Getting started with open source can be difficult--i am open source is a place to show newcomers that anyone (from any background) can contribute just about anything from a single character typo to a whole new feature. We use the GitHub API to pull in first time contributions from repos that use behaviorbot welcome to welcome new contributors and we curate stories from individuals who have jumped into open source.
@hiimbex wrote a blog post called Gaining my voice in open source and it really resonated with a lot of first timers. Bex raised a couple of concerns that seemed to plague a lot of us who would like to contribute but haven't yet found solid footing to get started. Ultimately, a fear of not having previous contributions and a difficulty identifying with the majority of the community left open source projects devoid of Bex's unique voice and exctiment to contribute. This is a huge missed opportunity for the community and for Bex. @hiimbex and @anglinb set out to help fix this.
A lot of new comers to open source have an idea of what "a contribution" is and what their expected role is supposed to be. However, many of these definitions limit newcomers--fixing a typo in docs or embellishing an under-documented feature is something that no one wants to do but will greatly help future contributors. These kinds of contributions are perfect for new comers because fixing docs is still exciting and command over a language like English might come more natural than command over a programming language. Some people's first open source contribution is helping translate documentations to make a project more accessible to everyone.
Technology as a field has had its issues with under-representation of certain groups. A lot of really smart people are building education and professional programs to help people from under-represented groups gain the knowledge to make it in technology. However, another element of being a contributor is feeling like you belong. We want to use i am open source as a platform to share personal stories from people of all backgrounds and their journey into open source. The hypothesis here is that seeing someone that you identify with because they share your ethnicity, sexuality, gender, etc will help show you that you can identify as an open source contributor no matter who you are.
To get started developing i am open source locally, you'll need to clone the repo and install a few things.
Install
Clone the project and install it's depedencies by running the following commands.
git clone git@github.com:iamopensource/iamopensource.github.io.git
cd iamopensource.github.io
script/bootstrapRun
This will start the server listening at http://127.0.0.1:4000.
script/serverNote: There is a small server component that sits between the Jekyll site and the GitHub API, documentation for that component is in the /server directory.
We welcome contributions! Feel free to open an issue or pull request to suggest a change you would like to see. Additionally, we are specifically looking for contributors in these areas 👇
- Call for stories -- Do you have an open source journey that would help inspire others? We would love to hear about!
- Call for designers -- We want the site to look beautiful and we want the stories content to shine through.
- Call for photographers -- Part of showcasing individuals in stories is having a beautiful image to accompany their post.
- Call for maintainers -- Does this project line up with your experience? Is there anything we can give new comers to make their first contribution experience better?
- Call for opinions -- Are we going about this correctly? Have we overlooked any opinions? What can make this project better?