For the past few months, I have been immersing myself in the magical world of coding(well, mostly HTML & CSS. I will make you mine, JavaScript! Mark my words!). Just when I thought my thirst for knowledge was quenched by listening to Matt Delac compare CSS to the paint on houses in SheCodes or being a huge Scrimba fan, I was introduced to a whole new fountain…
OPEN SOURCE!!
Exactly Millie. Mind blown!
I was first introduced to open source through a colleague on Scrimba’s Discord community, and it was love at first Pull Request(it was not easy to do, but that’s a blog post for another time).
What are Open Source Projects?
Well, think of OSPs as that Google Slides or Microsoft PowerPoint presentation you had to do for school, but for software engineers, backend engineers, frontend developers, and other folks from different industries.
Still unsure? Well, here are my top 5 reasons why you should participate in Open Source Projects.
Reason #1: Collaboration
You get to meet people from different backgrounds, and more often than not, they are eager to share their approaches to contributing to projects or give you feedback on your work, especially if you are new to open source projects.
Collaborating with others on these projects will help you learn how to work with others and give feedback. When I made my first contribution to EddieHub’s Linkfree project, it felt good seeing my Pull Request merged into the project. It made me feel like my idea mattered. Here it is below:
If you want some tips on how to collaborate on open source projects, check out my Dev.to post, How to Collaborate on Pull Requests for Beginners.
Reason #2: Show off your expertise.
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to be a coder to participate in Open Source projects. Whether it’s drawing, graphic design, or music production, there are so many ways you can contribute.
When I first saw Acessibleforall’s project, I noticed that the YouTube section in their Resources repository was missing video links, so I added some to that area and wrote brief descriptions about them. I also would read through the repo’s documentation to see if there are grammatical errors or descriptions that could use more detail.
If you want some on how to find Open source projects that suit you, check out my other post, 4 Tips for Finding Your First Open Source Project.
Reason #3: Learn new skills
Of course, the major benefit of participating in Open Source Projects is learning new skills. It can range from learning HTML and CSS to experimenting with React.
Through my experience contributing to the documentation in EddieHub and AccessibleforAll’s repositories, I’ve learned how to:
Effectively format JSON and README files via Markdown.
Make a Pull Request
Review other people’s Pull Requests.
Clone repositories via Git
The possibilities are endless!
If you want some tips on how to use Open Source Projects to learn new skills, check out Uma Chellappa’s blog post.
Reason #4: Communication
When it comes to interacting with others, Oprah Winfrey said it best, “Great communication leads to connection”.
Whether you are going to be a technical writer, software engineer, frontend, or backend developer, more often than not, you’re going to be working on a team, so having communication skills is imperative. Whenever I review the documentation of an open source project or someone else’s contribution, I’d always check my Pull Requests and comments for grammar errors.
Conclusion
I know. I know. Participating in Open Source projects can be scary, but the people you meet and the skills you learn from contributing will all be worth it.
Thanks for reading this post! If you find it helpful, give it a like and share it with your friends. Also, follow me on Hashnode and check out my other links on BioDrop. Happy coding! 😊
This post was originally published on Women Who Code's blog by me, Christine Belzie
Credits
Homer Simpson Options GIF by Simpsonworld
Millie Bobby Brown Reaction GIF by Converse
Oh Yeah Yes GIF by Mauro Gatti
Web illustrations by Storyset