Flexible, adaptive and still getting the work done
What started as a nice sit-down cup of coffee and a biscuit with one of Sourcefabric’s co-founders in the Berlin office surprisingly turned into a job offer with an immediate start date. I don’t know if it was my background as a front-end web developer at a large magazine publishing house or my interest in art and technology but I must have said something right. It has now been a little over three years since I joined the Sourcefabric ranks as an implementor.
Our man in London
In that time, my wife and I moved back to the UK so that she could pursue a PhD. Despite that setback in our relationship, Sourcefabric and I have managed to make the long distance thing work. This comes as no surprise when one considers that the majority of Sourcefabric’s workforce is spread across 14 countries around the world and still manages to communicate effectively.
How does Sourcefabric fearlessly welcome a new colleague from yet another time zone? We manage our communication via a virtual office provided by software tools (Slack and a full Atlassian Stack mostly) and of course email. This remote communication and coordination is hardly feared; it’s actually normal here. Sourcefabric is nothing if not flexible and, by extension, adaptive.
Not everything can be done remotely, obviously. So, while I have worked with Sourcefabric I’ve been afforded the invaluable opportunity to travel which is something I always told myself I wanted from a job. Several times in and out of Berlin, a few times in Prague, sometimes in the same fortnight, and once each in Belgrade, Cairo and Baku. Sometimes the travel is to something as truly unique as our yearly unconference retreat, Sourcecamp, or it’s more ennobling like training journalists on how to use their new media tools in their own places of work.
Getting the work done
In terms of deliverables, notwithstanding the regular website development work, within the last two years alone I have been involved heavily in many Sourcefabric projects. Some of my favourites are our longform journalism tool Storyteller and UGC verification suite Verified Pixel. Soon I will begin another pass on our UGC media and recompense tracking app Citizen Desk.
Is everything perfect? Of course not. I’d like to see us step up the NGO side of Sourcefabric, taking our software to those that need it most. I’d like to see us partner with more groups who are taking on the current European refugee humanitarian crisis in places like The Jungle in Calais. I’d like to see us be more experimental. I’d like to see us expand into London. I’d like to see us succeed like we deserve to and help like I know we can. We are working on it, and the recent beta release of Superdesk as well as our FWD:media initiative are living proof of that.
Of course, flexibility is a double-edged sword. If your employers are willing to move out of the way for you, sometimes you have to be expected to do the same. I remember one Friday being thrown into a 5pm group Skype call by our founder Doug where he asked us (very politely but insistently) if we were busy that weekend… as it turns out after that meeting we were. Over the next two fourteen hour work days we had built a fully responsive single page application for a really good cause in Asia and a new Instagram plugin for Newscoop. All developed simultaneously in London, Berlin, and Łódź as easily as if it were developed on neighbouring desks.
If I had to tell anyone what I like the most about Sourcefabric, it is that working with this company has afforded me an unparalleled opportunity to help journalists and media professionals who need it most. I like how Sourcefabric is helping me to expand my own boundaries of skills and competence in a friend-filled, exciting environment with the occasional sprinkling of adventure. I can’t wait to see where the next three years takes us.
Interested in working for Sourcefabric? Have a look at our open positions on our jobs page.