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Contributing to Open Source

Contributing to Open Source

Presented at WordCamp Milwaukee 2012. I make the case for both why you should contribute to open source and how to get started.

Joel Clermont

June 03, 2012
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  1. Contributing to Open Source
    Joel Clermont
    @jclermont
    Thursday, July 19, 12

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  2. About Me
    • Partner at Orion Group
    • PHP, JS, .NET, Ruby, iOS, (Lisp?)
    • Organizer of Milwaukee PHP User Group mkepug.com
    • Organizer of MobileMKE meetup.com/MobileMKE
    Thursday, July 19, 12

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  3. Goals for today
    • Why should I contribute to open source?
    • What types of help is needed?
    • How do I make a meaningful contribution?
    Thursday, July 19, 12

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  4. Why? What’s in it for me?
    Thursday, July 19, 12

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  5. The altruistic reason
    • Give something back to the community
    • How much does a WordPress license cost again?
    Thursday, July 19, 12

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  6. Commercial CMS licenses
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  7. Thursday, July 19, 12

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  8. The selfish reasons
    • Make your own life easier (fix a bug, improve docs, etc)
    • Scratch your own itch (build something entirely new)
    • Resume/career booster (good for freelancers too)
    • Get experience and become a better developer
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  9. Selfish reasons > Altruistic reason
    • But who cares? Everyone benefits
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  10. What? Not just code
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  11. Neckbeard and CompSci degrees are optional
    Thursday, July 19, 12

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  12. Help wanted
    • Documentation http://codex.wordpress.org/Codex:Contributing
    • Translation http://codex.wordpress.org/Translating_WordPress
    • Testing http://codex.wordpress.org/Mailing_Lists#Testers
    • Bugs http://core.trac.wordpress.org/
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  13. More than just PHP
    • Mobile platforms are open source too
    • HTML / CSS / JS required for themes and plugins
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  14. Help the larger WordPress ecosystem
    • Plugins
    • Themes
    • Utilities
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  15. How? Ready to dive in?
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  16. How to get started
    • Work on something that interests you personally
    • Follow the coding standards
    • http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Coding_Standards
    • Understand the community
    Thursday, July 19, 12

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  17. Communicate
    • Mailing lists
    • http://codex.wordpress.org/Mailing_Lists
    • IRC
    • #wordpress and #wordpress-dev on Freenode
    • Forums
    • http://wordpress.org/support
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  18. Get involved with the broader community
    • Github
    • Attend events
    • Volunteer to speak
    Milwaukee PHP
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  19. PHP Code Sniffer for WordPress
    • Simple fix, but incredibly useful
    Thursday, July 19, 12

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  20. Search Replace DB utility
    • Didn’t work with my wp-config setup
    Thursday, July 19, 12

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  21. Removing code feels good
    Thursday, July 19, 12

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  22. Learning something new
    Thursday, July 19, 12

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  23. Vulnero (v2)
    • Just started architecture/design
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  24. Useful Links
    • OpenHatch - “training level” for open source
    • http://openhatch.org/missions/
    • WordPress developer documentation
    • http://codex.wordpress.org/Developer_Documentation
    Thursday, July 19, 12

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  25. What next?
    • Start small, but start soon
    • Slides posted on joelclermont.com this evening
    • Contact me for help / questions
    • Twitter @jclermont
    • #devmke (freenode)
    Thursday, July 19, 12

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