My 2022 OpenMRS

Fellowship Journey

Nikesh Balami

Community Management Fellow

Overview

• Hello! 👋 I’m Nikesh Balami, 2022 Community Management Fellow based in Kathmandu, Nepal.
• I am a strong supporter of open source software and believes in the vision of Open Knowledge to empower citizens regarding technology usage and open data.
• I love coffee chat, tweeting, hackathons, blogging, travelling and open data.

Fellowship Journey

Started a bit nervous with a lot of questions.

Aim was to work closely with the OpenMRS community and dedicate my time to coordination, communication, and collaboration.

1. Getting started (Understand the community) - DONE
2. Dive in (Support the community) - ONGOING
3. Retrospective (Reflect the work done) - ONGOING

Mostly work with: Jennifer Antilla (Mentor), Christine Gichuki, Fellows, Fellow Mentors, Product & Design Squads, and more.

Challenges

Lessons Learned

Understanding the community: Truly the global community. Navigating the work and understanding what they are up to was challenging.

• Overcome: by reading, listening, and attending meetings to get a better sense of the community.

Understanding global map: Truly decentralized. Navigating who lives where and in which timezone was challenging.

• Overcome: by mapping the key contact and using Doodle most of the time.

Be patience: Learning things overnight was not possible, so being patience and letting things go with the flow.

Be transparent: Don't hesitate the share silly ideas/questions and be transparent in the process. Inform the community and ask for a suggestion.

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Achievements

Engagement with fellows: all hands, check-ins, coordination - it's all fun.

2022 UX Design Conference: pulling out the design conference in a short period - kudos to the global event team.

2023 fellowship program: preparing the launch of the 2023 program and implementing new changes.

What’s Next

• Capstone Project: "UX Design Conference and expand OpenMRS Stages". Allocate more time to work on the enhancement of OpenMRS Stages.
• 2023 fellowship program: Help with the preparation of the 2023 fellowship program.
• Retrospective: Reflect on the 2022 fellowship journey and focus on the backlog tasks.

Reflections Until Now

• Smooth experience: so far, have been enjoying the process and learning journey.
• Flexibility: super glad to receive a flexible environment to test and try out curiosity.

Contributions

Resources

• 2022 UX Design Conference
• OpenMRS Fellowship Program
• Fellowship Plan

Blog Posts

• Starting my OpenMRS journey as Community Management Fellow
• OpenMRS Fellowship July All Hands

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Thank you!