Write tutorials for the project, like PyPA’s contributors did.Start a newsletter for the project, or curate highlights from the mailing list.Curate a folder of examples showing how the project is used.Write and improve the project’s documentation.Create art for t-shirts or a new logo, like hapi.js’s contributors did.Put together a style guide to help the project have a consistent visual design.Conduct user research to reorganize and refine the project’s navigation or menus, like Drupal suggests.Restructure layouts to improve the project’s usability.Help community members find the right conferences and submit proposals for speaking.Organize the project’s conference (if they have one).Organize workshops or meetups about the project, like did for NodeSchool.Building those relationships will give you opportunities to work on other parts of the project. My time on the project is mostly spent doing things like documentation and working on branding.Įven if you like to write code, other types of contributions are a great way to get involved with a project and meet other community members. I’ve been renowned for my work on CocoaPods, but most people don’t know that I actually don’t do any real work on the CocoaPods tool itself. You’ll do the project a huge favor by offering to pitch in with these types of contributions! In fact, it’s often the other parts of a project that are most neglected or overlooked. You don’t have to contribute codeĪ common misconception about contributing to open source is that you need to contribute code. Not to worry! There are all sorts of ways to get involved with an open source project, and a few tips will help you get the most out of your experience. How do you find the right project? What if you don’t know how to code? What if something goes wrong? If you’re a new open source contributor, the process can be intimidating. Open source helps people feel agency over their lives and how they experience the world, and that in itself is gratifying. Have you ever seen a typo on a website, and wished someone would fix it? On an open source project, you can do just that. You don’t have to become a lifelong contributor to enjoy participating in open source. It’s empowering to be able to make changes, even small ones Open source offers opportunities to practice leadership and management skills, such as resolving conflicts, organizing teams of people, and prioritizing work. Build public artifacts that help you grow a reputation (and a career)īy definition, all of your open source work is public, which means you get free examples to take anywhere as a demonstration of what you can do. The acts of learning and teaching can be a fulfilling activity for everyone involved. Working with others on a shared project means you’ll have to explain how you do things, as well as ask other people for help. Many people form lifelong friendships through their participation in open source, whether it’s running into each other at conferences or late night online chats about burritos. Open source projects with warm, welcoming communities keep people coming back for years. Meet people who are interested in similar things Whether it’s coding, user interface design, graphic design, writing, or organizing, if you’re looking for practice, there’s a task for you on an open source project. If that’s the case, then contributing the patch back is the best way to ensure that your friends (and yourself when you update to the next release) will be able to benefit from it. When you find a bug in an open source software you use, you may want to look at the source to see if you can patch it yourself. Lots of open source contributors start by being users of software they contribute to. Why do people contribute to open source? Plenty of reasons! Improve software you rely on “Why I love contributing to open source software”Ĭontributing to open source can be a rewarding way to learn, teach, and build experience in just about any skill you can imagine. I think working on open source projects helps me as much as it helps the project! Working on helped me earn many of the skills I later used for my studies in university and my actual job.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |