Meeting Carol Chen the Open Source Community Architect at Red Hat at Ansible Community Day Berlin 2023

Ansible Community Day Berlin 2023: A Conversation with Carol Chen, Open Source Community Architect at Red Hat

September 24, 2023

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Introduction

The Ansible Community Day Berlin 2023 was an exceptional gathering of Ansible enthusiasts, where attendees had the opportunity to connect, collaborate, and gain insights into the evolving landscape of automation. Amidst the bustling event, we had the privilege to sit down with Carol Chen, a key figure in the Ansible community, and discuss the strategies and exciting developments in Ansible.

Meet Carol Chen: An Advocate for Community Building

Carol Chen, Open Source Community Architect at Red Hat, advocates for community-driven development and collaboration. With her dynamic leadership, she is pivotal in fostering engagement and interaction within the Ansible community.

The Significance of Community Strategy

In our conversation, Carol shed light on the community’s strategy, emphasizing the importance of alignment and standardization within the Ansible community. She mentioned that Ansible is all about community, and ensuring that all community members share common practices and guidelines is key to its growth.

To this end, she pointed to Greg Sutcliffe’s talk during the event, which provided valuable insights into the Ansible community’s strategy. One notable recent development is the launch of a new forum where Ansible users can come together to ask questions, discuss ideas, and share events. The forum aims to be a central hub for the Ansible community’s diverse activities.

A Call for Collaboration and Feedback

Carol encouraged all Ansible enthusiasts to engage in the community’s ongoing projects and initiatives actively. She highlighted the significance of feedback and collaboration, emphasizing that contributions to the Ansible community are not limited to code but also extend to ideas, discussions, and events.

The Ansible community is dynamic and ever-evolving, driven by passionate individuals who seek to share their knowledge and experiences with others. Carol’s call to action resonates with the community’s collaboration and knowledge-sharing spirit.

Carol also shared information about the Ansible Bullhorn newsletter, which has transitioned to a weekly publication due to the sheer volume of exciting developments in the Ansible world. This newsletter is about showcasing Red Hat’s initiatives and highlights contributions from across the Ansible community. It is a valuable resource for staying updated on Ansible news, releases, events, and much more.

Upcoming Events: Ansible Contributor Summit

As we wrapped up our conversation, Carol Chen informed us about an upcoming event: the Ansible Contributor Summit, scheduled for October 19th. This event focuses on contributions from the Ansible community, offering both in-person and online participation options. It’s a prime opportunity for community members to get involved and help shape the future of Ansible.

Interview

Meeting Carol Chen, Open Source Community Architect at Red Hat

Luca Berton: Hello, friends. I’m here in Berlin for the Ansible Community Day with Carol, who is the community manager nowadays. And please introduce yourself to our

Carol Chen: friends. Hi everyone, my name is Carol Chen and I’m one of the community managers or community architects for the Ansible community.

Luca Berton: Great, thank you so much for these days. By the way, if you missed it, there is a recording of all the presentations, and it was a great day to catch up with some friends and also… After the post-pandemic world, it was great to have a meeting in person, and we are here in this wonderful venue with the surrounding of Berlin and blessed by the sun, so perfect days.

Uh, can you share a little bit about the strategy of the community? I heard about a lot of things.

Carol Chen: Oh, well, there’s a lot to, to, you won’t be in this five-minute video, but there’s, uh, actually watch Greg’s talk. He’ll, he touched about He talked about the strategy of where we’re going and what we’ve done so far this year.

So we’ll be sharing recordings of that. Uh, please watch it. Um, but in general, the new things, the newest thing happening recently, is the new forum that we have. Uh, and I’m sure Greg has talked about it also. And, uh, so we welcome everybody to sign up and join us in the forum. There are a lot of great questions and discussions.

Sharing of ideas, sharing of events. And of course, this event, um, won’t have happened without the community. It’s for the community, by the community. And thanks to even the cameraman who has been helping, yes, to make this event happen. So, um, it’s just a [00:02:00] wonderful, I’m still quite overwhelmed by how wonderful this day went.

And, um, I’m sure I’ll calm down at some point and write a… Proper thank you note to everyone. So, thanks for being here.

Luca Berton: Yeah, definitely. I was super excited to be on the stage and see people we were in real life having some wow expressions when I was presenting some Ideas and stuff. It was super great. I think the most pivotal moment is presenting my newest book.

Thank you for holding. It’s so great I’m sharing this I’m sharing with some friends and, uh, I hope, uh, to hear a lot of honest feedback.

Carol Chen: Yeah, and I’m, I personally, I’m going to read it and give you some honest feedback. So, thank you for this dedicated copy of the book. Um, wonderful. Thank you very much. I’m so honored to have this.

And, uh, please, if you’re interested, uh, share the website where they can get more information about the book. Sure.

Luca Berton: You already know, Ansible Pilot. I want to hear more about the community because, uh, I know that you are running a newsletter that is getting weekly now. Probably, you heard it’s an Ansible Bullhorn.

So, let’s share something.

Carol Chen: Yeah, thanks for bringing that up. So we have a published, we publish a weekly newsletter. It used to be once every two weeks, but we have so much great stuff happening in the Ansible community that we have to now publish it every week. And I want to stress that it’s not about… me or the team putting together the newsletter.

It’s really news from around the community. If you read our newsletter, you see, like, so, and so contribute to this news event. So there’s like a lot of, of course, there are releases, there are collection updates, there are events, there’s like, you know, blogs and books and all kinds of great stuff that the community has put forward to help. The rest of the community.

So please, if you’re not subscribed already, go to, um, search for the Bullhorn, the Ansible Bullhorn, and subscribe to the newsletter to be involved and, uh, hear from the community.

Luca Berton: This is so great. When is the next event?

Carol Chen: Ah, we have one coming up next month, October 19th. It’s the Contributor Summit, so it’s a little bit more focused on, uh, contributions from the Ansible community.

Again, it will be like a hybrid event. We will have. Uh, the physical event is in Durham, North Carolina, in the U.S. But we will provide, like, uh, streaming and ways you can participate online. So, again, follow the Bullhorn or check out the forum, forum. ansible. com for more updates about the event.

Luca Berton: Yeah, definitely. Subscribe to the forum. Can’t wait to see you there. Yes. Let’s automate more!

Carol Chen: Thank you. Oh, very creative cameraman. Thank you. Wow. I love that!

Conclusion

The Ansible Community Day Berlin 2023 brought the Ansible community together and exemplified the power of collaboration, knowledge sharing, and community-driven development. Carol Chen’s insights and enthusiasm underscored the importance of community building in Ansible’s growth and success.

As Ansible continues to evolve, its community members’ contributions and engagement drive its innovation and impact.

Thank you, Carol, for your dedication to the Ansible community, and here’s to the bright future of Ansible automation. Goodbye, Berlin!

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