October has been one of the most significant months of my experience as a developer. I achieved one of the goals I had set for myself this year by participating as a speaker at the Codemotion conference in Milan. It was a beautiful experience, being on stage was something truly unexpected. The topic of the talk was about open-source software licensing, a crucial and often overlooked theme in recent years. I believe that every developer approaching a personal or open-source project should have a foundation on this subject. It is essential for creating a safe open-source world. Open-source projects are used by developers for educational purposes, personal projects, or even corporate projects. But how many of us respect the world of open source? How many of us respect the developers who maintain projects that millions of people use every day? How do we approach owners and/or maintainers when we use their projects? Do we respect the author's intentions expressed in the licenses? But, most importantly, do we read the licenses before using a project? I believe that this is the most important question to ask and to respect before all others. The world of open source is a fantastic but also very fragile world that we must take care of. There would be much more to say; I may start writing some guidelines on the subject.

Now let's talk about what this experience meant to me, which does not only concern the moment when you are on stage and engage with people on your topic but involves everything that happens before and after. Thanks to this opportunity, I had the chance to meet other speakers, talk to them, see how they prepare, and engage in discussions on various topics. I think this was one of the most important and enjoyable aspects. I would never have imagined having the opportunity to be among people with much more experience than me and listen to their stories, ask questions, and want to know more. Of course, the price to get here is not small, but I can assure you that it is worth it. There is a world to discover out there.

I also had the opportunity to speak with people to share my experience and listen to the experiences of others. In general, participating in conferences is a boost for our careers, finding many people who, like us, are interested in the same topics while dealing with such different things. Besides this, a fundamental aspect is the preparation for the talk. In my case, the topic was almost entirely new, allowing me to learn about something different from what I do every day. Having a goal helped me stay focused, which is not easy for me in general when studying without a clear goal. Training is continuous in our industry, if one is interested, of course, but for me, it is difficult to maintain it. I often start studying topics that I find interesting but soon abandon them because I don't have a real goal, so I get lost. In this case, of course, I couldn't do that, so as soon as I learned that our talk was accepted, I started studying, discovering a new world unknown to me. I am very satisfied with the journey I have taken to get here. The challenge I had set for myself was not only to be ready to present my topic but to be able to speak in front of an audience, doing it in English, not my native language. And for this too, I invested time and energy to learn to express myself at my best. This was also a great satisfaction, the thing I was most afraid of besides not knowing the topic well was not being able to convey it correctly. However, when I was on stage, I managed to convey the message I had prepared.

Speaking of fears, one of the biggest, probably also experienced by others, is being on stage and having people in the audience who know more than you, fearing judgment, and, above all, making mistakes. I actually think that this is also a good thing; making mistakes is human, and we cannot know everything. Indeed, after the talk, it is an excellent time to compare and even find out if the topic has been correctly interpreted. What better way to learn a subject than in the field? In this case, the field is not the application but talking about it out loud and expressing your point of view. I was fortunate, as I consider it, to be able to talk about my topic with someone I consider one of the most knowledgeable about it before the talk. The fear immediately disappeared, not because I was sure of what I was saying, but because I was comparing myself, one of the most important things for me. I think we should always be willing to compare ourselves to learn better, doubt ourselves and others, giving us the opportunity to continue learning and being open to others.

As mentioned at the beginning, this is one of the most important experiences I have ever had as a developer. I hope there will be others; I know that preparing is very demanding, but the investment is worth the result. This is my story, and I look forward to hearing yours.

Here are the slides from the talk and soon you will find the recording on the Codemotion website.

I hope you enjoyed it, see ya!😎