Category Archives: Community

Named Parameters

Currently an awesome RFC to introduce Named Parameters to PHP is in the voting phase. As I voted against this RFC and some people asked me about my reasoning I thought I share it here.

After this tweet I had some interesting conversations on and off twitter that made me think about my take on named parameters back and forth.

And as much as I like the idea of named parameters I still see one major issue in the currently proposed implementation: Changing Parameter names.

Continue reading Named Parameters

What makes a successful (PHP) usergroup?

Yesterday I met a friend that is also organizing a usergroup. And at one point he referred to his user group as “not that big”. And when I remember correctly that also meant “not that successful”. There are only about 20 people coming to each monthly meeting. And that’s by far not as many as there are in Amsterdam…

That made me think!

Continue reading What makes a successful (PHP) usergroup?

Do I belong on the speaker list of a conference?

Recently a friend of mine wrote about why he didn’t submit to the Call for Papers for a Conference. And – even though the reasoning is absolutely straight forward – I felt that it was wrong. It took a while for me to realize what exactly it was.

I’m not a conference-organizer myself, I only know that it it a tough job. And keeping the balance between known and reliable speakers that help sell tickets and new faces that can become the next reliable and known speakers must be a challenge. And then trying to also have a balanced amount of speakers from usually underrepresented groups1 in tech must be even harder. And being one of those “white males” that seem to be everywhere on tech conferences I can’t feel how it is to be underrepresented.

But I am pretty sure of one thing. When conference-organizers are going through the trouble of doing a Call for Papers it’s not because they already know whom they want to speak or they will reject your talk because they think you’re not good enough! They want bright people to speak! They want people that know their topic! They want people that have something to say! And that might even include You!

There is only one way to be sure that you do not belong onto the speaker list of any conference that has a Call for Papers. And that is by not submitting!

But when you submit, chances are that the conference organizers think that You are one of those bright people they are looking for! That You are one of the people that know their topic! That you are one of the people that have something to say! In short: That You are the right person to speak!

Yes, chances are much higher that you’ll receive a rejection letter. But that happens to every speaker2. But by not submitting you will not even receive a rejection letter.

I know from myself that Impostor-Syndrome has a lot to do with it. But just because you think you don’t belong onto that speaker-panel doesn’t mean that others think different! And that you earned your place “up there”. But for that you have to show that you want to sit up there!

So next time you’re thinking about whether to not participate in a Call for Papers because you don’t think you belong there: Leave that decision to the conference organizers!

Or do you think different?

1whoever belongs to these underrepresented groups is a completely different story!
2https://tessamero.com/blog/open-source-thoughts/item/so-your-talk-wasnt-selected

On inclusiveness

I’m from a country that has a – let’s describe it euphemistically – interesting history of inclusiveness. And perhaps that is why I’m rather riven towards the current discussion about inclusiveness and Codes of Conduct.

When I started to read about whether or not it would be a good idea for a conference to select certain speakers I pricket my ears. How can a conference be inclusive when such persons are allowed to speak there. I could definitely understand that people that think of themselves as better than others or that openly despise different groups of people are not what we want at conferences or usergroup-events.

Continue reading On inclusiveness