Doing Open Source as a Contributor and Maintainer

When I was accepted into Google Summer of Code program, I was a total beginner at Open Source. I did some very small contributions but was still very intimidated by Open Source. I started the program as a student working on the project I proposed with the help of my mentors and community and after it ended I became a maintainer. As a contributor, I had to work on projects I didn’t know much as a maintainer I had to make sure the project was ready and friendly to outside contributors. In this talk, I want to share my learnings and perspective from working in Open Source being in both sides, while sharing some tips on how to start contributing to a new project and keeping a project beginner friendly.

Transcript

1. Doing Open Source as a Contributor and Maintainer Isabel Costa | @isabelcmdcosta
2. Becoming a Contributor...
3. Open Source
4. I want to … Open Source
5. I want to … How to start? Open Source
6. Then one day ...
7. Dec ‘17: First PR during 24 Pull Requests
8. Contributing steps were very simple!
9. Dec ‘17: My first Open Source PR merged! Pull Request: https://github.com/fvcproductions/hire-me/pull/9
12. 3 intense months of working in Open Source!
13. What did I learn from being a contributor?
14. It helps caring about what you’re contributing to
15. There’s a lot of resources and projects you can contribute to
16. Not all projects or communities behave the same way
17. Be honest and set expectations
18. Confidence comes with time
19. You don’t have to code to contribute to Open Source
20. Design
21. Quality Assurance
22. Feedback Credit: http://systers-opensource.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-importance-of-feedback.html
23. Getting the most out of Open Source requires effort
24. Becoming a Maintainer...
25. This can be fun … Open Source
26. How do I maintain projects?
29. How do I maintain projects?
30. Two contributors helped me reviewing a PR!
31. This can be fun … Open Source So is it all fun now?
32. I merged a PR that broke the Swagger Docs!
33. I managed to fix it!
34. A newcomer struggling, didn’t give up! (...)
35. What did I learn from being a maintainer, so far?
36. You don’t have to know everything
37. You can learn from contributors
38. You can get people from a wide range of experience
39. It can be stressful to manage a demanding project
40. You can share work as a maintainer
41. I enjoy giving back to the community and the project
43. This is a 2 way relation!
44. What can we do to help each other?
45. Be patient
46. Be patient Be open
47. Be patient Be open Be kind
48. Contributor Maintainer
49. Documentation Maintainer Contributor
50. Documentation Contributor Maintainer
51. Documentation Contributor Maintainer
52. Documentation Contributor Maintainer
54. A last reflection ...
55. "(...) the world is a better place when everyone takes time to understand one another. (...)" from a completely unrelated YouTube video I saw ...
56. Tha y ! @isabelcmdcosta @isabelcosta isabelcosta.github.io