My name is Diana Todea. I’m originally from Romania and have been living in Spain for the past nine years. I have worked as a Senior Site Reliability Engineer specializing in Observability for the last three years and my OpenTelemetry (OTel) journey began in 2024 with my first community contributions. What started as a simple curiosity quickly turned into a passion for open source. In 2025, my talk about my journey with OpenTelemetry was selected for OTel Community Day, part of the Open Observability Summit in Denver, Colorado. I was thrilled to participate as a speaker, this moment felt like a meaningful recognition of my contributions to the OpenTelemetry project and the broader Cloud Native community.
Key Takeaways from OTel Community Day
OTel Community Day was an enriching experience. From the supporting members of the open source community who organized and ran the event to meeting so many active contributors to the OTel project, the energy and collaboration were palpable.
I attended several insightful talks that highlighted how much the project has grown in just one year. Speakers discussed the current pain points, the project’s direction, and how the community is continuing to drive improvements through new integrations and features. I also had the chance to speak directly with OTel maintainers and offer feedback on areas I believe need improvement. As a member of the #otel-localization-es SIG, I shared updates on our efforts to translate the official OTel documentation into Spanish. It was a great opportunity to invite new contributors to join our localization initiative and help make the project more accessible to a global audience.
Many presentations focused on exciting, upcoming contributions that are just beginning to emerge and will soon become public. Connecting with peers at the event was invaluable, it gave me insight into where I can contribute next and which SIGs could use more support.
My Continued Journey in Open Source
OTel Community Day wasn’t just an event, it became a turning point in my career and life. Inspired by the experience and the community, I decided to apply for the CNCF Ambassador program. I believe this role plays a key part in motivating others to begin their own journeys into open source. Thanks to the support and spirit of the Cloud Native community, I have embraced a mindset of collaboration, mentorship and continuous learning. My career has evolved significantly this year and I’m now focusing more on open source Developer Advocacy and finding new ways to support and uplift the community.
The event reignited my motivation to invest my technical skills in open source, give more talks on OpenTelemetry and other open source projects and share my experience with wider audiences. It’s given me the confidence to continue advocating for open standards and community-driven Development.
Final Thoughts
OTel Community Day truly strengthened my connection to the cloud native and open source ecosystems. It reminded me how impactful individual contributions can be and how important it is to nurture and support the local communities that make it all possible.