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Open Source like a Boss

A guide to giving back

Jon Johnson

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1 / 13

Start giving back you ingrate!

Information wants to be beer, or something like that

Jon Johnson

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Who am I?

  • Full stack web developer
  • Technical lead for the Ilios Project open source curriculum management system for health science education. (http://iliosproject.org)

github contributions

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Justifying giving back (a work product reason)

"Always code as if the person who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live."

  • "Cook on Day One"
  • Reading Code
  • Changing Focus
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Justifying giving back (so you're not an ass)

Project Our Code Their Code Scale of difference
API 37,879 435,689 11x
Frontend 33,549 1,936,824 57x

For every hour of work I do, I get a week back from the community.

github contributions

5 / 13

Evaluating a project

When you are choosing what to include in your application take some steps to assess your ability to contribute.

Hint: Projects that prioritize contribution and feedback are nearly always better than those that do not.

  • find the docs and how to change them
  • find the support and how to give it
  • find the code and how to fix it
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Everybody needs sombody (to help)

github contributions

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Step 1: Let them know you care

  • Star
  • Follow
  • Comment
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Step 2: Help Out

  • Triage and test issues
  • Test beta releases
  • Report bugs
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Step 3: So, you want to submit a pull request huh?

  • Clear problem statement
  • Clean up your commits (git rebase -i)
  • WRITE TESTS!
  • Be open to feedback
  • It's ok to be moderately annoying
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Step 4: Profit!

github contributions

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Attracting contributors for your project

  • Keep dependancies up to date
  • Testing
  • Code style formalized and part of testing
  • Use well known tools and processes
  • Treat all code the same (same process, same review) no matter the source
  • Ask, like all the time
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Questions?

Jon's avatar

jrjohnson jrjohnson_

13 / 13

Start giving back you ingrate!

Information wants to be beer, or something like that

Jon Johnson

Jon's avatar

jrjohnson jrjohnson_

2 / 13
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