Guest Appearances
View more guest appearances
Open Source Spotlight: Building Copilot Extensions with Nick Taylor
🚀 Join us for an exciting Open Source Friday featuring Nick Taylor, the creator of the copilot-extension-template!
Nick is a passionate advocate for Open Source, TypeScript, and serverless computing, with a knack for bringing teams together to achieve great things. In this session, Nick will walk us through the copilot-extension-template, a starter kit he designed to help developers build custom GitHub Copilot extensions. Built on Node.js using the Hono framework, this tool provides everything you need to extend Copilot’s capabilities, with instructions for local server setup, creating GitHub Apps, and testing in Copilot Chat, VS Code, and Visual Studio. Don’t miss this chance to learn from Nick and dive into the possibilities of extending GitHub Copilot. We’ll see you there!
Watch on YouTube 
Why TypeScript is the Most Important Tool in Open-Source with Nick Taylor
In this episode of the Modern Web Podcast, Nick Taylor, Senior Software Engineer at OpenSauce discusses the current state of open source, including the challenges around funding, sustainability, and contributor burnout. Nick shares insights into how open source has impacted his career and highlights the growing importance of tools like TypeScript in the open-source ecosystem.
The panel also discusses the evolution of TypeScript, its widespread adoption, and its role in shaping the modern web development landscape. They explore the nuances between JavaScript and TypeScript, the friction that developers sometimes face when working with types, and how TypeScript has grown into a default tool for many projects.
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction and Co-Host Introductions
00:47 - Guest Introduction: Nick Taylor
01:37 - The Current State of Open Source
02:50 - Funding Challenges in Open Source
03:54 - Open Source Success Stories and Funding Examples
05:35 - Open Source Burnout and Quiet Quitting in Tech
06:43 - Challenges for Open Source Maintainers
07:26 - Motivation and Incentives for Contributing to Open Source
08:35 - Career Benefits of Open Source Contributions
10:11 - Nick’s Journey into Open Source Contributions
12:38 - The Burden of Managing Popular Open Source Projects
14:27 - Hacktoberfest and Low-Quality Contributions
16:14 - Challenges for Beginners Contributing to Open Source
18:01 - The Impact of Hacktoberfest and Mitigating Spam PRs
20:12 - TypeScript's Rise in Popularity
23:16 - Why TypeScript Became Popular in Open Source
25:45 - The Debate Around Static Typing in JavaScript
27:08 - TypeScript vs. JavaScript: Future Considerations
30:21 - The Role of Build Steps in Modern Development Frameworks
33:35 - The Complexity of TypeScript for Different Developer Levels
36:12 - Enum Usage and TypeScript's Type System
38:53 - TypeScript’s Structural Typing and Its Implications
39:47 - Nick’s Contact Information and Closing Remarks
Follow Nick Taylor on Social Media
Twitter: https://x.com/nickytonline
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickytonline/
Github: https://github.com/nickytonline
Sponsored by Wix Studio: https://www.wix.com/studio
Watch on YouTube 
Build a real-time, multiplayer web app
Sponsored by PartyKit. Click this link so they know you heard about 'em from me: https://lwj.dev/partykit
4 web devs had 4 hours to build a real-time, multiplayer web app that is NOT a chat or drawing app using PartyKit as part of the build. @nickytonline, Zeu, and @steveruizok joined and built absolutely incredible apps.
Technologies used include Astro, TypeScript, the Web Audio API, SvelteKit, Tailwind, JavaScript, plain CSS, and more!
➡️ MEET THE WEB DEVS:
Nick Taylor (@nickytonline)
Steve Ruiz (@steveruizok)
Zeu
Jason Lengstorf
Watch on YouTube 
Nick Taylor on making open source contributions | Fireside Chats by Shruti Kapoor
In a world where we see amazing things people do, we forget everyone faces tough times. It's easy to feel alone when we only see others doing great. But in these talks, inspiring tech people share their own tough moments and victories. They want you to know you're not the only one going through hard stuff.
Nick Taylor is a Senior Software Engineer at OpenSauced. He is a big fan of Open Source and has a growing interest in serverless and edge computing.
Video Timeline:
00:00 - What are Fireside Chats?
02:14 - Introductions
08:52 - Getting started with open source
41:02 - Goals for this year
Watch on YouTube 
Coding questions: Problem-solving and working through challenges – Bekah and Nick – Lunch & Learn
One of the primary skills you'll need as a developer is asking good questions. We'll talk about the process of working through a problem and how to ask questions. Because when we ask good questions, we're growing as developers, respecting the time of others, and putting in the work we need to do.
After ten years teaching college English, Bekah graduated from the Flatiron School Software Engineering program in May of 2019 and since then she has started a consultancy specializing in front-end development, created the developer community Virtual Coffee, spoke on podcasts and at conferences, and has continued to mom her four kids.
https://bekahhw.github.io/
Nick is a Senior Software Engineer at Forem, the software that powers DEV working on all things Forem. He is a big fan of TypeScript, JavaScript, (P)React and Node. Once upon a time, he was into C#/ASP.NET. Aside from programming, he enjoys hitting the gym, snowboarding, and a long long time ago, rugby. He is also not a big fan of spiders. He also enjoys contributing to open source.
http://iamdeveloper.com/
Talk recorded on 27 May 2022 as part of Virtual Coffee's Lunch & Learn series.
https://virtualcoffee.io/
https://twitter.com/VirtualCoffeeIO
https://instagram.com/virtualcoffee.io/
Watch on YouTube 
View more guest appearances