sponsored child, living in near-poverty in Ethiopia. Thursday, 25 April 13
36. Life slapped me in the face ✤ I was at my lowest point in my life. ✤ I realised I needed to turn my project Open Source one day while reading a letter from my sponsored child, living in near-poverty in Ethiopia. ✤ Although I was running at crazy western world “fire-sale” knock- down prices, it was still unattainable to many across the world - people who needed it... Thursday, 25 April 13
37. Life slapped me in the face ✤ I was at my lowest point in my life. ✤ I realised I needed to turn my project Open Source one day while reading a letter from my sponsored child, living in near-poverty in Ethiopia. ✤ Although I was running at crazy western world “fire-sale” knock- down prices, it was still unattainable to many across the world - people who needed it... ✤ ...people like my friends who were moving to Africa and had no spare funding for extravagant systems. Thursday, 25 April 13
38. Opening the door... The moment you decide to release your closed-source project to the world as open-source, you have a gut-wrenching fear you’re about to be abused - real hard by people who are so much better than you. Thursday, 25 April 13
39. red pill, blue pill Thursday, 25 April 13
40. Right decision? ✤ Was I really making the right decision? ✤ Life was going pretty crap at the time, was I making a bad choice from a bad place? ✤ What else do I have to lose? ✤ This is my baby, even if it is pretty ugly Thursday, 25 April 13
41. SHIP IT! Thursday, 25 April 13
42. SHIP IT! Thursday, 25 April 13
43. Original Release Thursday, 25 April 13
44. Original Release 0 3.75 7.50 11.25 15.00 2010-08 2010-10 2010-12 2011-02 2011-04 2011-06 2011-08 2011-10 2011-12 2012-02 2012-04 2012-06 2012-08 2012-10 2012-12 2013-02 2013-04 Thursday, 25 April 13
45. Original Release Thursday, 25 April 13
46. Original Release 0 2.5 5.0 7.5 10.0 United States Netherlands South Africa United Kingdom China Brazil Chile Canada Indonesia India France Portugal Zimbabwe Peru Ghana Nigeria Thursday, 25 April 13
47. Whhaaaaaaat?! Thursday, 25 April 13
48. Whhaaaaaaat?! Thursday, 25 April 13
49. SHIP IT! SHIP IT! SHIP IT! Thursday, 25 April 13
50. SHIP IT! SHIP IT! SHIP IT! Thursday, 25 April 13
51. Second Release Thursday, 25 April 13
52. Second Release 0 12.5 25.0 37.5 50.0 2010-08 2010-09 2010-10 2010-11 2010-12 2011-01 2011-02 2011-03 2011-04 2011-05 2011-06 2011-07 2011-08 2011-09 2011-10 2011-11 2011-12 2012-01 2012-02 2012-03 2012-04 2012-05 2012-06 2012-07 2012-08 2012-09 2012-10 2012-11 2012-12 2013-01 2013-02 2013-03 2013-04 Thursday, 25 April 13
53. Second Release Thursday, 25 April 13
54. Second Release 0 25 50 75 100 United States South Africa Nigeria Brazil Kenya Australia India Philippines Indonesia United Kingdom Tanzania Ghana Argentina Europe (specific country unknown) Canada France Germany Bahrain Uganda Bolivia Zimbabwe China Haiti Poland Colombia Denmark Cameroon Mexico Ireland Lebanon Hungary Costa Rica Saint Vincent and The Grenadines Swaziland Venezuela Viet Nam Satellite Provider Norway Chile Puerto Rico Belgium Turkey Sweden Thailand Russia Pakistan United Arab Emirates Thursday, 25 April 13
55. Whhaaaaaaat?! Thursday, 25 April 13
56. Whhaaaaaaat?! Thursday, 25 April 13
57. Holy poop, Batman! ✤ People are actually using this thing!? ✤ People are asking me questions about their installations?! ✤ People ACROSS THE WORLD are using this!? ✤ I’m enjoying this process, and I’m not getting paid! ✤ I need to go change my undercrackers. Thursday, 25 April 13
58. But time is a cruel mistress Thursday, 25 April 13
59. But time is a cruel mistress ✤ It had been some years since my first system release. Thursday, 25 April 13
60. But time is a cruel mistress ✤ It had been some years since my first system release. ✤ My codebase sucked - it was all PHP4 spaghetti and it creaked Thursday, 25 April 13
61. But time is a cruel mistress ✤ It had been some years since my first system release. ✤ My codebase sucked - it was all PHP4 spaghetti and it creaked ✤ I was trying to get back into programming full-time and was starting to learn PHP5 OOP methods. Thursday, 25 April 13
62. But time is a cruel mistress ✤ It had been some years since my first system release. ✤ My codebase sucked - it was all PHP4 spaghetti and it creaked ✤ I was trying to get back into programming full-time and was starting to learn PHP5 OOP methods. ✤ I didn’t know how to OOP my existing system. Thursday, 25 April 13
63. But time is a cruel mistress ✤ It had been some years since my first system release. ✤ My codebase sucked - it was all PHP4 spaghetti and it creaked ✤ I was trying to get back into programming full-time and was starting to learn PHP5 OOP methods. ✤ I didn’t know how to OOP my existing system. ✤ I didn’t have time to fix my old system. Thursday, 25 April 13
64. Be like a Phoenix Thursday, 25 April 13
65. Be like a Phoenix ✤ I took all my code. Thursday, 25 April 13
66. Be like a Phoenix ✤ I took all my code. ✤ I threw it in the bin. Thursday, 25 April 13
67. Be like a Phoenix ✤ I took all my code. ✤ I threw it in the bin. ✤ I started again with a clean sheet of paper. Thursday, 25 April 13
68. Be like a Phoenix ✤ I took all my code. ✤ I threw it in the bin. ✤ I started again with a clean sheet of paper. ✤ I became a student again. Thursday, 25 April 13
69. Be like a Phoenix ✤ I took all my code. ✤ I threw it in the bin. ✤ I started again with a clean sheet of paper. ✤ I became a student again. ✤ I started to “learn on the job”. Thursday, 25 April 13
70. My, that’s a big mountain Thursday, 25 April 13
71. Get with it, granddad ✤ I started a trial R&D beta project - Kongreg8 OS2 ✤ I switched to Github ✤ I fired-up a twitter feed for the project ✤ I rebuilt my website information ✤ I started trying to be a good little OOP-er Thursday, 25 April 13
72. I built it (again)... Thursday, 25 April 13
73. I built it (again)... ... they engaged Thursday, 25 April 13
74. I built it (again)... ... they engaged Thursday, 25 April 13
75. I built it (again)... ... they engaged Thursday, 25 April 13
76. Whhaaaaaaat?! Thursday, 25 April 13
77. Whhaaaaaaat?! Thursday, 25 April 13
78. Things aren’t all cosy out there Thursday, 25 April 13
79. Things aren’t all cosy out there ✤ There are crazy people who will criticise without contacting you. Thursday, 25 April 13
80. Things aren’t all cosy out there ✤ There are crazy people who will criticise without contacting you. ✤ There are people out to actively belittle you and your work. Thursday, 25 April 13
81. Things aren’t all cosy out there ✤ There are crazy people who will criticise without contacting you. ✤ There are people out to actively belittle you and your work. ✤ There are people who will crack your software into pieces for fun. Thursday, 25 April 13
82. Things aren’t all cosy out there ✤ There are crazy people who will criticise without contacting you. ✤ There are people out to actively belittle you and your work. ✤ There are people who will crack your software into pieces for fun. ✤ It sucks to hear how awful your codebase is. Thursday, 25 April 13
83. Things aren’t all cosy out there ✤ There are crazy people who will criticise without contacting you. ✤ There are people out to actively belittle you and your work. ✤ There are people who will crack your software into pieces for fun. ✤ It sucks to hear how awful your codebase is. ✤ Every missed error is turned into a neon sign 50-feet high Thursday, 25 April 13
84. These people are dicks ✤ Just have no time for them. ✤ Be open and honest with your user base. ✤ Fix what you can. ✤ Do your best. ✤ Keep learning. Thursday, 25 April 13
85. “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” Henry Ford Keep on running... Thursday, 25 April 13
86. The future is what you build ✤ I’ve learned a lot in the past three years ✤ I have people testing, using and providing feedback on my R&D beta ✤ Using my R&D OOP beta feedback I’m going to build a new stable version for global release ✤ I have people still using my previous platforms ✤ I’m still not happy with my codebase, but it’s getting better Thursday, 25 April 13
87. Small cog, Big machine Thursday, 25 April 13
88. Small cog, Big machine ✤ I’m a small cog in a big machine Thursday, 25 April 13
89. Small cog, Big machine ✤ I’m a small cog in a big machine ✤ Small gears can push bigger gears which make a huge change Thursday, 25 April 13
90. Small cog, Big machine ✤ I’m a small cog in a big machine ✤ Small gears can push bigger gears which make a huge change ✤ Don’t overestimate your size. Thursday, 25 April 13
91. Small cog, Big machine ✤ I’m a small cog in a big machine ✤ Small gears can push bigger gears which make a huge change ✤ Don’t overestimate your size. ✤ Don’t overestimate your abilities. Thursday, 25 April 13
92. Small cog, Big machine ✤ I’m a small cog in a big machine ✤ Small gears can push bigger gears which make a huge change ✤ Don’t overestimate your size. ✤ Don’t overestimate your abilities. ✤ Don’t underestimate your worth. Thursday, 25 April 13
93. Be the change @kongreg8 - http://pizzaboxsoftware.co.uk https://github.com/tsky/kongreg8_os2 Thursday, 25 April 13