Topic 2: Open Source Collaboration
How did different presentations and study cases on open and collaborative coding projects inspire your approach to your contribution?Tags: Open Source collaboration
In open-source projects, contributors can take different approaches to their participation. Some contributors engage in coding and development tasks, contributing new features or fixing issues to drive the project's progress. Others may contribute by providing valuable feedback, testing, or documentation to boost collaboration and ensure the project's usability and accessibility (Hepburn, 2022). Inherently, both technical and non-technical contributions are crucial in open-source projects as it ensures the inclusive nature of open-source.
Personally, I think the contribution approach, whether its code or non-code is greatly dependent on what the project presents as its purpose, needs and case study.
As an example, during my involvement with MindsDB, an open-source project on GitHub that automates the creation of machine learning models for cloud databases, I focused on documentation and product testing as my primary contribution approach. Specifically, I contributed by documenting the testing of API handlers for different cloud databases. I opted for a non-code contribution approach after observing the community interaction and GitHub activity, realizing that other contributors were already working on coding and creating additional API handlers.
I recognized the opportunity to enhance the project's stability by ensuring new API handlers created by other contributors were developed correctly and working as expected before generating more of them. I believe the contribution approach I've made in MindsDB aligns with the project's goal of developing ML models, and covers the needs of the project. (Link to contribution)
Having the open-source project's goals and needs influence your contribution approach is a great way to provide support for other collaborators' contributions because it promotes alignment and collaboration within the project. When you understand and consider the project's goals and needs, you can tailor your contributions to complement and enhance the overall objectives. This helps create a cohesive and coordinated effort among collaborators, as everyone's contributions align towards a common purpose, which further engrains the purpose of open source collaborations.
In hindsight, although contribution approaches are dependent on what the project presents as its goals and needs, I also believe it is dependent on your skillset. Coders new to open-source contributions often start by contributing through documentation since it offers a low-risk opportunity to familiarize themselves with the project. On the other hand, a more experienced contributors often tackle more complex coding issues or propose new features to the project, reflecting their expertise and confidence in the open-source community.
To sum it up, various factors can influence open-source contribution approaches. However, I believe the main factors lay in its foundations, which are: The presented open-source project's goals, needs, and your personal skillset level.
References
Hepburn, S. (2022) How to contribute to open source projects, Snyk. Available at: https://snyk.io/blog/how-to-contribute-to-open-source-projects/ (Accessed: 02 June 2023).
Pontikis, C. (2022) How to collaborate on Github Open Source Projects, pontikis.net. Available at: https://www.pontikis.net/blog/how-to-collaborate-on-github-open-source-projects (Accessed: 11 May 2023).
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