Open-source software has enabled us to do many things we couldn’t do before. Open-source software is one that its base code can be accessed and modified by anyone – as long as the modification and usage follow the release license. Often, open-source projects are shared through GitHub, GitLab, or any other public repository system.
As developers and data scientists, contributing to an open-source project have many potential benefits, such as learning a new skill, connecting with the community, building a strong network, and honing your skills. Moreover, having solid open-source contributions can take your portfolio and resume to the next level and open up new and promising future career opportunities.
In Data Science, many famous and daily-used libraries and packages, such as Numpy and Pandas, are open-source projects that made this far through the effort of many developers all over the globe. As a data scientist in today’s world, contributing to an open-source project is often not just a good add-on to your resume, rather an essential item.
But, contributing to open-source, especially for beginners or people who never contributed before, is somewhat intimidating. You might feel that you don’t have the skill you need yet to contribute or that your coding or tech knowledge is insufficient. So, you keep waiting till you reach a knowledge level where you’re comfortable making your first contribution.
There are some ways to make an open-source contribution that doesn’t involve writing code while you’re learning the basics of data science or Programming. The problem with doing that is, you lose a lot of time waiting. This article will explore 5 ways you can contribute to open-source projects now without needing to write any code.
№1: Engage the community.
If you like to engage people, organize events and socialize with the community, this could be a great chance for you to make your first contribution. Most large open-source projects often have a following, people who use it and work on developing it daily. Some even have their own conferences and regular meetups.
You can ask to help with organizing the conferences or meetups. You can propose to talk of moderate or host a meetup in your city, university, or workplace. You can also volunteer to do some administrator tasks for these conferences and meetups.
№2: Design graphics.
What if you are a creative and artistic person, can you still contribute to a tech project? The answer is, defiantly, yes. If you have graphic design knowledge, you can help create a logo for the project or any other graphical components.
You can also propose better structuring and presenting of the project or their website or documentation. Some actually conducted a UX (user experience) survey before proposing their restructure and idea to the project core team to support their suggestions.
№3: Imporve the documentaion.
As a person who loves writing and explaining technical concepts, starting with a documentation-related contribution was my go-to choice. Contributing to the documentation has many options within it that can appeal to anyone willing to help.
Some projects askes for help editing and proofreading the core of the documentation. You might propose better examples and explanations to improve the quality and readability of the documentation or a specific section of it. Documentation contributions also include translating the documentation to other languages, creating new tutorials for the different features of the project, or even creating and maintaining a newsletter for the recent project updates.
№4: Answer other’s questions.
Most open-source projects accept answering other’s questions on Stack Overflow or Reddit as valuable contributions to the project. So, you can try to answer the question that you pass by and know the answer to help those who asked the question and have your answers considered contributing to the project.
Let’s assume you don’t know the exact answer to the problem; even helping people understand why the problem is happening can be good enough to help them find their own answer. You can also answer questions on issues in GitHub or help moderate the discussion boards or community conversation channels.
N0.5: Review other’s code.
Last but not least is reviewing other’s code. Some people would rather go through a written code looking for anomalies or inconsistencies than writing code from scratch. If you’re now of those people, then this could be your open-source contributing choice.
Another alternative is to write blog posts and tutorials for special features of the project. These tutorials will help people better understand the project and its usages. Finally, you can also mentor another contributor. Or mentor new users of the project, helping them navigate their way around and use it efficiently.
Takeaways
Many amazing programmers and data scientists are out there, making it a tad overwhelming for newcomers to shine and prove their value to the community and the field. One way you can show your skills, get involved in the community, and help others is by contributing to open-source projects.
When I first wanted to contribute to open-source, I was so intimidated that my skill level would not match the awesome people already contributing. I was always concerned that my code is not good, and I had a huge fear of rejection. So, I decided to dip my toe into the open-source pool by starting with a non-code contribution to get a sense of how the process goes and how I should go about it.
My first open-source contribution was helping translate documentation of some Python libraries. I love writing, and they needed people to translate to my native language. I took the shot and helped out. Doing that eased up my mind and eliminated my fear of the process. I got to know people, learn from them and gain confidence to start contributing to the code.
Starting with a non-code contribution can motivate you to get over your fear of rejection and not be good enough and be the starting point of your open-source journey. This article aims to propose to you some non-code open-source contributions you can take to start your contributing journey today.