Contribute to Open Source without Being a Programming Genius or a Rock Star

[M Z Karim]

Plenty of people want to get involved in open source, but don’t know where to start. Here are several ways to help out .

I will discussed here different Ways to Contribute to Open Source without Being a Programming Genius or a Rock Star.

Open source software has changed computing and the world, and many of you would love to contribute. Unfortunately, many people are daunted by what they imagine is a high barrier to entry into a project. I commonly hear people say that they’d love to contribute but can’t because of three reasons:

■“I’m not a very good programmer.”
■“I don’t have much time to put into it.”
■“I don’t know what project to work on.”
T
here are three core principles to remember as you look for opportunities to contribute:

■Projects need contributions from everyone of all skills and levels of expertise.
■The smallest of contributions is still more than none.
■The best project to start working on is one that you use already.

The most damaging idea that I’ve observed among open source newbies is that to contribute to open source, you have to be some sort of genius programmer. This is not true. Certainly, there are those in the open source world who are seen as rock stars, and they may certainly be genius programmers. However, the vast majority of us are not. We’re just people who get stuff done. Sometimes we do a little, and sometimes we do a lot. Sometimes it’s programming, and sometimes it’s not.

Most of what makes open source work is actual work, time spent making things happen for the project. Most of these things don’t require the brains or vision of a Larry Wall, creator of Perl, or a David Heinemeier Hansson, creator of Rails. Designing a new language or a web framework may take inspiration, but the rest of what makes projects like Perl and Rails successful is perspiration. This work may not get all the glory, but it’s still necessary, and after a while, your contributions will get noticed.

Start listening
Everything in open source involves other people. You’re looking to join a team, and that means understanding the community and how it works. Walking in to a project and saying “Hi, here’s what I think this project should be doing” is usually not taken as a good thing. Some projects may welcome that sort of approach, but if the project has been running a while, the chances of that attitude being embraced are small. Listening is the best way to know what the project needs.

Join a mailing list: For many projects, the mailing list is the main conduit of communication about the development of the project. On large projects, there are many mailing lists to choose from. For example, the PostgreSQL project has no fewer than 12 user-oriented lists and six developer lists on its mailing list page. I suggest you follow the main user-oriented list and the core developer list in which to start listening.

Follow a blog: Blogs maintained by core developers often give information about what’s coming up in future releases, and what it’s taken to get there. A planet site aggregates news and blog entries from many sources related to the project. If there is a planet site, like http://planet.gnome.org or http://planet.mysql.com, start there. Just search Google for “planet <projectname>.”

Join an IRC channel: Many open source projects have dedicated Internet relay chat (IRC) channels where developers and users hang out to discuss problems and development. Check the project’s website for the details of what the channel is called and what IRC network it’s found on.

[safiqul]

Thanks for the information sir.

[poppy siddiqua]

helpful information.

[arefin]

Good post and very informative for CSE students.

[Narayan]

Good post. helpful one.
Thanks for sharing.

[tariq]

Encouraging one sir..