Student Involvement in Open Source: Why, How and Where to Get Started

Student Involvement in Open Source Why, How and Where to Get Started Leslie Hawthorn OSU Open Source Lab

Oregon State University Open Source Lab •  Founded in 2003 •  Hosts more than 100 projects: Linux kernel, Apache, Fedora, Debian, PHP

Why Open Source? •  More than 50% of leading IT organizaRons are using open source soSware –  CompeRRve advantage –  Lower cost of ownership •  30% of soSware used at these companies is open source, up from 10% ﬁve years ago Gartner, February 2011

Employers Value OS Experience •  EvaluaRng potenRal hires •  Lowering training costs •  Decreasing Rme from hire to full producRvity

Open Source & You •  Create a citable body of work •  Nurture your passion for programming •  Learn cool stuﬀ outside the classroom •  Make a real diﬀerence in people’s lives

Ge]ng Involved in Open Source

The TradiRonal Route More on this later….

Google Summer of CodeTM •  Flip bits, not burgers •  175 open source projects for 2011 •  Up to 1000 students accepted in the past •  Important dates –  March 28th: student applicaRon period opens –  April 8th: student applicaRon deadline

The Summer of Code Meme •  GNOME Outreach Program for Women –  ApplicaRon deadline: April 9th •  New Zealand Summer of Code •  Ruby Summer of Code •  Humanitarian FOSS Project Internships •  Many more….

•  Program for pre-‐ university students •  Must be 13-‐18 to parRcipate •  Looks great on college applicaRons

Get a Job •  Internships with OS friendly companies •  Numerous open source employers –  Mozilla, RedHat, etc. •  Student experiences on campus

Conferences and Unconferences •  In person interacRons are very helpful –  Project culture and understanding tone •  Unconferences have low barrier to entry

Join Your Local User Group

Diving Right In Made Simple •  Start with projects that have parRcipated in Google Summer of Code •  InvesRgate to ensure a project is open for business •  Look for projects that explicitly welcome new contributors

OpenHatch: I Want to Help

Looking Credible in a Few Easy Steps •  Read project website thoroughly •  Subscribe to project mailing lists •  Join project IRC channel –  “Lurk” unRl you get the lay of the land •  Ask quesRons the smart way

Mistakes •  You will make them. Many of them. •  Just don’t make the same one repeatedly.

A Few Closing Thoughts

Saving the World •  Many projects help those most in need –  Sahana, OpenMRS, Usahidi •  Many focus on social jusRce causes –  Sunlight FoundaRon, Tor, Martus •  Many support the mission of non-‐proﬁts –  CiviCRM, HFOSS Project, the enRre stack

The real point is to have fun and learn something …

Ge]ng an awesome job and helping others are great results….

Thank You! QuesRons? Leslie Hawthorn @lhawthorn leslie@osuosl.org

Credits and Licensing •  Heart Oregon: hlp://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/cosmic_bandita/3960799351/ •  Fire: hlp://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/7309767@N02/444312011/sizes/z/ This presenta,on is released under a Crea,ve Commons A5ribu,on 3.0 Unported License. Please remix and reuse! h5p://crea,vecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Student Involvement in Open Source: Why, How and Where to Get Started

by Leslie Hawthorn on Mar 23, 2011

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