I'd like to talk a little bit about the OpenMRS community because it is just that; A Community. From the first day I joined the OpenMRS chat room on IRC, I started to make friends with the other hopeful students, as well as the mentors.

The funny thing was, after the SoC dust had cleared and we all found out who was in, and who was out, those friendships didn't change. In fact, one student that wasn't accepted (well, he was, but he was accepted elsewhere as well) is still active in the channel daily! We're all still friends, on IRC, on Facebook, on AIM, and if we lived closer, in person as well.

The great thing about it is, we aren't just friends in terms of programming/working on OpenMRS. We are friends for social reasons. I'd say the conversations that take place between all of us, even the mentors, is 50% OpenMRS and 50% life. The mentors have been a great resource for me personally, not just in terms of my project, but for everything. They are grown adults and if I ever have some obscure life question regarding credit cards, bills, taxes, black magic, etc... I can always ask one of them and get a great answer.

To me, this is the definition of a community. OpenMRS is composed of a lot of different types of people all sharing some very similar, and also very different characteristics and skills. Given this, they are all working together towards a common goal, but at the same time have built a social community that will stand the test of time.

I thought it may be helpful for some people to understand what a typical development session would look like if you were to peek over my shoulder. I'll give you a quick rundown of the myriad of applications/websites/editors/etc that I have open at any time during a development session.

1. Firefox

• Java API - A must!
  
• Gmail Inbox - I like to stay on top of e-mail
  
• BitRock Documentation - To make sure I don't re-invent the wheel...
  
• Various example websites - Sometimes an example is worth a thousand words
  

• I usually have a few projects open, some being test classes, others my full blown GUI's
  

• This is only used for my XML editing; it does a nice job. Although I could probably do this with NetBeans?
  

• Sometimes I'll close this if I'm not working on the installer XML file, but it's been open a lot lately.
  

• #java - Always good to idle and ask questions
• #openmrs - Duh...
  

• Although NetBeans does a fine job of executing code, I like to enter the commands myself a lot of times because often I'll have to deal with files in nearby directories and what not, and I just find it a bit more efficient to do it all in one place. I do the same thing on Linux in that I'll code in NetBeans and then compile/run in the console window.

Hello, and welcome. Beginning on May 28th, I'll be giving daily (hopefully) updates related to my experience during this years Google Summer Of Code. I'm working for a great organization, OpenMRS, which is run by a lot of great people. To find out more about OpenMRS, check out their website here: http://www.openmrs.org Excuse the dust, they are remodeling :)

Over the course of the Summer, I'll primarily give updates related to the development process on my project, an installer application for the OpenMRS system. I will also talk a bit about my day-to-day experiences as a professional software developer. Google Summer Of Code provides a GREAT opportunity to get your feet wet getting paid to do what you love, and for me, that's software engineering. I can't think of a better way to spend my Summer, or any day for that matter, than writing software.

So, stay tuned, and until then, wet your appetite with the OpenMRS main page mentioned above, as well as my developer homepage located at: http://openmrs.org/wiki/User:Zachelko

Until then, take care!

Zach J. Elko