DevConf 2023: Talking about packaging in Fedora
My daily job is all about packaging. I wouldn't have believed that such an invisible (for the outsider) topic can employ hundreds people all over the world.
Preparations
This year I wanted to talk at DevConf about something related to my work. That's a new - I have no issues talking at the conferences, but till now it was always community and education-centered. This was the first technical talk I wanted to deliver.
I learned some things on the way!
- live demos aren't the greatest idea of all times. it's much better to have a static code snippets in the presentation and demo with the interested parties afterwards
- researching a new topic takes even 10x more than preparing a topic you're already an expert in - I spent dozens of hours preparing
- rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. 15 or 20 minutes is nothing if you're nervous, get into detailed explanation or jump to another topic in stress
- also, while rehearsing, it's good to note down all weak points and fill in the information gaps. It helped me understand better my own work
- reveal.js is a great presentation framework easy enough for people who don't enjoy digging in css. And publishing it on GitHub takes only a few clicks!
Effects
My talk was called Fedora package update? Assess its impact in Copr