31:T540,--- At the heart of Observable is the community. The people who make up our community create, collaborate, connect, and influence with data. The purpose of the Observable Ambassador program is to partner with community members who are actively using Observable. Learn more about the [Observable Ambassador program here](https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/ambassador-overview). **Previous Ambassador Stories:** [Aaron Kyle Dennis](https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/spotlight-aaron-dennis-observable-ambassador?collection=@observablehq/observable-blog), [Maxene Graze](https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/ambassador-maxene-graze?collection=@observablehq/observable-blog), [Andrea Mignone](https://observablehq.com/@observablehq/ambassador-spotlight-andrea-mignone) --- In August 2022, the Observable team caught up with Andrew to learn a bit more about our Ambassadors' diverse background and interests, as well as how Ambassadors are using Observable at work. First, some quick facts. **Ambassador since:** January, 2021 **Languages and Tools:** HTML, CSS, Javascript **Uses Observable for:** Work and functional programming **Why Observable?:** _Creating a document that can allow someone to execute code with a narrative structure and a highly visual interface using web technologies was very appealing to me._ ---32:Td62,**I'd like to learn a bit about how you use Observable. How did you first come across Observable?**
I'm kind of a non-traditional Observable user in that I love exploring the web development aspect of Observable - exploring the coding space instead of the visual space. I discovered Observable about 2 years ago because of this [notebook](https://observablehq.com/@makio135/creative-coding) by [@Makio135](https://observablehq.com/@makio135). It really inspired me to explore the framework that Observable had built and see if I could create interesting things on it as well. **Why did you choose Observable?**
Creating a document that can allow someone to execute code with a narrative structure and a highly visual interface using web technologies was very appealing to me. **Where does it sit in your tool chain?**
I use it to learn more about functional programming, to learn how to piece together many JavaScript libraries and datasets, and to try to create new kinds of tools for creatives. Top reasons you continue to use it? It's very easy to "spin up" a notebook and try out a concept or idea. It allows me to capture and share my coding experiments. It makes using diverse libraries on the web seamless and fun. **What would make your experience better?**
While Observable has some built-in functionality, much of its utility comes from importing say NPM packages. This process is very tedious and error prone. Observable needs to create a dead simple package manager containing a big list of components from say NPM and beyond that just "work" out of the box, and do not force the notebook writer to spend more time trying to get some package to import than doing the work that they want it to do. **Before you used Observable, what challenges were you having with:**
- Discovering the data - I don't work much with data visualization like many users of Observable do. I've actually discovered more about data just by looking at other's notebooks. - Being able to access the data - Looking at the list of [recent](https://observablehq.com/recent) notebooks, I learn so much every day. - Collaborating with your data - While it sounds fun and interesting to be online at the same time as someone else and collaborating on some notebook, I've never really run into a use case for that. But the comments feature is nice, and the ability to fork a notebook, make changes, then suggest those changes back to the original author is powerful. **How did Observable help you in your data work?**
1. Solve data discovery and access issues 2. Makes processes simpler 3. Helps you test ideas 4. Community The learning curve for Observable was very high. I almost left the community because I didn't understand functional programming concepts, which are at the heart of Observable’s feature set. But then people in the community helped and I stuck around. I wrote an [article](https://dev.to/triptych/observable-discovering-a-new-world-1egc) about how I went from 0 to 100%. **Has Observable lead to any interesting discoveries that may not have been possible otherwise? **
I have learned that there is a layer of development beyond just simple JavaScript functions and dom manipulation that many Node.js developers have adopted, but since Observable brings NPM packages to the "front end" I've learned to treat these packages as the handy utilities they are intended to be.33:Tb81,**How does Observable encourage users to explore their data? Can you give some examples? **
1. Building live demos of data APIs 2. Visual tools to query data 3. Exploratory dashboards Observable allows me to dive in and experiment with new notebooks. I thought - I’m gonna make a game. And I built a game. I try to break things. I like that it’s flexible and lets me experiment with narrative storytelling AR, XR things that push the web forward. I created a series of notebooks that pushed me to learn how things work as well as experiment with this new platform : I called it [31 days of Observable](https://observablehq.com/collection/@triptych/31-days-of-observable) - where I did a new goofy thing for one month. **How does Observable’s repository of reusable code components help you? **
I have made it a habit to create "[Hello](https://observablehq.com/collection/@triptych/working-libraries), " notebooks that pull in outside code into Observable as a way to expand the range of things I could possibly do. It's also exciting to discover components built inside Observable by other community members - which saves so much time and opens up new possibilities. For example I wanted to create a zip file of of some code output in a notebook, and I discovered this [jszip](https://observablehq.com/@fil/jszip) utility that already did everything I needed without having to write my own code. It was great to not only use it, but have the feeling I was leveraging someone else's work that they wanted to share. **What other data tools do you use in conjunction with Observable? How do they work together? **
I've used JSON from GitHub as well as datasets from Kaggle.com. Leveraging Observable's built-in handling of CSV, or JSON with the built-in components like table rendering makes using those sources enjoyable. Other tools I've used include VSCode and https://repl.it to build out some prototype I started in Observable. **What are some of your favorite notebooks that you've created, or that you're currently working on?**
You can visit my [collections](https://observablehq.com/@triptych?tab=collections) and see all the types of notebooks I've created. Many of my favorites are listed in the '31 Days of Observable' collection above. My current project is to create a simple RPG in Observable using client side JavaScript called [Oubliette](https://observablehq.com/@triptych/oubliette_beta?collection=@triptych/croquet). **What are some of your favorite notebooks by other users?**
As I mentioned before, Lionel Radisson ([makio135](https://observablehq.com/@makio135)) has been a major inspiration for me. I posted several of my favorite notebooks in a [mini blog collection](https://observablehq.com/collection/@triptych/creatives-log). I really enjoy visiting Observable every day and just exploring all the cool, creative, and visually interesting notebooks that folks are publishing. 34:[{"id":"b8d917815cceacb883fa4812bdde0161aa03b5c353c1ec40415f3c01cb3cbc29381640fee62cc0bc5d2e5cf4b2076ce27d597bc0746567a0fc681334a6ba3418","href":"https://static.observableusercontent.com/files/b8d917815cceacb883fa4812bdde0161aa03b5c353c1ec40415f3c01cb3cbc29381640fee62cc0bc5d2e5cf4b2076ce27d597bc0746567a0fc681334a6ba3418","name":"Andrew - Twitter + in notebook.png","type":"image/png","lastModified":1663186124507.017,"size":116561},{"id":"52c8835e1d12e20f8f89c5a3d6c9f41d64b0d69675f547afaecf4b31c2c762b696f14e243c58c9658e232b6aec5f4dfa7d906c3032e591cfabfce1fd7e6d0adc","href":"https://static.observableusercontent.com/files/52c8835e1d12e20f8f89c5a3d6c9f41d64b0d69675f547afaecf4b31c2c762b696f14e243c58c9658e232b6aec5f4dfa7d906c3032e591cfabfce1fd7e6d0adc","name":"p5.mp4","type":"video/mp4","lastModified":1663186124507.017,"size":3124678},{"id":"cd33ec9ca35b293996f7e7e86fdfe1f7fca742b71cca75926f3798c67501e158e72c664123243b63d83db58715852f548da69aeb914b1edea2053b68200d27df","href":"https://static.observableusercontent.com/files/cd33ec9ca35b293996f7e7e86fdfe1f7fca742b71cca75926f3798c67501e158e72c664123243b63d83db58715852f548da69aeb914b1edea2053b68200d27df","name":"Screenshot.png","type":"image/png","lastModified":1663186124507.017,"size":134553}] 2f:{"title":"Andrew Wooldridge, Observable Ambassador, Senior Software Engineer","cells":[{"id":0,"value":"# Andrew Wooldridge, Observable Ambassador, Senior Software Engineer\n## Ambassador Story","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md"},{"id":143,"value":"

","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"html"},{"id":225,"value":"$31","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md"},{"id":44,"value":"**Andrew, thanks for taking the time to share your story! Where are you located at the moment?\n**
\nThanks for the opportunity! I am currently residing in Redwood City, California where I work as a Senior Software Engineer at Ebay. \n\n**What programming languages do you use?\n**
\nI'm a big proponent of vanilla web technologies: HTML, CSS, JavaScript. I'm also a big fan of Svelte as it tries to stay close to vanilla concepts with some smart additions. I also know a bit of GDScript ( Godot Engine ), and I'm learning Rust to do WebAssembly.\n\n**What about your data? Where do you find it and what kind of data are you working with?**
\nI typically work more with logic than data. When I do work with data it's usually in the form of web services JSON, or static JSON from a GitHub repo.","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md"},{"id":244,"value":"

\n \n

Visualization from Andrew's Oubliette Notebook.

\n","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"html"},{"id":228,"value":"---","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md"},{"id":147,"value":"$32","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md"},{"id":249,"value":"

\n \n

Visualizations from Andrew's p5 Game of Life Notebook.

\n","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"html"},{"id":273,"value":"$33","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md"},{"id":230,"value":"---","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"md"},{"id":232,"value":"banner(\n \"Interested in learning more about collaborating with data?\",\n \"Sign up for free\",\n \"https://observablehq.com/product?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nba_data_jam&utm_source=observablehq.com\"\n)","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs"},{"id":234,"value":"import { banner } from \"@observablehq/brand-assets\"","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs"},{"id":237,"value":"import { buttonCTA } from \"@observablehq/buttons\"","pinned":false,"hidden":false,"mode":"ojs"}],"files":"$W34","stdlib":"1","titling":"auto"}