Who am I?
My name is Zaid Ajaj, 22 years old and self-taught software engineer working at eSightMonitoring. Currently located in the beautiful city of Nijmegen in the Netherlands. I am passionate just about anything that has to do with programming. I was always fascinated by programming languages and how learning one can change the way you think just like natural languages! This is the reason that I have tried and learned many languages from weird Lisps up to abstract Haskell but finally found my sweet spot with F#. At first, I couldn’t build anything useful with F#, all I could write was a couple of functions that churn through numbers but when I got into OSS, I saw the potential: instead of building applications in F#, I could build tools for other developers to make their life easier and this is what I have been doing for the last couple of years. I am author of many F# libraries, both for dotnet and Fable, some of which you might already be using. Recently I have been mainly involved with the Fable community and it’s ecosystem. Went to FableConf as a speaker where I talked about building web apps with Elmish. Recently gave a talk about Fable in Eindhoven here the in Netherlands. You can follow my github or twitter account @zaid-ajaj to see the latest stuff I have been working on.
When I am not programming, I love to go out my friends. Festivals in Nijmegen are simply the best. I have been a mentor for Erasmus and master international students who came to study in Nijmegen. I am an amateur dancer, learning hip-hop and modern jazz. I enjoy playing counter strike when I have some spare time.
Why I’d like to be on the board
My involvement with F# has always been about the community. Whether it is building tools or writing about F#, it is something I will keep doing regardless of these elections. What I hope to accomplish is to become more active in conferences, meetups and generally “spreading the word”. Especially here in the Netherlands where F# isn’t really popular or even known. I believe being part of FSSF will greatly help me do that whether it is on the organisational aspects of things like organizing our own meetups in the Netherlands or the promotional aspects: introducing F# to teams not as a F# “fan boy” but someone who is deeply involved in the community.
Big thank you!
When I first read the message from Reed Copsey about running for this election, I was both very surprised and honored to hear it! I really appreciate all your support. Thanks a lot!
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I have 2 questions I’m going to ask each Board candidate to begin - but first, a little background:
Historically, the programs managed by the F# Software Foundation have been managed and operated by a Board member. While it’s great to see Board members be actively involved and hands-on (something I highly encourage!), the downside to this is that sustainability of programs has suffered at times. For example, the Diversity Program has been very quiet over the last year, as none of the current Board members have “stepped up” into that role and taken it over since the previous member decided not to run in 2018. We run the risk of this again this year - Gien, who has been the core enabler of the Mentorship Program, has decided not to run for the Board this year, which will leave that program in limbo until somebody is setup to run it or a new approach is devised.
- Are there any programs, either existing or new that’d you’d like to see formed, where you would like to take an active role in helping coordinate or enable?
- Given the sustainability concern mentioned above, do you have any ideas for ways to try to keep more consistency in programs moving forward, particularly as Board members come and go?
- Are there any programs, either existing or new that’d you’d like to see formed, where you would like to take an active role in helping coordinate or enable?
I would like to take a role in the Speakers program, as I have mentioned, talks and meetups about F# in the Netherlands are pretty much non-existent except for a very recent one in Eindhoven, so I would really like to change that. I can help both in coordinating meetups and get speakers. Also, I have given a workshop before at the university once about web development so I might be able to organize more of these but for topics involving F# instead.
Given the sustainability concern mentioned above, do you have any ideas for ways to try to keep more consistency in programs moving forward, particularly as Board members come and go?
The problem seems to be that the sustainability of a program pretty much depends on the availability of a single Board member, so the solution would be to “just” have more people, at least two, working on a program such that when one decides to leave, there would be backup. If there aren’t any more Board members managing a program, a Board member can look for his or her replacement during the year they are running, such that there will be someone to take care of the program in the next year.
