Far From Home (A 3-Day experience) at the First Ever Open Source Festival (Africa).

Far From Home (A 3-Day experience) at the First Ever Open Source Festival (Africa).

I would love to say thanks before you start reading, this is just a brief scoop on Open Source Festival that Happened in Lagos from 20th – 22nd February, 2020. But before that I’d like to fast track backwards on how I got to attend the event.

This was how it began, My name is Reginald Abie Pepple and I’m a teenager in Bonny Island, Rivers State, Nigeria. I was surfing the internet when I saw the advert for the first ever Open Source Festival Africa, which was to be held in Lagos, but at that time there was no venue, curious as I was I began to read about it, in the process of reading I came across a paragraph where it was stated that fields from all nook and cranny of Technology would be represented so as a newbie web developer aspiring to Advance my learning on Full Stack Web Development I knew that this would be the best time to network, meet people and share ideas, so I told my dad I wanted to attend the event 3 weeks before, but sadly my dad said “NO”.

That statement was pretty devastating for me, I was very sad and angry to the point that I was doubting whether I’m meant to be a Developer. So after speaking with my the Founder of Technoville_ng a startup in Bonny Island that focuses on Driving innovation through technology by name Richard Sodienye Pepple, he said that he’s wants to have a word with my dad, as God may have it my dad said “OK”, so on the condition that He accompanies me down to Lagos and Back. That was how my journey started and I started preparing for #OSCAfrica 2020, lucky enough it was the last $5 ticket available and i bought it. Great right!

So on the 19th of February, 2020 we left Bonny Island, got to Port-Harcourt Successfully, boarded ABC Transportation and we got to Lagos Successfully, this was the longest journey of my life 24 hours on the road just for knowledge, innovation, collaboration… We finally got to Lagos…got settled in and waiting for the start flag to be raised.

Finally, it was Thursday, the wait has finally paid off, got there early, passed through the registration stand and finally got in, everyone can attest to this that they were blown off their feet at the arrangement, the wonderful design tags, the workshop signs, the volunteers, the team members/organizers the environment, Zone Tech Park is a place I’d never forget. I attended my first workshop ever, which was anchored by Emeka Boris @DataKnight (twitter handle) our most awesome facilitator, who introduced himself so as everyone in the workshop. He talked about How to contribute to open source as a Data analyst, by writing Technical Articles, mentoring people, and even speaking at conferences. He made a statement that I’d never forget “For a nation to be very Good in TECH it must first start from the Communities within”, this I’d never forget. Shortly after a message was passed that the tag’s we wore wasn’t just for identification it also has a game which was intended for us to play, by networking with people and as God may have it, Our group was the First Group to Spell “NEXT BILLION CREATORS” using our tags and it was so amazing. Had other workshops but his was spectacular. I made lots of friends like Cynthia Obiagu, Agboola Enny, Hamicch Hayatu, Chiamaka, Fouad Olore, Chrismarcel, Bolaji Ayodeji, 404 Developer, David Adeneye, Tejumade Adetunji and my favorite of all Linda Okorie (she inspires me).

Friday, Day 2: Scrolling through twitter by 4:00 AM in the morning and seeing people’s post stating how ready they are and are just waiting for the exact time to make their move down to Zone Tech Park. At last I and my Boss Richard Sodienye Pepple, got there successfully. We were ushered to the main hall at Zone Tech Park, and I was blown off my feet, for the first time I felt that I was standing in an actual TEDx environment that was filled with people eager to learn and improve. There’s no better feeling than knowing that “Whatever happens, the community is there to back you up, that’s the beauty of being a developer, you can quote this anywhere”. It got to the keynotes which was centered about the importance on “contributing to an open source project” after checking my schedule and I was amazed, having learnt from people I look up to in the Tech Space. Went home with only one thing in mind “You can’t be in tech and be unhappy about life, somehow, in some way, you will meet people who will put smiles on your face”.

Saturday, Day 3: Breadth taking, above everything else, a lot of things stood out for me. Having amazing speakers like Prosper Otemuyiwa, Ben Lesh, Rachel Lawson, Aniedi Udo-Obong and others. They motivated me that contributing to open source is so crucial that if they were job employers they would most likely want to see your GitHub account than a resume. With the Amazing talk from Prosper Otemuyiwa, it’s enough to convict me to start build my open source habit. Thanks to open source Africa for this opportunity to learn. On the long run a competition was set, that the person with the highest tweet for Open Source Africa would win a gift, and as God may have it I won, I was so happy and I’m still happy and I would forever be happy because the world is going to hear what I have to offer.

Its time to step out and increase in value. Its time to create and not just being a user, it’s time to do it and stop expecting someone to do it for me. It’s time to form that open source habit. It is time for me to start contributing to open source. Its time to go out and prosper. Shoot out to the organizers and most especially the sponsors, thanks for making this event an amazing one. I look forward to more saurce from the OS Community.

#OSF #OSCAFrica #Sustain Africa #NextBillionCreators #OSCAFest