EMC World 2016 - code.11 Intimidate me not - How to Contribute to Large Open Source Projects

1© Copyright 2016 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 1© Copyright 2016 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.
INTIMIDATE ME NOT: HOW TO CONTRIBUTE
TO LARGE OPEN SOURCE PROJECTS
VLADIMIR VIVIEN
Developer Advocate, EMC {code}

2© Copyright 2016 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.
Developer Advocate | EMC {code}
Programmer in Go, Java
Author and OSS contributor
{github | twitter | medium}/@vladimirvivien
VLADIMIR VIVIEN

• Why Open Source
• What is a contribution?
• Ways to contribute
• Why Contribute
AGENDA

WHY OPEN SOURCE
THE CASE FOR SUPPORTING OPEN SOURCE PROJECTS

WHO IS USING OPEN SOURCE (OSS) TODAY?

78% OF COMPANIES
RUN ON OPEN SOURCE
LESS THAN 3%
DON’T USE OSS IN ANY WAY
2015 North Bridge & Black Duck Future of Open Source Study
OVER 66%
CONSIDER OSS OPTIONS BEFORE
PROPRIETARY SOFTWARE
ALTERNATIVES

• Data center computing
• Virtualized/containerized computing
• Desktop computing
• Mobile computing
• Computing tools
• Productivity tools
• Data and analytics tools
FABRIC OF MODERN COMPUTING

Open Source Everywhere

• Personal
• Enterprise
• Government
• Military
• Science
• Academia
• Manufacturing
PERVASIVE IN ALL SECTORS

• Low barrier of entry (free)
• Community driven (many eyeballs on code)
• Quality projects
• Drive technological innovations
• Preferred approach to computing
• Allows speed to market
• Choices and vendor lock-in averse
ADVANTAGES OPEN SOURCE

Sounds great!What’s the problem?

• Survives on community participation
– Adopters
– Champions
– Code writers
– Maintainers
– Document writers
– Bug reporters
• Thrives on diversity (backgrounds, opinions, skills)
• Requires some level of participation
OPEN SOURCE IS A COMMUNITY EFFORT

• Intimidating culture
• Everyone is a rock star (or ninja, black belt, etc)
• Thousands to millions lines of code
• Little to no guidance sometimes
• Talent and ego clashes
• Consume precious free time
CONTRIBUTING CAN BE SCARY

No worriesThis presentation is all about getting involved in open source.

WHAT IS A CONTRIBUTION?

• Most projects have zero in monetary budgets
• Projects welcome any form of constructive help
• Most rely on benevolence of volunteers
• As we will see, contributions goes way beyond just
submitting code
NOT JUST WRITING CODE

• A contribution is any activity that helps with the
success of the project
– Promotion
– Adoption and usage
– Feedback / Bug reporting
– Documentation
– Coding
– Project Maintenance
– Monetary / Sponsorship
WHAT IS A CONTRIBUTION ?

PROMOTE THE PROJECT

• Newer/smaller projects have no marketing budget
• Projects rely heavily on users to spread the word
• Promotion is a great way to contribute to a project
• Let the world know about your excitement and
support of your favorite open source project(s)
PROMOTING AN OPEN SOURCE PROJECT

• Tell your manager and fellow peers
• Do internal presentations
• Convince your architect it is a good project
• Create POC’s internally
PROMOTING AT YOUR COMPANY

• Present at your local user group events
• Organize a Meetup around the technology
• Volunteer to help others adopting the project
PROMOTE IN THE COMMUNITY

• Write a blog
– Praise
– criticize (constructively)
• A big one: star on GitHub!
• Post on your favorite social networks
• Answer questions on online forums, chat rooms
PROMOTING ON THE NET

ADOPT AND USE OPEN SOURCE

• Majority of projects have no sponsors or sales team
• Projects rely on organic adoption
• Adoption fosters mindshare
• Mindshare, in turn, helps promote projects
USE OF OPEN SOURCE PROJECTS

• Put org logo on a “Power-by” page (if possible)
• Let others know you use the project in your org
• Provide testimonials to project maintainers
• Help others in your industry adopt the project
• Ask questions on mailing-lists
• Share experience about project (blog or otherwise)
ADOPTING AND USING YOUR FAVORITE
PROJECT

PROVIDE FEEDBACK AND FILE ISSUES

• There is no QA department for most projects
– The community is the QA department
• Projects rely on feedback and bug reports
• Feedback provides valuable metrics
• Bug reports help identify broken code / features
• Usage and adoption of project help here
QUALITY DEPENDS ON FEEDBACK

• Once you adopt project, provide feedback
• Post praises on Twitter (always welcome)
• Post questions, comments, critiques
– forums
– mailing lists
– Slack, IRC
• Be constructive
• Be patient and kind
INFLUENCE PROJECT WITH FEEDBACK

• Most common form of feedback
• Primarily to report broken code/features
– Other types (questions, feature request, proposal, etc)
– Use an issue tracking system (hopefully)
– Structured
– Assignable
– Traceable
– Measurable (pulse of project)
• Help take pulse of projects
FILE AN ISSUE

• Tests are valuable feedback
– Test early version of software
– Test new features
– Test reported bugs from others
• File an issue to report bug
• Expect pushback sometimes, but be
– Constructive (follow filing standards)
– Patient and kind (your issue may get ignored a while)
– Persistent (if issue is critical, it can help others)
• Remember this is mostly volunteering work
– Above all be kind
BE A TESTER

• Large projects can have hundreds of active issues
• Review and properly
– Validate issue (dup, invalid, etc)
– Tag issues
– Categorize issue
– Initial assignment
– Ensure issue follows proper doc standard
– Assure consistency
• Triage helps project maintenance
HELP WITH TRIAGE

DOCUMENT

• Successful projects are usually well-documented
• Good docs make new users feel welcome
– Helps with getting started
– Anticipate readers questions
– Helps users adopt project
• Writing good docs is hard
– Programmers are usually not good tech writers
– They are busy building the product
• Doc neglected, last to be updated
DOCUMENTATION HELPS ADOPTION

• Start with typos
• Go through “Getting started” sections
– Follow directions for clarity, consistency
– Help with language and clear writing
• Contribute
– Project documentation
– Tutorials
– Design and architecture
DOCUMENT YOUR FAVORITE PROJECT

• Write blogs
• Develop tutorials
• Write missing manuals
• Help explain a hard concepts
• Contribute your write-ups back to project
DOCUMENT ON YOUR OWN

CONTRIBUTE CODE

• Code is crucial part of the project
• Active codebase means
– Code is maintained and fresh
– Code is not rotting over time
• A sign of interest and participation
• Attract new adopters and contributors
• Features are being added
• Issues are not neglected
KEEP CODE FRESH AND RELEVANT

• Ability to code
– Know or familiar with the language of the project
– Have adequate skills to get started
– Great opportunity to sharpen skills
• Rock star status is usually not a requirement
• Know/understand SCM tools
– Git, Mercurial, SVN, etc
• Familiarize with project workflow
– Fork, branches, tags, code reviews
CODE CONTRIBUTION REQUIREMENTS

• Look for issues tagged ‘Low Hanging Fruit’
– Code documentation & comments
– Fixing typos
– Small UI or CLI changes
– Minor bug fix
– Add minor feature
– Etc
• Great way to learn about project code
• Low entry point to code
– Helps familiarity with code
– Familiarity with project flow
CODE LOW HANGING FRUITS

• Help clean backlog of bugs!
• Validate reported bugs
– Replicate bug, close or re-route if necessary
– Clarify issue ticket with better documentation
• Fix buggy code
– Start with lingering older issues
– Fix and close non-critical bugs (low hanging fruits)
– Great way to understand codebase
– Gain valuable insight into project
FIX BUGS, BUGS, BUGS!

• Implement a planned feature
– May require advanced knowledge of project
• If project is extensible
– Implement a plugin
– Implement an interface to an API
• Improve existing features
– Propose improvement
– Submit code
CODE NEW OR IMPROVE FEATURES

• Expect a rigorous process to get code accepted
– Not a quick
– The larger the project, the slower
– Large projects have more steps
– Again, patience reigns
• Follow project’s workflow (pull requests, patch, etc)
• Expect a code review and suggestions
– Don’t take it personal
– Code may get rejected until it meets certain criteria
– Opportunity learn and get better
SUBMITTING CODE CHANGES

CONTRIBUTE MONETARILY

• Project may accept monetary donations
– If it’s valuable to your organization, contribute
– If it’s valuable to you personally, contribute
• Sponsor a conference about the project
• Buy commercial support license if offered
• Hire open source project developers
• Contribute with paid employee time
SUPPORT YOUR FAVORITE PROJECT

WHY CONTRIBUTE?

• Open source drives innovation
• Influences directions of technology
• Participate and donate
• Maintain vibrant communities
MANY REASONS FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

• Great opportunity to learn
• Expose your talent to the world
• Build an accessible portfolio
• Companies value/hire open source contributions
• Companies hire contributors
SELFISH REASONS FOR CONTRIBUTING

CONCLUSION

• Participate in open source is easy
• Many ways to participate
• Participation is beyond coding
• Find a project you use daily – contribute to it!
CONTRIBUTE NOW

Data Persistence in the New Container World
Wednesday 3PM
Joshua Bernstein
VP of Technology for ETD
Tobi Knaup
CEO & Co-Founder of Mesosphere
Guru Session

@EMCcode
@vladimirvivien
emccode.com
community.emccode.com
Come visit us at
Booth #1044
or in the vLab
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EMC World 2016 - code.11 Intimidate me not - How to Contribute to Large Open Source Projects

EMC World 2016 - code.11 Intimidate me not - How to Contribute to Large Open Source Projects

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