Meet This Year's Top Committer Nominees

Jason Weathersby

DZone: What are the main things that you do within the community?

Jason: I manage the BIRT Website and spend a good bit of time on the Newsgroup. I co-author the BirtWorld Blog and write articles on how to use the BIRT technology.

DZone: How long have you been involved with Eclipse?

Jason: I have been involved with the BIRT project since August 2005.

DZone: Do you have a favourite project within the Eclipse ecosystem?

Jason: I am glad you asked, and the answer is yes I do and the project is BIRT:> which I believe has a little to offer any developer/Eclipse user, from simple report development, writing event handlers in Java/JavaScript, developing data drivers to deployment.If you have a development interest or just need an awesome report tool, most likely you can find your niche in the BIRT Project.

DZone: In the Eclipse world, what were your highlights of 2008, and what are you looking forward to in 2009?

Jason: I think it was a highlight in general to see our team role out BIRT 2.3, with top notch new features like the JavaScript/Java Event Debugger and new Crostab scripting capabilities. The BIRT team is full of great and skillful committers that have added so many features in such a short period of time.

DZone: What is your full time job?

Jason: I am one of the lucky individuals that gets to spend alot of my time working with the community, as I work for Actuate corporation in our Engineering department as the BIRT Evangelist.

DZone: What do you like most about contibuting to Eclipse?

Jason: Obviously there is a certain amount of pride that comes with contributing to a cool and popular tool, but writing, coding and solving technical issues are challenging and fun in their own right.

DZone: Is it difficult for you to find the time to commit to Eclipse projects?

Jason: Time is always precious in the arena, but luckly I have a job that allows me to devote a lot of time to the project.

DZone: Why do you think you should be chosen as Top Committer?

Jason: I don’t believe I should be chosen as Top Committer. There are a lot great names in this category and frankly I feel honored to be among them, but many others deserve this honor before me.

James is a DZone Zone Leader and has posted 231 posts at DZone. You can read more from them at their website.