Dear Selenium, This one is Personal

Dear Selenium,

You are turning 20 this year.. in a few months I say.. Last year we celeberated your 19th.. with some pomp and show... :) well to be specific SOSC.. - the first Selenium Open Space Conference. It went quite well... with various people from various geographies joining us. Might you know such was a dedication of the volunteers that the event ran for whole 24 hours.

Isn't that you have done as an open source solution, connected people across geographies, languages(i am talking about non programming ones here).. but well.. you can show off... you being among the first ones to allow automating the browser using multiple programming languages ... ya ya i know.. i know because I have said so... maybe now... i have lost the count... well lets say ... as many stars in the sky..(thats a lot of brag!!) in my slides when I attempt to teach people about you...!!!!!

Talking about slides, this was my professional life's second talk ever. I was nervous, well I will be honest in here, only one person very kindly listen to whole of my talk. Thank you for listening that day. The slides are here - https://www.dhirubhai.net/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7124243881621151744/

And my first one was also because of you.. at ATA Selenium Summit Pune, the certificate from the event in 2018 adorns my home office wall. ATA, also helped me avail different certifications around you not around you you... around your implementations... (there is more than using Selenium for automating browser for testing.. there is a whole ecosystem to learn), i had to take one certification three times.. sometimes it is so hard to implement you! Why dear Selenium... :) :)

I tried quite hard to find out names of all people who made what you look like today. But there are so many of us out there(my little minuite contributions)..

So today I found out a page which show cases all who made you, making you, making so many versions of you over the years, contributing to this community project.. with whatever resources they have. See this is where you see the names - https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/about/copyright/#license

And if the one reading this article, if you want to join the bandwagon, see this link to hop over -https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/about/contributing/

Through these years, there has been multitude of conferences around you, the last main conference happened in Chicago USA -https://seleniumconf.com/, a very interesting video from that conference, if you haven't see yet do check out- https://youtu.be/uxczD4fgxiQ?si=LTSj7qCJuwdqoohJ, besides all the talks. And the playlist which is available at youtube for various selenium conferences, once can access here - https://www.youtube.com/user/seleniumconf/videos

and some from here as well -https://www.youtube.com/@ConfEngine/playlists

, very soon.. one is happening online Selenium Conference India.. https://2024.seleniumconf.in/. Multiple meetups get announced now and then around you, and solutions in the same boat as you.. like one here - https://www.meetup.com/continuous-testing-meetup-london/

Your latest release 4.21 boasts of 2.4 million active users - https://www.selenium.dev/blog/2024/selenium-4-21-released/, but that all is known about you isn't it...

I have seen so many modes of you, when you were 1 as in version 1, the RC days, to now... all gearing up to BiDi... phase... your journey has been also my journey and like me journey of many others... so i wanted to tell you my story with you. This one is personal Selenium.

I got to know about you, while trying to solve a client's problem for easing out their process of browser automation (I have to admit that thanks to teaching from learned people of the industry, I no longer say Selenium does testing, and well we all learn.. i learnt) so where was I, yes trying to automate browser, using an open source solution, you see people like to save money(also like the flexibility). So I came across you.. but we decided to go with watir, couldn't convince my boss. But I kept finding you. One fine day months later I could convice them to use you for projects. And I am sure there were other factors, them being very smart themselves.

It was because of you, I got my first opportunity to teach people and earn my bread butter, when I decided to venture out on my own.

It was because of you, that I could teach more than thousands of people across the globe, and earn enough in the initial few years when I was very active as a trainer to support my family, until covid happen, when I took a break, my son needed me.

It was because of you, that when being pregnant 5 months, with my daughter Asia's biggest technical publication company gave me the first opportunity to be an author with them, and now I am 4 books old, all my writings are on you... you would be happy to know.. that one of the books... come in the first 10 books on amazon india, now and then for testing :) (what can I do.. you do automate browser so well, that people who have to do that for purpose of testing want to use you :):))

It was because of you, when I lost my will to live, as I was gathering many broken pieces of myself, staring out of the window... one Delhi winters thinking how to kill time, that I started contributing to your documentation. I use to feel sad, while I was researching for my books and my training, when your webpage wasn't the first I use to get. So instead of getting more sad.. I decided to do something about it. And well.. I try to do that once a week, or a month... sometimes.. once in few months.. but i will do more i promise. And everytime I do that I learn, you teach well too dear Selenium.

It was because of you, Selenium that I could get some confidence back again to face the world. Sometimes it is quite devious.. sometimes gentle. I got to know so many wonderful people, because of you!

If I start listing names it may take another day my fingers are now tired... but i feel like going on... currently with constant interruptions of "mumma"... not sure you understand what being a mother is like... oh dear god!

ok so the names I came to know because of you -- the people I came to know because of you, the companies, the solution, the conferences, the meetups, the trainings the books, the book fairs i came to know because of you... here they are ...... :) :) well so many of them and i am sure they all are well aware of who they are... because like me, i am sure they must have met others because of you dear Selenium.

My 24K list of people who took courses on udemy are because of you. I could see my books this year, in New Delhi World Book fair, one of the oldest and largest book fair of the world.. as an author I couldn't be more grateful. My whatever little bank balance is because of you, my identity in this professional sphere I owe to you, and if I can say so my life may be. To say I am grateful is very less dear Selenium. I am grateful that you exists!

Enough said... you know why i am writing to you... well I wanted to wish you a Very Happy turning 20th year. I want to celeberate you and the vast community and people who make the community behind you. And if like me you have a story to share about Selenium, and wish to... do that, I would like to read... and if you have made it here... I am thankful to you dear reader, for bearing up with all these words... sometimes... i write... it helps.. in more than one way to express... i will stop now.

To the creators, to the companies sponsoring selenium project, to the all the PLC, TLC, all committers, conference organizers, publishers, users, learners and most important to the Selenium active community over the last 20 years, my many many thanks. I am grateful to each one of you.

Happy 20th Selenium. May the community thrive! May the community shines! May your tribe grow dear Selenium, and you stay hale, hearty for many many years to come... and remain the beacon of light you are.. !