Kiwi TCMS is the proud winner of a $10,000 award from Mozilla, Indeed, Open Collective, Ford Foundation & Simply Secure. Read below for the full story!
At the end of January Zahari alerted our team about the Open Source Speed Dating FOSDEM 2020 event and Alex was very swift in filing the application form. Just as we landed in Brussels, ready to host Testing and Automation devroom and the Open Source Test Management stand, we got the news - Kiwi TCMS has been selected as a participant.
What followed was a very hasty day of preparing a 5 min pitch and rehearsing it as much as possible so we can be ready to present our project. Alex prepared the pitch and made final review and polishing together with Anton. For the record everything was written down on paper, including important facts about the project and schedule - when and where is our slot, how is Alex going to get there, when does he need to leave to be on time, etc. We believe that preparation was key here and that's why our team always tries to be prepared when we participate at events! It was as good as it can get, no more changes!
On Feb 1st all hell broke loose - it was day #1 of FOSDEM, the Testing an Automation devroom was full with amazing speakers and packed with people, watch videos here, there was barely time to eat or drink water and at 5PM Alex had to rush across town to pitch Kiwi TCMS!
Then everything went like clockwork - weather was warm for the season, Alex decided to walk from ULB to La Tricoterie, both so he doesn't get stuck in traffic but also to regulate stress level and be clear minded for what comes next. He arrived just on time to meet with new folks and have a glass of wine before taking his turn with the judges.
Open Source Speed Dating is a format where projects pitch to a team of 3 judges who then follow up with various questions. Their goal is to assess how suitable your project is for the money they are giving away but also how would actually receiving an award help the project. You do get guidance how to prepare and what sort of information the judges are looking for. However you have no idea who the other participants are and who are you competing against! All you have is a 15 minutes slot where you have to give the best of you and hope it is enough.
Afterwards we reunited together, did even more walking, played the SPACESHIP at Let Me Out escape room and finished with a mandatory team dinner in the hearth of Brussels.
Following an internal selection process and due diligence we finally received the award. $10,000 for open source!
As a side note we also got to know who the other winners are, which can be seen from Open Source Speed Dating records: F-Droid, ossia, MNT Research GmbH and Kiwi TCMS!
We’re giving all of it to our community
All money from the Kiwi TCMS Collective will be going towards funding development tasks. Like Alex told the judges - this will help us enable more hands working on Kiwi TCMS and complete pending work faster. Stay tuned for our bounty program announcement!
Happy testing!