"NodeUp: A Level* Retrospective Episode", who's in?

[rvagg]

@Level/core hey folks, @mikeal suggested recently that a NodeUp looking back on the level* ecosystem would be pretty interesting, and I agree, so I'd like to host one!

My thinking is that it should be focused primarily on the ways in which this tiny little corner of open source has had such a broad influence that still echoes today. There's a few levels that this operates on that are interesting:

• Technical & architectural—building databases from small pieces has been a great way to learn about modularity and building technical ecosystems around focused ideas.
• Organisational—the way we managed this evolved rapidly into something that's proven to be very robust for this type of project and it's had an huge influence outside of here, not least in turning Node itself into an "open open source" style project based on the model we built here (with questionable success). I continue to be fascinated by this topic, and my experience with taking it into Node leaves me with many thoughts.
• Personal—this little ecosystem was quite formative for me, and I didn't really understand how important it was for others until I spoke to @dominictarr earlier this year and found he had a similar perspective. I think a lot of us have been shaped by our experiences here and have taken that onward to new adventures.

On all 3 counts, the ripples that we see echoing from here include: Node core, a huge portion of the modern distributed web community and many small ecosystems that have grown up modelling what we pioneered, like https://github.com/request. I also humbly suggest that we may have had some (small) impact on the nature of what today's incarnation of open source looks like and what direction it's moving into the future.

So, given all of that, I'd love to collect a crew who have been involved through the journey for a discussion. Ideally people who have been around from earlier, but certainly not excluding late arrivals because I'm sure you have a very interesting perspective on what you're building on too. Many of us have moved on, and I see that a lot of folks aren't even in @level/core, so I'd appreciate help in recalling names and giving a shout-out here.

Depending on who we get, we'll have to find a time slot that works (which will be hard) in the next month or so. Recording will be via Zoom, I'll record the video and publish the raw version to YouTube (actual video of you isn't essential, but would be great if you're OK with it). An edited down audio version will go up to nodeup.com. Normally NodeUp maxes out at 4 or 5 people, but if we have a big crew I think video will change the dynamic and make it more manageable, so it'd be fun to try!

I'm also considering whether it might be worth pulling in an outsider to moderate, someone who can help pull out the most interesting aspects from us so we don't just end up with one big navel gazing session. I'd love to hear thoughts on who we could pull in and whether we need a moderator at all.

[juliangruber]

Similar to @dominictarr, level has also been crucial to my career so far. Through it I gave my first conference talk, had my first noticeable open source project (which is important for my CV since I don't have any diploma), connected to a lot of developers that I learned a huge deal from, learned how to open source, and 6/9 of my main jobs involved leveldb.

[mcollina]

I'm happy to be part of discussion. I've not being involved recently, but I've been watching from the fringe. Being part of the level community had a huge personal impact for me, and I owe it what I have been doing for the last 5 years.

I consider open open source a success, and the model we have followed to grow the fastify community as well. Scaling open open source is hard, and it's probably worthwhile resuming the discussion and doing a v2 with our learnings.

[mikeal]

I'd be happy to participate :)

[No9]

@rvagg delighted you're revitalizing nodeup it seems to have been quiet this year.
This will make a great episode and I'd be love to join the call if it isn't too crowded.
I was discussing the merits of abstract-level at nodeconfeu this year - There is a lot to share from this eco-system.

Also echoing the previous posts - level has been fantastic to be involved with!!

[ralphtheninja]

I'd be happy to join if you'll have me 😄

Would be cool to have @vweevers with us as well. He's been doing great work!

[rvagg]

of course @ralphtheninja! you've been critical around here for a very long time, and @vweevers has stepped up with you to continue the work so it'd be great to have you both.

[dominictarr]

I'd be keen!