Meet our speakers – André Arko
To make the best out of the few weeks we have left before we kick off ROSS conf Berlin, we decided to do short interviews with all of our speakers, so you can get to know them better. Meet André Arko – maintainer of Bundler.
How did you get into Ruby?
I became interested in Ruby while I was studying computer science in 2004—my university had a very small CS department, and only used C++. I was very frustrated by C++, and stumbled across the first edition of Programming Ruby posted online. I read the entire book, and then found The Ruby Way, and read that entire book, too. A few months later, I convinced some friends to drive for 3 hours to attend RubyConf 2005 with me. I’ve been doing Ruby (along with lots of other things! but at least some Ruby) ever since.
What do you like best about working on Open Source Software? And what do you like least?
My favorite thing about open source is the moment when you discover that your work has helped someone else—my least favorite part is feeling obligated to give support to those other people because your work is NOT helping them.
Any side project you are currently working on?
Bundler is actually a side project! 😬 Along with Bundler, I’m mostly working on Ruby Together, a non-profit company to fund developer work on Ruby open source projects. As a side-side-side project, I’m working with Bundler core member @segiddins on a GitHub bot that manages pull requests, guaranteeing that every merge to master is always a green build.
Personal life hack or tool you couldn't do without?
Probably my iPhone, followed closely by OmniFocus. If I don’t write things down, I never remember them!
You can come hack with André on Bundler at ROSS conf Berlin. Get your ticket if you haven't done so yet!
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