29 ways to get started in open source

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29 ways to get started in open source Andy Lester, http://petdance.com/ Monday, May 14, 12

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Monday, May 14, 12

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Rule 1 Monday, May 14, 12

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You are worthy Monday, May 14, 12

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What’s a good project to help out with? Monday, May 14, 12

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Listen & learn Monday, May 14, 12

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Listen & learn • How does project work ﬂow? • Who are leaders? Dictator or committee? • What’s being worked on? • What does the project value? Monday, May 14, 12

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Listen & learn • Join a mailing list. • Read blogs of leaders. • Join IRC channel. • Attend a user group meeting. Monday, May 14, 12

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Every project is different. Monday, May 14, 12

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Bug management Monday, May 14, 12

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Report a bug. Monday, May 14, 12

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Enhance a bug report. Monday, May 14, 12

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A bug ticket is not a static document! Monday, May 14, 12

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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!) Monday, May 14, 12

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Isolate a bug. Monday, May 14, 12

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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.” Monday, May 14, 12

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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”. Monday, May 14, 12

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Write a test Monday, May 14, 12

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Silence a compiler warning. Monday, May 14, 12

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Close a ticket Monday, May 14, 12

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Document an API: Examples! Monday, May 14, 12

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Document a process Monday, May 14, 12

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Fix the website Monday, May 14, 12

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Translate something. Monday, May 14, 12

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Tweet some news Monday, May 14, 12

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Write a blog post Monday, May 14, 12

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How did you use the project? Monday, May 14, 12

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What worked? What didn’t? Monday, May 14, 12

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Go to a user group meeting Monday, May 14, 12

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Test a beta or RC Monday, May 14, 12

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Answer a question Monday, May 14, 12

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Draw a logo Monday, May 14, 12

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Welcome a newcomer Monday, May 14, 12

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Write a blog post Monday, May 14, 12

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Talk at a user group Monday, May 14, 12

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Do what needs to get done Monday, May 14, 12

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Just Do It Monday, May 14, 12

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Thank someone. Monday, May 14, 12

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Thank you for listening. Monday, May 14, 12