From first look to first pull: Contributing to your favorite OSS projects

Quinn Murphy chronicles his journey from a sysadmin who used OSS software extensively to someone who contributes documentation, information, and code to OSS projects. Quinn explains how becoming a contributor can enhance your career as well as your connection to the software you use every day.

Everyone at OSCON has been using OSS for some time, but how many of us have given back to our favorite projects? Like many, I thought that the only way to contribute to the projects that I use and love is to be a master programmer, but what I’ve learned and want to share is that there are big and small ways to become more involved in the projects you love. You can contribute in so many ways! And what’s better is that starting to contribute can get you involved with other people in the OSS community. Even more, contributing can improve your own coding and offer you experience in technologies your job might not make available. As with anything worth doing, numerous obstacles stand in your way: isolation, fear, and time all contribute to you not contributing. I’ll cover ways to get past these hurdles so you can get to that first pull request and begin the path from a user of open source to someone who helps build and support it.