PHP Architect 2019 Contributions
I have not been writing as much this year as I did in 2017, but I do occasionally find time to put something together. This past month, I’ve had two pieces published in PHP Architect Magazine and I made an appearance on their podcast, so I figured I would share and link them here.
Cultivating a Community: Five Things I’ve Learned Running a PHP User Group
In my first year of co-organizing the Chicago PHP User Group, I have learned a lot and met many wonderful people. Combining insights from the community with some of my own, I wanted to pass on some of the things I’ve learned about building and maintaining a thriving technical community. Whether you’re an organizer or attendee, I hope this gives you some insight into what goes on behind the scenes of running a user group.
Community Corner: On Diversity in Conference Speakers
Our systems truly evolve and change for the better when folks privileged by oppressive systems, who might reap some benefits from a destructive status quo, decide they would prefer a better, richer, more inclusive community, and take some of that labor on themselves.
Recently, members of our shared PHP community chose to do just that. Here, I reflect on that choice, how he and others came to make that decision in this specific situation, and why.
I’m especially grateful to Oscar Merida for reaching out specifically to republish this piece from here on my blog. I think this is one of the most important issues in tech today, and a lot of people shy away from writing about it for fear of the blowback (plenty of which I felt).
Running the Chicago PHP User Group (Podcast)
As a follow-up to my article about Cultivating a Community, Eric Van Johnson and John Congdon had me on the PHP Architect podcast to talk about co-organizing the PHP User Group here in Chicago. It was a lot of fun because Eric and John both help run a user group in San Diego, so I learned a lot about their experiences as well.