Continuing in our Meet the Maintainer series, we have Ian Whitney. Ian is a maintainer of Meshery UI. In this interview, we get to know Ian a little better and learn about his journey as an open source project maintainer and with Layer5 community.
Ian, 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 Ian is and how you arrived at your maintainer role. Indulge us. How did you discover the Layer5 community? What inspired you to stay?
My journey into Layer5 began with a desire to contribute to an open source project during Hacktoberfest 2024. I was looking for a welcoming community that was working on meaningful problems - somewhere I could operate at the intersection of what I already knew and where I wanted to grow. That's when I found Meshery and Layer5. After joining a newcomers meeting, I immediately felt it was the right fit as a place I could explore deeper cloud native topics, a new programming language like golang and contribute to the UI. What inspired me to stay was the emphasis on collaboration and developer growth. Before I knew it, I was actively contributing to Meshery and eventually invited to become a maintainer.
You’re a Meshery UI maintainer. What does being a Meshery maintainer mean to you?
After being a contributor for some time, I looked to the maintainers as leaders that were champions of culture to guide and lift others up to contribute and grow their technical skills and leadership. I hope to be able to continue with this emphasis of helping others grow and develop.
Have you worked with any other open source project? How does Layer5 compare?
I have not contributed to any other open source projects. Meshery was my first open source experience!
Layer5 projects have a number of active, open source projects. You’ve been consistently contributing to a few of them. Which one(s) are you currently focusing on?
I am currently focused on Meshery UI client and the supporting backend and ecosystems.
What’s the coolest Meshery demo you have done/seen?
The coolest demos I have seen always pertain to Meshery Kanvas. The interactive and intuitive UI are really cool to watch.
What is your favorite feature or aspect of UI in this project, and why?
The best feature of the project is the community and being able to explore technical areas with guidance of seasoned contributors.
What is your hot tip for working with Meshery that others may not know?
My hot tip is to just start and develop a habit to keep showing up.
Where do you see opportunities for contributors to get involved within Meshery and Layer5 community?
There are alot of good first issues in the UI repo. We are currently trying to mature our testing efforts around Meshery UI client with playwright. This space is a great space to learn the product and improve the user flows while increasing test coverage.
Let's get to know you a bit better with some quick questions: What's the emoji you use most often? Do you prefer movies or books? Would you consider yourself a morning person or a night owl? Over the past year, what's a project or accomplishment you're particularly proud of?
My favorite emoji is 😀. I prefer books - the more technical the better 😀. I'm a morning person with a cup of coffee. Over the past year, I feel most accomplished by trying to give back as much as I've gained. This includes efforts through code contributions, mentoring, or sharing what I've learned along the way. Being part of this community has shown me the value of collaboration, and I've made it a point to support new contributors, answer questions, and help others contribute. It's incredibly rewarding to see someone you helped gain confidence and start making meaningful contributions of their own.
Do you have any advice for individuals hopeful to become Layer5 contributors or potentially maintainers?
Try to build a habit of learning, contributing and helping others.
The Meshery project moves at an impressive pace thanks to maintainers like Ian. Be like Ian. Join the Layer5 Slack and say “hi".
