The PHP Foundation
The PHP Foundation
I’m incredibly excited to be joining the PHP Foundation as the Executive Director and continuing the work that has been done under the leadership of Roman Pronskiy and the Board. For those who don’t know me, I look forward to meeting you!
PHP was my introduction to open source, when PHP 3 was the latest release. It was mind blowing to see an amazing group of smart, funny people collaborate with each other, help newbies, and build impactful things together while still having fun. People who lived thousands of miles away from each other and who had never met each other. People who had completely different backgrounds and daily lives. People who spoke different languages and lived in different time zones. They all managed to find a way to come together as a community. They wrote code, they organized events, they started local user groups, they built projects together, and they helped each other learn. Forgive my sentimentality, but it was (and still is) magical.
It was this sense of community that fascinated me most, and I found myself moving from PHP development to open source community management. Since officially making that switch in 2010, I’ve worked for companies like GitHub, Sourceforge, and Pivotal, striving to make open source healthier, more inclusive, and better for everyone. I wanted anyone with an interest to be able to join the open source party, bring their unique set of skills, and experience the magic firsthand.
For the last 6 years, I have worked as the Community Manager for an open source project called CHAOSS which focuses on open source community health and sustainability. It has been an unforgettable experience, I’m very proud of what we all accomplished together, and I love that community very much. But as I find my career pivoting back toward PHP, it honestly feels like coming home again.
The progress that has been made by the Foundation in the last few years is remarkable! Moving forward, you can expect to see the same kind of commitment to improving the PHP language and to keeping PHP relevant and sustainable.
In addition, we aim to increase the Foundation’s transparency and openness, and to strengthen our collaborative relationships with users, sponsors, contributors, organizations, and the PHP community at large. A solid and thriving PHP ecosystem belongs to and benefits us all, but none of us can make that happen alone.
Because we’re all in this together, I want to spend the next 1-2 months really listening to what you have to say. I have an open calendar and I encourage you to reserve some time with me. I want to hear from PHP developers, contributors, companies using PHP, independent consultants, sponsors, community members, and anyone else interested in the future of PHP. I want to hear about your goals, your motivations, your pain points, and yes, even your wacky and unorthodox ideas. And if meetings aren’t your thing, that’s completely understandable. You can also send me an email. (I’ll even check my inbox!)
PHP’s secret recipe has always been its community and I can’t wait to be collaborating with you all again!