Contribute to Open Source Projects

4 minutes read • February 16, 2017 • Contribution

The open source community provides a great opportunity for everyone to contribute to various projects. By contributing, you can help create fantastic experiences that people truly love.

Plenty of Reasons To Enjoy an Open Source Community

Improve the Software That You Rely On

Before contributing to a project, it’s important to use the software or product and become an active user. This will allow you to develop empathy. If you find a bug in an open-source software you use, take a look at the source to see if you can fix it. If you can, contributing your fix back to the project is the best way to ensure that you and other contributors benefit from it when you update to the next release.

Improve Your Existing Skills

Whether it’s user interface design, writing, translation, coding, or organizing, you can get involved in an open source project to enhance your skills.

Meet People With Similar Interests.

Almost all open source projects have welcoming communities. You will meet people from different cultures who share similar interests. There are many cases of people forming lifelong friendships through their participation in open source.

Learn From Others, Teach Others, and Find Mentors.

When contributing and collaborating with others on a shared software or product, it is important to be able to explain your processes to others. At the same time, you may need to ask for help and share your knowledge and skills with others. The acts of learning and sharing your experience can be satisfying for everyone involved.

Create Public artifacts.

When contributing to an open source project, all of your work related to open source is public. This means that you have free examples that you can take anywhere to demonstrate what you can do. This relationship fosters empathy and helps you build emotional connections that can grow your career path.

How Can You Be Involved?

There are many ways to become involved in an open-source project.

Planning Events

You can organize meetups, workshops, or conferences related to the project you contribute to.

Designing

  • Conduct user research to refine the product.
  • Improve the project’s usability.
  • Create a style guide to help ensure a harmonious visual design for the project.
  • Additionally, create graphics and other art related to the project’s graphic design.

Writing

  • You can write and improve the project’s documentation.
  • You can create translations and tutorials for the project.
  • You can write tutorials on how to use the product.

Coding

  • You can find an open issue to work on.
  • You can help improve the tools and testing.
  • You can review the code of other contributors’ submissions.

Support

  • In this case, you can blog, answer questions online, or tweet.
  • Also, address and support any bugs related to the issue tracking system.

Attending a Meetup

Since the onset of COVID-19, there have been many virtual meetups.

  • Don’t hesitate to introduce yourself to the project’s contributors.
  • Posting messages online can be effective.

Respect the Code of Conduct

As a contributor, it is important to respect the working conditions of others. Many projects provide documents such as CONTRIBUTORS.md or README.md that outline the rules of the community. It is crucial to read and understand these guidelines, and to follow them accordingly. The main purpose of these guidelines and conditions is to protect the time of the maintainers and the community as a whole. If you are unable to follow these rules, the maintainers may assume that you are careless with your work in general.

Don’t Be Discouraged

Keep in mind that every time you post something online and make it public, you open yourself up to criticism. Whether it’s a photo, an article, or a comment, you are now unprotected. You should welcome some criticism, as it can help you grow. Don’t be afraid to express your opinion.

In our daily lives, we encounter many types of criticism, including unwarranted and toxic criticism that can be found in online communities. Before you start sharing your contributions online, it is highly recommended that you learn how to deal with different types of criticism. This way, you can be better prepared for what awaits you. Try not to take everything personally. In some cases, it’s easy to misunderstand what someone writes in their comments. Take a deep breath and keep smiling!

Get Motivated and Respect the Ideas of Others

Initially, our best ideas may not be the best ideas for everyone. Please keep this in mind. There is no reason to be offended if someone tells you that your ideas do not suit their needs. It’s important to respect every opinion. This can serve as a lesson if you are involved in a similar project in the future. I believe that if you explain your point of view clearly and have patience, you will have more opportunities to incorporate your ideas into the community in the future.

Finding Your Project To Contribute

Contributing to open source can happen at all levels and across all projects. Don’t overthink what your first contribution will be or what it will look like.

You don’t have to limit yourself to well-known communities either. There are many open-source projects available on websites like GitHub, Google Code, Bitbucket, SourceForge, and Firefox.

However, I also believe that open source contribution alone is not enough. As a creative person, it’s important to work on side projects or ideas to keep your emotions and ideas flowing.

List Of Resources

Communities

Also, you can check out this list, on GitHub.

In Conclusion

Working on an open-source project is a worthwhile use of your time. It can also improve your skills. When selecting a project, make sure it is one that you are truly interested in. It’s recommended that you choose a project that solves one of your own problems. You can start by making a small contribution to get the hang of it. If you encounter any issues, don’t hesitate to ask for help. Keep in mind that this is a community of like-minded individuals, most of whom share your passion, and many will be happy to assist you.

See Also

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