1. How to choose an open
source project
5-minute lightning talk
June 25, 2013
Susan Tan
@ArcTanSusan

2. About Me
Beginner contributor in
● Django Documentation
● OpenMRS
6/25/2013

3. More About Me
● Software Engineer at
Flixster
● Hackbright Academy
graduate
Flixster is hiring!
6/25/2013

4. Women in Free and Open-Source
Software (FOSS)
● In the US today, women represent 25% of all
software developers and 18% of students
with CS degrees.
● Women are estimated to represent 3% of
FOSS contributors.
6/25/2013 Source: Zhurakhinskaya

5. Why does it matter?
Source: Black Duck6/25/2013

6. Personal Motivations
● Access to different code bases: modules,
APIs, front-end, database schema
● Freedom to explore new technologies
● The best developers are working in FOSS
● Give back to community

7. 6/25/2013
How to pick an interesting project?

8. How large and how active is the
developer community around potential
project?
6/25/2013
Community

9. How familiar are you with the tools that
the potential project relies on?
6/25/2013
Technology Stack

10. How extensive is the documentation
both for users and for developers?
6/25/2013
Documentation

11. What are the resources available for
new contributors?
6/25/2013
Resources

12. ● GNOME/FOSS remote internships and Google Summer of Code
● Code Montage
● Open Hatch
● Camille Acey's blog post - "Get Involved in Open Source TODAY!"
● A checklist on how to contribute to an open-source project: http:
//labs.openhatch.org/foss-contrib-guide/
● "Finding an open-source project" by Vanessa Hurst: http://www.
slideshare.net/CodeMontage/write-speakcode-finding-an-open-
source-project
● Personalized Git Repo recommender: http://gitrec.mortardata.com/
● An online book: http://open-advice.org/
Resources for New Contributors
6/25/2013

13. Cited Works
"2013 Future of Open Source." Lecture. Web. Black Duck.
Zhurakhinskaya, Marina. "Opening Open Source to Women." Women2.0.
Women2.0, 15 May 2013. Web. 23
6/25/2013

14. Questions? Comments? Feedback?
Talk to me or tweet at me @ArcTanSusan