Podcast appearances and mentions of ben stopford

This episode focusses on the cultivation of belonging through bioregionalism, a life-way that Ben Stopford has explored on a deep level in North Wales.  Ben is a facilitator, gardener and gatherer, offering the creation of wild-culture gardens and the pollination of foraging for food, medicine and connection to place.  He holds a PGDip in Sustainable Food + Natural Resources and is the founder of Conscious Roots and co-founder of The Kingly Stag.  Ben's group work stems from 'The Work That Reconnects' and contemporary Rites of Passage (vision quest), all guided by a deep-rooted, nature-based philosophy.  This episode is seeded in the merging of our exciting, life-changing course 'Deepen Your Roots', which is a year-long slow-study weaving deep ecology, ‘the work that reconnects', and a folkloric, animistic exploration into the ecological self rewoven with place. It is a course to cultivate profound belonging and purpose.Next enrolment: Imbolc, February 1st, 2024 (we are offering a patron-exclusive discount).Learn more about Deepen Your RootsBecome a podcast patronExplore our 2024 gatheringsContact us or submit your musicFollow us on instagramMusic in this episode was by Mike Howe, Chris Park, Nathalie Nahai and Chiara Gilmore.Support the show

Have you ever been overwhelmed by the number of databases on offer? This week we welcome database expert Ben Stopford as a guide to help us map the database landscape and make sense of it all!Join us as we embark on a journey through the history of databases, tracing the path from Edgar Codd to the multitude cloud-era of options available today. Discover the strengths of various database styles and explore the tradeoffs between general-purpose databases like #PostgreSQL and highly customised ones like #Cassandra or #Snowflake.We delve into the realm of the cloud and the opportunities it brings, both for users and the database vendors themselves. And then we examine the challenges that arise when you're forced to connect multiple databases across an organisation. Should you look at Event Sourcing? Or Event Streaming, and how exactly do they differ?Finally, we look towards the future, discussing Ben's vision of an ideal database and which programming language he would choose to build it in.Kris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/krisajenkinsKris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/Kris on Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@krisajenkins

We are joined by Ben Stopford who explains the importance of building a connection with your garden, for example growing food in your garden, creating a space to sit in peace and connect to nature. Ben talks about how the average person on earth is not flourishing. One of his approaches to help is to become more actively engaged in bioregionalism - reducing your focus down to a geographical region called a bioregion. The idea is you become familiar with what is around you within a 10 mile radius, to help break down the feeling of ‘overwhelm' or ‘where can I start' when it comes to ecological matters. We talk about how we can re-educate ourselves by asking the basic questions such as what is nature, what does it mean to be in the world, what is the self in relation to the world - exploring the ecological Self. Ben talks about how environmentalism can sometimes be viewed at sacrifice - in the quest to become more ecological. However he gives some examples of it actually being the opposite and how it can create a deeper richer connection.We ask the question are we ascending (shifting our consciousness) and does this mean that as a collective we may start to start to move away from commercialism and consumerism?Ben discusses the work of Ecophilosopher Joanna Macy PhD. She talks about 3 stories that we connect to - the ‘business as usual' narrative being the first. Ben also mentions her work on what she refers to as ‘active hope' - and how the masses may feel hopeless over our planet crisis, but by narrowing down the things you can participate in and actually taking action - you can turn this into feeling more empowered. To find out more about her work, go to: www.activehope.infoYou can join Ben on his online platform - all about the ecological Self. Helping you to lean into your bio-region, explore it more fully, explore your connection to the area and your own connection to it. Developing and expanding your sense of self - where do I begin and end? What do you value?You can find out more about Ben by visiting his website: www.consciousroots.co.uk

With experience in data infrastructure and distributed data technologies, author of the book “Designing Event-Driven Systems” Ben Stopford (Lead Technologist, Office of the CTO, Confluent) explains the data mesh paradigm, differences between traditional data warehouses and microservices, as well as how you can get started with data mesh.   Unlike standard data architecture, data mesh is about moving data away from a monolithic data warehouse into distributed data systems. Doing so will allow data to be available as a product—this is also one of the four principles of data mesh: Data ownership by domainData as a productData available everywhere for self-serviceData governed wherever it isThese four principles are technology agnostic, which means that they don't restrict you to a programming language, Apache Kafka®, or other databases. Data mesh is all about building point-to-point architecture that lets you evolve and accommodate real-time data needs with governance tools.Fundamentally, data mesh is more than a technological shift. It's a mindset shift that requires cultural adaptation of product thinking—treating data as a product instead of data as an asset or resource. Data mesh invests ownership of data by the people who create it with requirements that ensure quality and governance. Because data mesh consists of a map of interconnections, it's important to have governance tools in place to identify data sources and provide data discovery capabilities. There are many ways to implement data mesh, event streaming being one of them. You can ingest data sets from across organizations and sources into your own data system. Then you can use stream processing to trigger an application response to the data set. By representing each data product as a data stream, you can tag it with sub-elements and secondary dimensions to enable data searchability. If you are using a managed service like Confluent Cloud for data mesh, you can visualize how data flows inside the mesh through a stream lineage graph. Ben also discusses the importance of keeping data architecture as simple as you can to avoid derivatives of data products.EPISODE LINKSData Mesh 101 courseData Mesh 101 with Live Walkthrough ExerciseIntroduction and Guide to Data MeshThe Definitive Guide to Building a Data Mesh with Event StreamsWhat is Data Mesh, and How Does it Work? ft. Zhamak DehghaniDesigning Event-Driven SystemsWatch the video version of this podcastJoin the Confluent CommunityLearn more with Kafka tutorials, resources, and guides at Confluent DeveloperLive demo: Intro to Event-Driven Microservices with ConfluentUse PODCAST100 to get an additional $100 of free Confluent Cloud usage (details)

Coming out of a whirlwind year for the event streaming world, Tim Berglund sits down with Gwen Shapira (Engineering Leader, Confluent), Ben Stopford (Senior Director, Office of the CTO, Confluent), and Michael Noll (Principal Technologist, Office of the CTO, Confluent) to take a guess at what 2021 will bring. The experts share what they believe will happen for analytics, frameworks, multi-cloud services, stream processing, and other topics important to the event streaming space. These Apache Kafka® related predictions include the future of the Kafka cluster partitions and removing restrictions that users have found in the past, such as too many variations and excessive concurrency as it relates to your number of partitions.Ben also thinks that ZooKeeper will continue to maintain open source servers for highly reliable application distribution. Kafka clusters will still be able to keep the most important data while growing in size at record speed with ZooKeeper, although it will no longer be required with KIP-500 removing ZooKeeper dependency. This upgrade allows Kafka and ZooKeeper to run independently in deployment while Kafka’s cluster capability will increase.Michael expects a continued need for COVID-19 tracking as well as enhanced event streaming capabilities. Ben believes that scalable Tiered Storage for Kafka will increase productivity and benefit workloads. Gwen predicts that databases will become more conventional by the end of next year, leading to new data architectural design with the support of Kafka.EPISODE LINKSKIP-500: Apache Kafka Without ZooKeeper ft. Colin McCabe and Jason GustafsonHow to set up podcasts on AlexaJoin the Confluent Community SlackLearn more with Kafka tutorials, resources, and guides at Confluent DeveloperLive demo: Kafka streaming in 10 minutes on Confluent CloudUse 60PDCAST to get an additional $60 of free Confluent Cloud usage (details)

Materiały dodatkowe:Common mistakes when moving to microservices & cloud, prezentacja Kuby z Confitury 2019, same slajdy można pobrać tutajDesigning Event-Driven Systems: Concepts and Patterns for Streaming Services with Apache Kafka, Ben Stopford, wspomniana w rozmowie książka o projektowaniu systemów w architekturze Event-DrivenThe Influence of Organizational Structure on Software Quality: An Empirical Case Study, opracowanie case study Microsoftu od Nachiappan Nagappan, Brendan Murphy, Victor R. BasiliThe Cathedral and the Bazaar, Eric Steven Raymond, wersja Postscript eseju Erica Raymonda o projektach Open-Source z obserwacji na przykładzie m.in. jądra LinuksaPolecam także śledzić profil Kuby na Twitterze, pojawia się tam sporo ciekawych materiałów i treści.

Gwen Shapira (Engineering Leader, Confluent), Ben Stopford (Senior Director, OCTO, Confluent), and Michael Noll (Principal Technologist, Confluent) meet up to talk all about their last five years at Confluent and the changes they’ve seen in event streaming. They discuss what they were doing with Apache Kafka® before they arrived at Confluent, challenges in event streaming challenges that have arisen, and their favorite use cases. They then talk through what they think the Kafka community is undervaluing and where they think event streaming will be in the next five years. EPISODE LINKSTim’s Budapest Drone Footage Rolling Kafka Upgrades and Confluent Cloud ft. Gwen ShapiraDistributed Systems Engineering with Apache Kafka ft. Gwen ShapiraImproving Fairness Through Connection Throttling in the Cloud with KIP-402 ft. Gwen ShapiraAsk ConfluentApache Kafka Fundamentals: The Concept of Streams and Tables ft. Michael NollBen Stopford on Microservices and Event StreamingThe Portable Wonder Synthesizer Children's Hospital of Atlanta: Helping Healthcare with Apache Kafka and KSQL ft. Ramesh SringeriJoin the Confluent Community SlackLearn more with Kafka tutorials, resources, and guides at Confluent DeveloperUse 60PDCAST to get an additional $60 of free Confluent Cloud usage (details)

Happy 100th episode of Streaming Audio! Thank you to everyone who has listened, subscribed, left a review, and mostly, for sharing our passion for event streaming. We can't wait for the next 100! To celebrate, Ben Stopford (Senior Director of the Office of the CTO, Confluent) hosts an AMA (ask me anything) with Tim, covering 62 questions in total—from his career, his time at Confluent, Marvel vs. DC, and what he looks for in a new hire, to how to nail your next conference talk. We hope you enjoy this special 100th episode of Streaming Audio: a podcast about Apache Kafka®, Confluent, and the cloud.EPISODE LINKSThe Song of the Strange AsceticAvoiding Lock-InBlogs by Ben Stopford Join the Confluent Community SlackLearn more with Kafka tutorials, resources, and guides at Confluent Developer

Microservices are pretty ubiquitous these days. Really “SOA done right,” they reimagine the services pattern in the context of the world we live in today, nearly two decades since the first big service-oriented systems hit production. But what have we learned in this time? There are plenty of war stories. System designers have explored different architectural patterns—REST, events and databases of all types. In this podcast, Tim Berglund and Ben Stopford explore the event-driven paradigm and how it relates to the microservice architectures we build today. Ben dives deep into coupling, evolution and challenges of our increasingly data-oriented culture. He also talks about the future, where data are events and events are data, and touches on real-time architectures that retain the decoupling properties needed to be pluggable, and to evolve. Powerful stuff.EPISODE LINKSDesigning Event-Driven Systems Building a Microservices Ecosystem with Kafka Streams and KSQL

Guest Bio: Ben is a technologist working in the Office of the CTO at Confluent Inc (the company behind Apache Kafka), where he has worked on a wide range of projects, from implementing the latest version of Kafka’s replication protocol through to developing strategies for streaming applications. Before Confluent, Ben led the design and build of a company-wide data platform for a large financial institution, as well as working on a number of early service-oriented systems, both in finance and at Thoughtworks.   Episode Description: In this episode, Phil sits down with Ben Stopford to discuss different kinds of career progress, the future of streaming data between different applications, and the importance of a healthy and positive work environment. Ben also touches on the benefits of learning everything you can from more experienced co-workers, and the power of motivation.   Key Takeaways: (1.02) Phil starts off the episode by asking Ben a bit more about himself. Ben reveals that, unlike most people in the IT profession, he did not study computer science in school but physics instead. He further elaborates that the majority of what he sees as the second phase of his career has been spent working on improving application streaming platforms.   (2.06) When Phil asks for a unique career tip, Ben emphasizes that it’s important to remember that there’s more than one way to progress in your career and that people shouldn’t feel pressured to try to“climb the corporate ladder” by taking management positions that really don’t suit them. He reiterates that you gain influence through respect and that you don’t have to be in management to achieve respect, just be someone who adds value.   (4.36) In answering Phil’s questions about his worst experience working in IT, Ben thinks back to his first job at an investment bank, where he had a boss who was extremely difficult to deal with and would scream at Ben and other employees. This prompted Ben to make a rule to never work for anyone he doesn’t like, and he advises that if a job isn’t right and makes you feel terrible, then it isn’t worth staying at, which Phil completely agrees with.   (6.30) Phil takes a lighter turn asking Ben about his favorite successes, to which Ben replies that he feels a major highlight of his career was forming a team at a different financial institution to find a way to increase its tech efficiency and how the different services of the company shared data. Ben says that it felt like they were on a mission and that it was productive and innovative work.   (8.46) Phil asks Ben what excites him the most about the future of IT and, like many other guests, he’s most excited at how quickly the future is changing and that being in IT means being at the heart of that change. He points out that the future his one-year-old daughter will live in isn’t going to look like anything that came before it and that thinking about it “keeps him up at night,” to which he quickly adds “in a good way!”   (10.45) As they enter Phil’s rapid-fire Reveal Round, Ben sheepishly admits that he started working in IT for the money and that, while he did enjoy being a physicist for a while, it wasn’t making him enough money to survive on.   (11.20) Phil changes tack and asks about the best career advice Ben has ever received. Ben responds that the best advice he ever got was on dealing with difficult workplace situations by taking emotion out of the equation and sticking only to facts. He says that this helps defuse tension but is a lot easier to do in an email than in person.   (12.46) When Phil asks what Ben would do if he was starting his IT career over right now, Ben replies that first, he would start out learning computer science instead of physics, and he would make a point to work at a place that does pair programming so he could soak up as much fundamental knowledge as possible from the more experienced people around him.   (14.28) Phil asks Ben about his current career objectives, to which he affirms that he’s still on his mission to find better and more efficient ways of moving data between different applications.   (15.40) On the subject of the non-tech skill he finds the most useful, Ben brings up something called the Fundamental Attribution Error, which is sort of assuming the worst of people, like that the person who cut you off in traffic is just a jerk instead of someone who might be experiencing an emergency. Ben says that fighting against that urge and thinking more about why people do the things they do instead of making assumptions gives you a more balanced view of the world.   (16.56) To finish things off, Phil asks Ben for any parting words of advice for the listeners. Ben’s advice is to recognize that motivation doesn’t always last, so make the most of it when you have it and to capitalize on feelings of desire and motivation as much as possible.   Best Moments: (3.15) “Autonomy comes, really, from the respect that other people will have for you. If you add value to a company then you tend to get given autonomy.”   (6.08) “Probably nothing affects your life more than the relationship you have with your colleagues and your boss, so that’s definitely worth investing in. And if it’s not right, just cut it. Cut it early.”   (9.52) “Today we’re able to build these much more integrated systems which work on much larger datasets. We have this whole field of heavyweight data technologies and streaming technologies that allow many different applications to coordinate that really wasn’t possible before.”   (14.06) “Go somewhere where you can have a formative experience to learn software engineering techniques, which you kind of have to learn from other people, or through experimentation yourself. But it's a lot easier if you pair with people who know what they’re doing and have been doing it for 20 years.”   (17.05) “Motivation is probably your most precious commodity.”   Contact Ben Stopford: LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/benstopford/ Twitter – https://twitter.com/benstopford @benstopford Website - http://www.benstopford.com/

So, after far too long a hiatus, we’re back on the Magpie Talkshow for a one-off episode where I interview Kafka creator and Confluent CEO Jay Kreps. I’ve been doing a small amount of work with Confluent recently, and through this I got the chance to meet Jay, and I thought he’d make a great guest for the show. So in this episode we’re going to learn about Jay’s own journey in the tech industry, as well as diving into the mindset behind Kafka and where you might want to use it. There are a couple of firsts in this episode. Firstly, it was recorded remotely via video conferencing - I think the audio quality is pretty good, largely thanks to the use of zencaster. I did however have to do more editing than usual but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Secondly We’re also going to be sharing a video of our chat over on confluent's website, and I’ll update this post with a link once it’s available. I do have to apologise for the sporadic nature of the episodes I’m putting out but as is often the case, life get’s in the way. In between our last episode and this one I setup my own company, and left australia for London, where I am currently based. I still plan to publish the occasional episode from time to time, so please do stay subscribed to the feed. Hopefully if things settle down a bit I may get back to a more regular posting schedule! Jay and I talked about a number of things on the podcast, but the main one I wanted to highlight is previous guest Ben Stopford’s really interesting posts on using Kafka for sharing data between microservices. There are some fascinating ideas there which I think can solve problems many of us face when creating finer-grained distributed systems. You can find Ben's posts here: https://www.confluent.io/blog/author/ben/. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the show!

Back in November, again at the Øredev conference, I sat down with an old colleague of mine, Ben Stopford. After starting out in physics (specialising in cosmology no less!) Ben shifted over to computing, where he has been ever since. After leaving ThoughtWorks, he spent much of his time in financial institutions working in the areas of high performance computing and data engineering. Since then he has taken up a role at Confluent, the company behind the Kafka distributed message broker. During our interview we talk about the challenges of handling volume at scale, why Kafka is different to other sorts of message brokers, and which Fortran is the best Fortran! As always, lots of links: * Kafka: http://kafka.apache.org/ * Confluent: http://www.confluent.io/ * Follow Ben on Twitter: @benstopford * From Øredev: Elements Of Scale http://oredev.org/2015/sessions/elements-of-scale-composing-and-scaling-data-platforms * Another of his talks from Øredev: The Future Of Data Technology http://oredev.org/2015/sessions/the-future-of-data-technology