Written by Thea Aldrich, The Zephyr Project Evangelist and Developer Advocate
“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.” (D. Adams)
The power of open source is a beautiful thing. Collaboration, transparency and free access to information creates opportunities, fosters innovation and broadens the realm of the possible. I discovered this when I joined my first open source project almost a decade ago. Since then, I’ve dedicated most of my professional career towards assisting communities with the practical aspects of building and maintaining a sustainable ecosystem around their open source code or data. Over the years, I have had the privilege to work with communities of all sizes and focus areas. With each project, I learned about new tools and discovered new passions. It’s been an adventure with a lot of unexpected twists and turns.
Today, I am thrilled to announce I have officially joined The Zephyr Project. I will support and grow the developer, user and commercial ecosystem as a project evangelist and developer advocate. In this role, I will be working on a number of developer-focused initiatives and activities dedicated towards ensuring that Zephyr continues to be a diverse and vibrant community.
So how did I end up here? The Zephyr Project sits at the intersection of my personal and professional interests. Professionally, I will be able to directly support an incredible open source community that also aligns with my personal interests. A few years ago, while working as a geospatial developer advocate, I began playing around with simple connected devices and reading about the sensors feeding data to geospatial platforms. Around the same time, unrelated life events spurred a move to rural NE Texas where, through a failed first attempt at raising my own beef, I became the proud owner of 4 pet jersey steer. With zero previous livestock experience, I was understandably curious what they were doing all day. So I bought a bunch of sensors, read a lot of Getting Started guides, and began trying to use homemade wearables to monitor the steers.
Long story short, it’s all fun and games until you realize your brilliant idea will require someone to catch a full grown steer every four hours to change the battery pack. It was through researching solutions/completely redesigning that I discovered The Zephyr Project. Zephyr OS solved or improved the odds of solvability of many of the technical issues I was encountering. Not only that but it was open source AND had a welcoming community with clear governance! Needless to say I stumbled upon something more than just an RTOS and I could not be happier to have the opportunity to contribute to this community.
Thank you to everyone who has already so warmly welcomed me. Over the next few months you will be seeing me online and at events. Please feel free to introduce yourself, ask questions, share what you are working on and get involved in The Zephyr Project. I am looking forward to working with you all.
For more information on what I am up to follow me on Twitter at @TheaClay and watch the Zephyr blog and follow @ZephyrIoT for the latest project news and updates.