Space

And Time

Back at the end of May, I received a notice that I had been selected for the Djangonaut Program. I had applied in early May and was quite unsure what was in store.

Expectations

It's not to say that I didn't have any expectations.

I have been hearing about the Djangonaut Program since its inception, whether through word of mouth or some stray Mastodon toots. (There's even a Talk Python episode with Sarah Boyce, in case you're interested!)

The gist of it involves providing an environment of group learning through collaboration, mentoring, and encouragement. And, as the name implies, within the context of the Django ecosystem and community.

In that sense, I was hoping that, if accepted, I'd have some training wheels toward learning a little bit of Django.

Why Django?

Well, for one, I love the community. And on the technical side, well, even though I have been intimidated by the framework in the past, I still think very highly of how the library is maintained and its focus on providing developers all the tools they need to get the job done.

Commitment

One of the questions that is asked on the application for the program is whether you feel like you'll have the time to devote to the program.

Even though this is a self-paced program, it is still generally expected that you'll commit upwards of 5 hours a week.

Seeing as to how I recently hurt my knee, I figured I'd have more time than usual.

However, what I didn't quite foresee were some rather busy times ahead.

One of those was preparing for my talk at North Bay Python.

While I did know that the talk was scheduled for the second week of the program, there were some other items that came up as well, which I might touch on at a later time.

In spite of that, I was able to join my Djangonaut team when the program commenced, and now that I'm on this side of North Bay Python, I have much more time to dig in.

Unicorn

The Djangonaut program is designed to promote participation in the Django ecosystem of libraries. This includes Django Core, but also other libraries within the space.

I was selected to join Team Venus, which specifically focuses on a library called Unicorn.

The library is maintained by Adam Hill, and he is the "Navigator" on the team, guiding us toward contributions that the team finds interesting.

Team

The Djangonaut Program follows an aeronautic theme. The terms used for people involved serve as apt metaphors in this journey we're taking together.

I find it meaningful because it tends to decouple the stereotypes associated with typical, hierarchical structures (i.e., beginner, trainee, mentor, etc..)

As mentioned above, Adam is the team "Navigator". We need him to guide us into the unknown, but he also needs us to participate in the journey.

Our "Captain" is Marijke Luttekes. She also went through the program last session and provides motivation and support.

The "Djangonauts" (I am one of three) provide the movement and focus based on our own interests and motivations. This will lead to contributions to Django Unicorn.

The relationships are symbiotic and, as a result, create a very dynamic structure.

Experience

So far, my experience has definitely exceeded expectations.

While I still consider myself very much a novice in Django proper, I have been able to dive in as best I can.

(I may write about Unicorn itself at a later time.)

Because contributions come in many shapes and sizes (and many times, that doesn't even involve code), I decided to look at the Unicorn documentation to see where I could fit in.

By going through the steps of getting a Unicorn project up and running, I found that I might be able to help with "getting started" documentation that is geared toward people like myself who may need a little bit more context when using the library.

I also set up a sample project to get a better handle on how the library works.

This, in turn, may lead to additional tutorial documentation, or maybe an actual code contribution in the future.

Either way, the program has eased me into a Django adjacent library, with support and encouragement along the way.

And even though we're only halfway through the program, I have already gained so much.

Conclusion?

This isn't really a conclusion. (It only is in the sense that I'm closing off this post.)

I still have a few weeks left for the program to conclude.

I still have much more to explore with Django Unicorn.

I'm still amazed by the awesome community being fostered by this program.

I am extremely grateful to all the people who volunteer their time to make this space so welcoming (see what I did there referencing my blog title?)

And even when this session is done, I imagine I will stay engaged in some form or another.

Hopefully I see some of you in space in the not so distant future...