29 ways to get started in open source

From YAPC::NA 2012, Madison, WI 6/13/2012

Transcript

1. 29 ways to get started
   in open source
   Andy Lester, http://petdance.com/
   Wednesday, June 13, 12
   

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2. Wednesday, June 13, 12
   

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3. Rule 1
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4. You are worthy
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5. What’s a good project
   to help out with?
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6. Best project to help on:
   one you use.
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7. 2nd best:
   one you want to use.
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8. Listen & learn
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9. Listen & learn
   • How does project work flow?
   • Who are leaders? Dictator or committee?
   • What’s being worked on?
   • What does the project value?
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10. Listen & learn
    • Join a mailing list.
    • Read blogs of leaders.
    • Join IRC channel.
    • Attend a user group meeting.
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11. Every project is
    different.
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12. Wednesday, June 13, 12
    

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13. Bug management
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14. Report a bug.
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15. Enhance a bug report.
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16. A bug ticket is not a
    static document!
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17. Enhance a bug report.
    • “I recreated this on Ubuntu with the 1.6
    release per the ticket. On Mac OS X, it
    also failed, but with a different error
    message and with a stack trace.”
    • (And give the message and contents of the
    stack trace!)
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18. Isolate a bug.
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19. Isolate a bug.
    • “I was not able to recreate this under
    Firefox 11.0, but it does happen on Firefox
    9.1 and Safari 2.4.”
    • If you have a theory, provide it.
    • “I remember reading that Firefox 11 was
    more forgiving in handling JavaScript that
    does X.”
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20. Isolate a bug.
    • Be careful you are clear what is theory and
    guessing, and what is fact you’ve proven.
    • Avoid sweeping guesses.
    • Bad: “This happens with every template.”
    • Good: “I tried this on these seven
    templates: A, B, C, M, N, P and X”.
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21. Write a test
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22. Silence a compiler
    warning.
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23. Close a ticket
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24. Document an API:
    Examples!
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25. Document a process
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26. Fix the website
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27. Translate something.
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28. Tweet some news
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29. Write a blog post
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30. How did you use the
    project?
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31. What worked?
    What didn’t?
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32. Wednesday, June 13, 12
    

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33. Go to a user group
    meeting
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34. Test a beta or RC
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35. Answer a question
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36. Draw a logo
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37. Welcome a newcomer
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38. Talk at a user group
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39. Do what needs
    to get done
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40. Thank someone.
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41. Thank you for listening.
    http://speakerdeck.com/u/petdance/
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