Contributing to Open Source can help you get into the tech field, switch your career or improve your current one. All while helping the community!
The Firefox browser is an example of an Open Source project. It’s made up of thousands of lines of source code and of instructions on how to turn this source code into a usable product, like a Web browser. This code is available publicly, so everybody can fetch it, read it, audit it, or build it. Each person who wants to modify the behavior of Firefox can make changes to the source code and build a customized version. Furthermore, everyone can send those changes back to the project’s maintainers.
But there is more to Open Source projects than just the code. We also have a user interface and graphic design. And yes, even terminal programs such as Vim editor have graphical interfaces.
You don’t need to code to contribute to Open Source!
Aside from the interface, there are also user interactions, usability, and something called User Experience (UX) — all of which have been gaining popularity in recent decades. If you have a background in design, fine arts or psychology you can find your niche with UI/UX. The next thing that comprises a product is the media, including sounds, graphics, or videos. Not all projects have these, but they’re not that rare either.
Documentation,
however, is one of the parts that is often overlooked. An easy way to make a contribution is to improve the documentation. Copywriters should feel at home with those topics. Text assets and translations also present an easy entry.
Then, there’s marketing, which is also often lacking in Open Source projects. If you can fix this, the whole community benefits. Help a project with marketing, and this will also lure more potential contributors.
And finally, there’s the legal part, a rather rare component that mainly concerns huge projects. There are lawyers who deal primarily with Open Source issues, and most of them volunteer their time.
If you can write prose, draw, make music, are a good marketer, or a lawyer: Open Source community needs you!
If you feel incapable of designing, making changes, writing licenses, don’t be scared. You can make another kind of contribution. You can report an error or propose changes to behavior or appearance.
You know what’s best? If every member of the community contributes a bit of time, a bit of effort, and a bit of personal experience, the whole community gains a terrific product, often free of charge.
Don’t feel like a creator? Submit a bug report or issue a feature request!
Why is it worth my time?
Why is it worth contributing to Open Source? Why should you spend your time writing some proposals or code or making translations instead of going for a walk? There are several reasons. All of them stem from the premise that contributing to Open Source is publicly visible. Everybody can see what everyone else is doing. And that’s great!
You increase your competencies
If you are writing a piece of code, designing an interface, or creating graphics, you are learning. This is a great exercise for those looking for a career change. In Open Source, nobody cares whether you work as a senior developer or as a gardener. What matters is the quality of the contribution you can bring. And once you prove yourself in an Open Source project, you will have gained some valuable experience. No longer should you feel like an impostor who just finished a boot camp. You will be an established member of a community with a track record that anyone can check.
This works even if you are stuck with one technology, but imagine your future with something completely else. Say you are a COBOL developer dreaming of landing a UX job? Just start improving UX in Firefox and send your contributions. Once they’re accepted, you can add a new position to your resume: UX designer for Firefox project. You’ve just learned something useful and improved your credentials.
You Improve Your Visibility
When you join a community, such as an Open Source project, you immediately gain new acquaintances, meeting others who are also involved in the project. You can learn from them, and exchange ideas with them.
The second benefit from joining such a community is that all of your other channels automatically become more visible. For example, visitors to the Open Source project you contribute to, can learn of your YouTube channel or find you on LinkedIn to offer you a job.
This brings us to the next point.
It is a common practice nowadays for IT recruiters to check out GitHub in search of new talent. By making your code public you actually create a real-life resume anyone can verify. No need to contact your former employers or clients. And if your GitHub profile links to your LinkedIn profile or your homepage you are easily approachable so the chances of you landing a job of your dreams increase.
Keep in mind, you don’t even need to have commercial experience in that particular field. For those recruiters, your Open Source contributions are just as valid!
You Find New Employees
This also works the other way — you can find potential employees. If you do something that is cool and useful to others , publish it as an Open Source project! There is a chance that someone will want to improve your project or work for you.
You Do Something for Others
Another advantage to being a part of these projects is the opportunity to do something for others and gain their gratitude. All the “thank you” notes you receive will make your time seem more than worthwhile — — and you may have even contributed to an awesome project.
You Get Access to Nice Statistics
Are you a fan of gamification? Then this one’s for you. Some people really like statistics, and for them GitHub offers something special. Each action we take in GitHub — the largest Open Source community — is marked with a green square on a huge calendar. The more things we do any given day, the brighter the square. When we contribute for several consecutive days, GitHub will count it as a streak and keep your score for future reference. This acts as a motivation to beat the best scores so far.
How Do You Find Your First Project?
There are several ways. First of all, the big players like Firefox or Android have a high user base and require a lot of changes and improvements. Once you introduce a change to such a project, your change becomes visible by millions. You can visit GitHub and see what are the most popular repositories.
The final approach I recommend is piggybacking on a huge Open Source event. One such event celebrated each year in October is Hacktoberfest. The participants are expected to make five Pull Requests on GitHub (that is, make five contributions). Everyone who fulfills this task gets nice perks from the sponsors (like t-shirts and stickers). To make it easier for the participants, some example projects are listed on the website.
Another similar event is Google Summer of Code. You can check out a list of projects from the past. Maybe one will inspire you enough to make a contribution! Oh, and then there’s an Awesome First PR Opportunities list!
If you want to sustain-ably contribute to Open Source, find something that you use regularly. This way your contributions will also benefit yourself. This is by far the best way to ensure quality work.
