[1/26/16, 11:09:07 AM] P8: hi Yu
[1/26/16, 11:09:17 AM] Yu Wu: Hello P8! Thanks for connecting
[1/26/16, 11:09:38 AM] P8: no problem! sorry for the delay. was helping someone with a programming issue :)
[1/26/16, 11:09:46 AM] Yu Wu: no problem at all :)
[1/26/16, 11:09:52 AM] Yu Wu: Shall we start?
[1/26/16, 11:10:14 AM] P8: sure! I am ready
[1/26/16, 11:10:36 AM] Yu Wu: Great! I’m wondering how long have you been as a professional software engineer?
[1/26/16, 11:11:42 AM] P8: I first programmed professionally during an internship the summer between my Sophomore/Junior year (2011)
[1/26/16, 11:12:08 AM] P8: But it was only basic web development. Editing HTML/CSS, etc.
[1/26/16, 11:12:27 AM] P8: Summer of 2013 after I graduated, I interned at Okta, where I was on the Software Engineering
[1/26/16, 11:12:28 AM] P8: team
[1/26/16, 11:12:40 AM] P8: I would say that was the first time I felt like a professional software engineer
[1/26/16, 11:12:51 AM] Yu Wu: Got it :), how long have you been working there?
[1/26/16, 11:13:05 AM] Yu Wu: You are currently in graduate school right?
[1/26/16, 11:13:44 AM] P8: I worked there for two years, before leaving to do Grad School, correct :)
[1/26/16, 11:14:02 AM] P8: although between * and Grad School where I am now, I went to *, and interned at *
[1/26/16, 11:14:23 AM] Yu Wu: Awesome. I’m wondering why did you start the “awesome-*” project in the first place?
[1/26/16, 11:15:02 AM] P8: When i was at *, we used * as our messaging service, the same way that many people use HipChat or Slack
[1/26/16, 11:15:59 AM] P8: It was a popular activity to create * bots while there, so I thought it’d be nice to document the ones that I knew and liked
[1/26/16, 11:16:33 AM] Yu Wu: Interesting! Were you collaborating with someone on that or it was just your own interest?
[1/26/16, 11:17:34 AM] P8: I had worked with various people informally on their * bots, but this repo was my idea.
[1/26/16, 11:18:23 AM] Yu Wu: Got it. What are your criteria to include/filter resources included in your repo?
[1/26/16, 11:18:53 AM] P8: Well, it was inspired by the “list” repos, also known as the “awesome” repos that I’ve seen a lot on Github
[1/26/16, 11:19:00 AM] Yu Wu: Yep :)
[1/26/16, 11:19:49 AM] P8: So I wanted to show bots that people would find interesting, useful, and could run themselves. this was sort of a loose filter as I hadn’t actually dived into the source of each bot, but I had seen most or all of them used during my time at Recurse Center
[1/26/16, 11:20:20 AM] P8: These bots were created mostly by participants at Recurse Center, perhaps exclusively so. And I would find out about them through internal wikis that we had or conversations on *
[1/26/16, 11:21:20 AM] Yu Wu: Do you often talk with other people about the * bots, and you just point them to your own repo so that they don’t have to search for those?
[1/26/16, 11:22:33 AM] P8: For the general person, I probably will mention the ones that I used the most. Like RSVPBot and GifBot
[1/26/16, 11:22:54 AM] P8: If someone is interesting in building their own bot, I’ll probably mention those are my favorites, but point them to the repo
[1/26/16, 11:23:04 AM] P8: It’s worth mentioning that I started a * server at NYU
[1/26/16, 11:23:07 AM] P8: where I go to school
[1/26/16, 11:23:11 AM] Yu Wu: Oh interesting
[1/26/16, 11:23:12 AM] P8: since * became open source
[1/26/16, 11:23:24 AM] Yu Wu: Do you have a lot of clients?
[1/26/16, 11:23:30 AM] P8: and I think that’s timed around the same time as I made that repo
[1/26/16, 11:23:49 AM] P8: I think we have about 70 people signed up
[1/26/16, 11:23:58 AM] P8: Although it’s not very active
[1/26/16, 11:24:12 AM] Yu Wu: Do you think the repo helped you communicate with others about *?
[1/26/16, 11:24:36 AM] Yu Wu: I mean at least market *
[1/26/16, 11:25:18 AM] P8: Definitely, when I wanted to start the * server, a lot of people said why not use Slack, and I used the bots as none of my main selling points for why we should go the * route
[1/26/16, 11:25:33 AM] Yu Wu: Awesome :)
[1/26/16, 11:25:47 AM] Yu Wu: I’m wondering do you use other aweomse-* lists as well?
[1/26/16, 11:26:24 AM] P8: I do. In fact, I was helping someone with React a moment ago, and I had referred them to the Awesome-React list for more learning resources
[1/26/16, 11:26:43 AM] P8: When picking up a new language or technology, I basically always go to the awesome list first
[1/26/16, 11:26:49 AM] Yu Wu: interesting, so are you very familiar with the content included in awesome-react?
[1/26/16, 11:26:56 AM] P8: If it’s a new language, I will go to learnxinyminutes as well
[1/26/16, 11:27:27 AM] P8: roughly. it is more my faith that since React is a popular technology that the awesome repo will have good content
[1/26/16, 11:27:48 AM] P8: I have used it to find a Calendar Picker and perhaps a couple other UI components, but that is about it
[1/26/16, 11:28:40 AM] Yu Wu: Beside learning something new, do you often visit those lists if you trying to find some resources/packages to support your work?
[1/26/16, 11:30:02 AM] P8: Sure. For example, awesome-ios is good for finding iOS specific frameworks for logging, unit testing, etc.
[1/26/16, 11:30:35 AM] P8: I was using the python one earlier today to find a good python web framework, and settled with falcon
[1/26/16, 11:30:40 AM] Yu Wu: So for some specific software development tasks, you know that those lists can help you find resources, am I correct?
[1/26/16, 11:30:45 AM] P8: correct
[1/26/16, 11:31:02 AM] Yu Wu: Do you find the resources included in those lists of high quality and very useful?
[1/26/16, 11:31:16 AM] P8: typically the more popular ones are very good
[1/26/16, 11:31:41 AM] P8: I think since there is more curation, although I have never really thought about why
[1/26/16, 11:32:07 AM] Yu Wu: Well people love contribution from others :) when there’s more contribution, there’s more curation
[1/26/16, 11:32:07 AM] P8: Occasionally I will find a derivative list, or two awesome lists for the same technology except one much less popular, and the less popular one is typically not as good
[1/26/16, 11:32:17 AM] P8: Yes. I think you are right :)
[1/26/16, 11:32:46 AM] Yu Wu: Ok, let’s move on. I’m wondering why did you decide to host your curated list on GitHub, instead of other places?
[1/26/16, 11:32:46 AM] P8: When I say more popular, I mean higher start count
[1/26/16, 11:32:57 AM] Yu Wu: yeah I totally got it :)
[1/26/16, 11:33:02 AM] P8: Kk
[1/26/16, 11:33:50 AM] P8: I use bitbucket for my private repos since it has no limit like Github, but Github is the absolute “go to” for open source projects
[1/26/16, 11:34:04 AM] P8: as opposed to say putting this on my website
[1/26/16, 11:34:14 AM] P8: the list changes and benefits from contributions
[1/26/16, 11:34:21 AM] P8: so a repo makes more sense
[1/26/16, 11:34:46 AM] Yu Wu: So do you think that your list is a kind of open source projects, so that it fits the larger GitHub context, right?
[1/26/16, 11:35:25 AM] P8: Yes, definitely
[1/26/16, 11:36:12 AM] Yu Wu: Got it. I’m wondering what do you think are the advantages/disadvantages for the format of chose awesome-* lists
[1/26/16, 11:36:25 AM] Yu Wu: i.e. a long list of items + brief introduction of each
[1/26/16, 11:37:29 AM] P8: I don’t really see any disadvantage, since it is curated by contributors, although I suppose the owner has some power to block out repos he or she doesn’t like
[1/26/16, 11:38:03 AM] P8: I don’t find the descriptions always so helpful. I expect there to only be a small list of the most useful modules sorted by category, and will probably do more research on those that I see
[1/26/16, 11:38:13 AM] P8: It is almost like a high ranking board to me
[1/26/16, 11:38:24 AM] P8: Prior, I’ve used something called like “popularnodejsmodules"
[1/26/16, 11:38:31 AM] P8: where you can search node modules by tag
[1/26/16, 11:38:37 AM] Yu Wu: What about lists like awesome-react that are super long?
[1/26/16, 11:39:13 AM] P8: It is long, but it is broken up into useful sections. There are probably parts of it that I will totally ignore, but I’ve always found the individual sections useful.
[1/26/16, 11:39:28 AM] P8: I suppose this only works with the current state of modules
[1/26/16, 11:39:47 AM] P8: If the module ecosystem grows too large, I am not sure that a list like this will be so effective
[1/26/16, 11:40:00 AM] Yu Wu: Yeah I totally agree
[1/26/16, 11:40:16 AM] P8: Except, the categories stay more or less the same, so if you limit a certain number of items to each category, I suppose it still serves a useful purpose.
[1/26/16, 11:40:32 AM] P8: Another downside is that it is not really so dynamic as a true website.
[1/26/16, 11:41:18 AM] Yu Wu: Exactly :) my concern is that when a list grows too large, it loose the purpose of a place for the best resources
[1/26/16, 11:41:45 AM] Yu Wu: I’m also wondering where did you get the resources included in your list in the first place?
[1/26/16, 11:42:25 AM] P8: Ah, the awesome-*?
[1/26/16, 11:42:28 AM] Yu Wu: yep
[1/26/16, 11:42:46 AM] P8: These were bots I mostly encountered while at Recurse Center, or searching in the Recurse Center wiki
[1/26/16, 11:43:13 AM] Yu Wu: so things you encountered during your work?
[1/26/16, 11:43:36 AM] P8: more or less. although Recurse Center was more like school than work :)
[1/26/16, 11:43:47 AM] Yu Wu: Got it :)
[1/26/16, 11:44:02 AM] Yu Wu: I think I covered all I want to ask. Thanks a lot P8! Really appreciate it.
[1/26/16, 11:44:10 AM] Yu Wu: Do you have any further comments or suggestions?
[1/26/16, 11:44:37 AM] P8: Not as of now, but I think this is great work that you’re doing!
[1/26/16, 11:44:53 AM] P8: I do not think that awesome lists are the first inception of these sorts of lists
[1/26/16, 11:45:03 AM] P8: I’m sure this has been happening in some form for a while
[1/26/16, 11:45:40 AM] Yu Wu: yeah I think you are right, it is a type of digital curation that before hostly happened in librarians
[1/26/16, 11:45:50 AM] Yu Wu: now software engineers adopted this practice and it went viral
[1/26/16, 11:46:20 AM] Yu Wu: My research is to study the nature/characteristics of curation in software engineer’s community and make it better
[1/26/16, 11:47:22 AM] P8: Very cool. I hope I can reach out to you in the future. I certainly hope you are successful, since we all will benefit :)
[1/26/16, 11:47:38 AM] Yu Wu: Definitely let’s keep in touch
[1/26/16, 11:47:51 AM] Yu Wu: if something comes up in the future, can I followup with you?
[1/26/16, 11:47:59 AM] Yu Wu: with more curation questions :)
[1/26/16, 11:48:05 AM] P8: of course.
[1/26/16, 11:48:14 AM] P8: Okay. I will go. Have a great week, Yu!
[1/26/16, 11:48:25 AM] Yu Wu: You too! Thanks, and see you later!