Layer5 MeshMates are committed to helping community members be successful contributors. MeshMates aid in identifying areas of projects to engage within, working groups to join, and in helping community members grow in their open source and cloud native knowledge. By connecting one-on-one, MeshMates will share tips on how to have the best community experience possible.
Yash, thank you for joining me today. Many people inside and outside of the Layer5 Community have seen the effects of your contributions, but may not know the backstory as to who Yash is and how you arrived at your MeshMate role. Indulge us. How did you discover the Layer5 community? What made you stay?
"Hey Vivek, thanks for having me! One day, I was scrolling through Twitter and saw someone praising the Layer5 community. I was curious, so I checked it out and joined their Slack channel. As a newbie to open-source, I was unsure about many things, but Shivam ( an amazing contributor ), welcomed me and suggested I should attend the Meshery Dev meet to learn more."
"I picked up some issues and started working on them but soon hit a wall. Then one day, Lee Calcote messaged me and said he had me on his intern's list, but noticed I wasn't around the community much. So I reached out to Abhishek and Gaurav for help on how to get more involved. They showed me how to contribute and help others, and then I started attending dev calls, helping others, and making new friends."
”After a while, I received a message from Lee and Gaurav saying that I would look good in the MeshMate logo I was surprised. It was one of the best things to happen to me, but also came with a responsibility to help others in the community and guide them on their journey.
You’re a MeshMate and have been for some long time now. What does being a MeshMate mean to you? What does it take to be a successful MeshMate?
"Being a MeshMate is not just an honor, it is also a responsibility towards the community. MeshMates are individuals who are committed to help other members of the community. This includes ensuring that community members have access to resources, are introduced to other members, and understand the vision and goals of the projects.”
"I have always loved learning in a community because with a community, we can grow together. Similarly, MeshMates always make sure that their mentees are successful along with the project. It's a great feeling to be a part of a community where everyone is working towards the same goal and supporting each other along the way."
What’s the coolest Meshery demo you have done/seen?
"I remember introducing Meshery and Meshmap in my college event. It was an incredibly successful event, and I take great pride in being a part of a community that supports such innovative projects. The response from the attendees was overwhelming, and I am grateful for the hard work and dedication of all the contributors who played a pivotal role in making this project a resounding success. Their collective efforts truly deserve admiration and appreciation."
What is your favorite part of the Layer5 Community? Of being a MeshMate?
"When I joined Layer5 community I got a welcome message with helping instructions so that I can contribute smoothly and I think this shows how much this community cares about their contributors which I like most about Layer5, everyone here is so welcoming and helping."
"Being a MeshMate you get exposure in community which is really good for your growth but this is not best part of being a MeshMate, the best part is the feeling you get after helping someone and being little part of their success."
With the number of people that join the Layer5 community everyday, how do you deal with the continued influx of newcomers?
"Layer5 is big community over 4000+ members on slack and everyday so many people join Layer5 community and connecting with newcomers everyday is really not easy it takes time and your little strength too but as I said earliar, being a MeshMate also comes with responsibility which I enjoy most 😎."
Impressively, you’re also a software engineering intern at Layer5. How did this come to be? What are some personal goals for the next year with respect to the Meshery and the Layer5 community?
"Truelly I never joined Layer5 with mindset of internship after I joined Layer5 I saw here people learning new things as they are working on projects, making growth in their personality and improving engineering skills which is what I actually want. Layer5 offers internships all the time and these internships are offered to those who make impact in community and contribute consistently. After 2 months of making impact and contributing consistently I got mail with offer of internship."
"Layer5 is growing everyday and many people started using Meshery, MeshMap and other projects for their businesses with this growth my personal goal is to work start helping projects in field of Devops and backend and also I like learning and sharing in public so I’ll also try to spread word of what we do here to appreciate everyone's effort."
Now, I’ve heard of Community Badges, but what are these? How many are there? More importantly, how do I collect the whole set?! 🙂
"Haha the way you are making impact in community soon you’ll get all Vivek, Badges are signs of contributors' efforts in their respective fields given by community. There are different badges for different efforts and I have this which represents MeshMate. I would really like to see you getting so many badges Vivek 😉."
"Badges are not also easy to take, this requires your efforts and time towards community and its projects. As I said Layer5 community always wants its contributors' success because with their success it’s layer5's success and badges are one of the ways of recognising contributors' efforts."
Your most often used emoji? Your preference: movie or book? Morning person or night owl? What have you worked on in the past six months that you’re particularly proud of?
"😂 some of my favourite questions, I really like using this 🚀 emoji which represents the feeling of keep doing and keep pushing until it's done. I am mostly a night person, as I feel most productive during that time, although I don't recommend it."
"I worked on different projects of Layer5 and I am proud for all of them though my favorite part is getting Meshery and MeshMap support default dark mode so that user will get smooth experience of using Meshery or MeshMap "
The cloud native ecosystem moves quickly. Keeping up with all the developments can be challenging. How do you stay up-to-date?
"Yes Cloud native ecosystem is so vast and constantly evolving. I think being part of cloud native community helps me stay up-to-date with its fast moving ecosystem and I’ll also suggest everyone to join community from any platform you like Slack, Twitter or your favorite platform "
"As I said Cloud native is so vast so as it’s community too there are so many updated resources available out their on internet by community, which helps me to keep update with Cloud native ecosystem"
What advice do you have for individuals who are hopeful to become Layer5 contributors, interns, or potentially MeshMates?
"Try to come out of your comfort zone. If you are reading this conversation, you are already out of your comfort zone, which is a really good step. Who I am today is because I came out of my comfort zone, which I would also prefer. Lastly, be more helpful towards the community and, most importantly, be consistent. I wish you success."
The open source community at Layer5 is an award winning program and continues to evolve as it grows in number daily. Its projects and activities move at an impressive pace thanks to MeshMates like Yash. Be like Yash. Join the Layer5 Community and say “hi”.
