Lessons from contributing to an open-source project
My GSoC experience with some stories here and there.
Introduction
The term open source project refers to something that anyone can modify, share and work on because its source code is publicly accessible. The idea of open source is the most beautiful thing about software because people together can always create more.
GSoC is a 4 monthly long program organized by google every year during summer vacations. It matches students with open-source organizations where students write code and become part of these communities. While learning a lot and making a good amount of money along the way.
Selected organizations that participate in the program are announced in the first week of February generally. After that one can select an organization, pick a project which matches their skill set, and start contributing to that.
It is a good approach to fix some bugs to get a good understanding of a project before the proposal submission time to get familiar with the project and mentors. First-time contributors can start with #goodfirstbugs which are relatively easier and designed for them.
My journey
I got interested in Wikimedia, as I saw that I can contribute to the organization with the technology which I already learned. I was somewhat familiar with them from last year also. The Wikipedia library had my attention since it is written in Django and I was comfortable with it.
It took 4 days to complete the setup of the project on my local machine. Started looking for bugs and found a task about adding placeholder texts. Tried and found the right file to make changes into and then raised my first PR. It took 2 weeks to fix the first bug
The best moments were those when I used to understand a task completely. There used to be a shine in my eyes and an inner voice like “there is a PR coming up”.
Used to check my messages several times and edit them carefully. There were mornings when I woke up with notification of replies on my PRs and went straight to my laptop out of excitement.
Once I misunderstood a task. Sam (mentor) told me about that and for the first time in my life, I am so excited about an error. I knew that no marks will be deducted for that and I am going to learn something new.
There has been a major positive shift in my confidence level in the last three months. I have worked on personal projects before but I never knew that I can do so much with Django and collaborate on projects like TWLight.
Learned so many important skills on the way like testing and GitHub workflow without even trying.
The People around
Always experienced that whenever I have done something significant there were so many people who have contributed in different ways.
In this journey from day one into the Wikimedia community, there was a voice inside my head that goes like “oh! People are so nice here” and it is still inside.
Srishti Sethi was the first person I interacted with at Wikimedia. She has always been encouraging and supportive. Even when I had zero contributions to the community she treated me like I was part of the organization already.
Used to have frequent interactions with Pavithra Eswaramoorthy and Gopa Vasanth they were always encouraging and helping too. Answered all of my silly doubts very patiently.
Worked under Sam Walton most of the time and it was sheer joy. Despite being so busy he was always there and provided exactly the guidance which I needed.
siddhesh suthar and Richa Rupela were always there by introducing me to open source and kept playing the mentor’s role wherever needed.
Met seniors who have much more knowledge not only in programming but also in every other aspect. But when I talked to them it felt like they were friends.
Best part was people here never tried to show how great they are. Instead they are busy in making students realize that there is a Hero inside them.
Lessons learned
Remember my college days when I used to sit and code in my room. It used to get boring sometimes. But once I collaborated on open-source projects everything was like magic. Thanked myself for holding onto the process.
Did not get selected but at the end of the day what matters was being truthful to myself. If I remember those were the most dedicated 2 months of my life. I just forgot about the results in the end.
The taste of karma, once you are addicted to it there is no going back. Just the initial days where you feel like you are working, everything is automated after that.
Karma makes you meaningful, genuine and super excited. It makes you complete. Everything else is external.
Resources to get started with Wikimedia
- Connect with the community on Zulip Chat.
- Wikimedia outreach programs.
- How to contribute learn about different areas where you can get involved.
- A new developers guide and How to be a MediaWiki hacker that covers some basics about Wikimedia’s open-source culture.
- Software projects that you can look into.
- Some good first bugs you can start with.
