Introducing Twilio Community Developer Megan Speir
Time to read: 4 minutes
August 12, 2015
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An error message regarding permissions abruptly interrupted the configuration flow as I attempted to arrange my Nikon D3200, the Pi, and computer setup. “Quick, sudo!”, I anticipated. Oh no…that wasn’t it.
It was Bootcamp demo day and my career change from public relations to programming had reached its climax. The progression from not knowing what Terminal was to learning Python, frameworks, databases, and algorithms happened in the short span of ten weeks. This transformation led me to build an application I coined, Photo Booth.
The project used a Raspberry Pi to hook up a photo booth interface to a regular old DSLR camera. The fun began with a script to SCP the files to my computer. A subsequent script would occasionally run a ‘watch’ function on the local file system to add new photos to the database for my web app. Along with these images, I integrated the Twilio API to allow users to send SMS messages to be displayed as in-line commentary.
Unfortunately, the Pi would not connect to the network. I tried every password I could think of, as well as reboot both the computer and Pi. Still nothing. The error was incessant.
Panic! You blew it, I thought. My one chance to show the world I could be an engineer.
As it turns out, you definitely get more than one moment. Bugs happen. Despite the broken demo, many of the folks in conversation were excited to hear what I’d tried to “debug” this situation. We walked through the code to show that, in theory, it should indeed perform as it had on my network at home. Luckily the web application ran and, thanks to the Twilio API, displayed text messages piling in.
There was also a thermal printer in the booth spitting out messages to remind people to text Photo Booth throughout the event. People asked very thoughtful questions and provided useful feedback. They told stories exemplifying their own routines of failure. There was a genuine interest in helping me get past the roadblock. As a total newb, their interest was very reassuring.
Lesson Learned
Experiencing derailment is normal. Developers constantly face failures both small and large. The key is to be honest about mistakes and work through them. These occurrences remind you to be humble because there is always something new to learn. By good fortune, there are so many awesome people in this industry to learn from and confide in for support and encouragement. I felt confident to persevere by leveraging my mistake and continuing to reach out to community members at meetups and conferences. I’m honored to now call many of the people I’ve met along the way my friends.
Shortly after the demo day mishap, I was asked to give a presentation. A wave of red hot terror flooded my subconscious. What if I messed up, again?
So what? This was another opportunity to interact with developers and engage in constructive discussion. My first live technical talk, I spoke about Natural Language Processing and showed some code. There were of course some fumbles and mild embarrassment as I wrestled with presentation mode of my computer for the first time in front of people. Yet, the reaction from the crowd was positive.
People came up to me after the talk wanting to know more and revealing lots of information regarding their own research. Beginner’s blunders are often forgiven and mostly embraced. So, don’t be afraid! As you continue to progress, it is important to use those missteps to correct, rehearse, and polish while you proceed to teach others. I went on to give another appearance at PyCon 2014. It was through these experiences I realized what I enjoyed about coding.
A card carrying honest to goodness developer isn’t just a nerd super genius. They are someone with the desire to support others and welcome multiple points of view. This industry is all about the people. The DOers. Those who exchange ideas, tell stories, and propagate wisdom. It is with developers like you that I’ve become better and aim to inspire others and help them discover new people to work with and various tools to try.
Introducing Code and Community
My name is Megan Speir and I could not be happier to be joining Twilio to continue this journey. Not only is it incredible to now work for the first company whose API I ever implemented, but I’m beyond stoked to have found this tribe of like-minded individuals who are dedicated to education and creativity in changing the future of communication forever. We’re fostering an environment where people from all different backgrounds can come together regardless of their skill level or the languages they speak, both natural and programming. It’s exciting to think about the international support we’re working on and the growing number of programming languages we can employ with an insatiable curiosity to learn something new, empower one another, and build together.
As the first Community Developer at Twilio, I am here to serve the community. My mission is to connect developers by creating high fidelity interactions that help you have fun and reach new measures of success. We can accomplish so much by respecting each others’ ideas and allowing for an honest exchange of information. Please ask questions on Twitter and Stack Overflow, tell me what you’re working on, and what your next big idea is. We’re guaranteed to learn from each other as we share our experiences. The dialogue of our diverse perspectives is what makes the intersection of code and community a most excellent adventure!
Email: mspeir@twilio.com
Twitter: @meganspeir
GitHub: meganspeir
Web: meganspeir.com
Let’s get to it!
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