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Open Source from the Trenches

Open Source from the Trenches

How to get involved and be successful in open source land.

Chris Aniszczyk

February 12, 2010
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  1. Open Source from the Trenches How to get involved and

    be successful Chris Aniszczyk - @cra http://aniszczyk.org
  2. Eclipse hacker/evangelist at Red Hat Involved heavily at Eclipse. From

    committing to leading Eclipse Foundation Board of Directors Hacking on open source for the last several years... Gentoo Linux, Eclipse, Fedora, etc... IBM -> Self Employed -> EclipseSource -> Red Hat I get paid to work on open source software
  3. “How do I get involved with open source and get

    good at it so I can get a job?”
  4. At first, I was like... WTF What do I know?

    He said there’s no practical “getting started with open source” guide out there...
  5. He wants practical advice... If I’m giving advice, I’ll do

    it the open source way and share it with the world
  6. Find open source projects that are newbie-friendly Don’t get distracted

    with SF.net and other project hosting sites...
  7. Look at Google’s Summer of Code list of mentoring organizations...

    http://socghop.appspot.com/gsoc/program/accepted_orgs/google/gsoc2010
  8. These organizations have already been vetted and tend to be

    more welcoming to new contributors Which brings me to my next point...
  9. I believe having a mentor is crucial to your success

    in getting involved with open source... Without a mentor you’ll waste precious time...
  10. There are a open source projects out there that have

    mentoring programs... http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mentors http://www.eclipse.org/soc https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU/Mentoring Take advantage of them!
  11. Are you a student? Do Google’s Summer of Code* program!

    http://code.google.com/soc/ *you get paid to hack on open source, that’s beer money!
  12. Many open source projects are meritocracies In order to get

    involved, you have to contribute and build your repertoire
  13. So simply do the work by finding bugs you can

    fix Your mentor can help you find some low hanging fruit...
  14. If you like books, this can give you an insight

    on how some OSS projects are ran http://producingoss.com/
  15. This may be odd to hear for developers, but you

    are a brand and you should control your image
  16. In open source land, things are done in the open

    Be mindful about it Avoid negativity at all costs and kill people with kindness
  17. If no one can find you, how you can expect

    to be successful in an environment that is all about being open?
  18. Get a website & blog Get on Twitter Get on

    GitHub.com Get on IRC Get on LinkedIn.com Share your passion with the world via conversations
  19. In the end, the point is that you have to

    understand you’re a brand and if you want to help your open source career, you need to be findable
  20. Networking is one of the most important things you can

    do for yourself Build a network via conferences and online interactions
  21. Attend conferences, tweetups and meetups There is no better way

    to connect to folks than sharing a frosty beverage in person
  22. Thanks for listening I hope my advice helps Questions? Chris

    Aniszczyk http://aniszczyk.org http://twitter.com/cra