This document provides guidance on contributing to open source software projects. It discusses reasons to contribute such as sharing knowledge, career opportunities, learning, and scratching personal itches. The document also provides tips on finding projects to contribute to, such as contributing to projects you already use or following notable developers. Finally, it outlines various ways to contribute, including contributing code, submitting bug reports and feature requests, improving documentation, providing support, and donating money. The overall message is that open source development benefits both individual developers and society by promoting collaboration and advancing technology.

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USE THE SOURCEUSE THE SOURCE
JOIN THE FORCEJOIN THE FORCE
A quick guide to contributing to
Open Source Software

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HI, I'M STEVEHI, I'M STEVE

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https://github.com/sphere-group/sphere

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Apache HTTP Server

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WHY SHOULD YOU?WHY SHOULD YOU?

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SHARING IS CARINGSHARING IS CARING
Sharing code is sharing
knowledge. Let's make the
human race smarter together!

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FAME AND GLORYFAME AND GLORY
Companies now look for open
source contributions in applicant
resumes. Being a popular open
source contributor can open up
opportunities.

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LEARNINGLEARNING
You can learn a lot by reading
code from good well-maintained
projects. But you can also learn
more through your interactions
with other contributors.

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SCRATCHING AN ITCHSCRATCHING AN ITCH
You found a bug or a missing
feature in an open source library
you've been using. You don't
need to wait for the next version
for a fix/feature. Patch or extend
it yourself!

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MAKE A LIVINGMAKE A LIVING
Being an open source developer
is a viable career nowadays.

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Crowdfunding through Kickstarter

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Patreon support

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Bounty driven development

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Metafizzy's Isotope dual license

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Discourse SaaS

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BIG COMPANIESBIG COMPANIES
A lot of big companies support
open source development.

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I asked a few open source developers
the same question...

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RICO STA CRUZRICO STA CRUZ
“ because it's code you will
write for your work anyway, why
not share it with the world :P
JEFF LINDSAYJEFF LINDSAY
“ I contribute to open source
because it’s all building blocks. I
want blocks that I can use freely.
And good blocks are too small to
not be open source anyway.

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DANIEL ROY GREENFELDDANIEL ROY GREENFELD
“ Open source means I'm working with excellent people from all
over the planet. We get to learn and grow together, and improve the
world while we are at it.

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FINDING PROJECTSFINDING PROJECTS

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YOU'RE STARING AT ITYOU'RE STARING AT IT
You don't need to look far! You
can always contribute to open
source projects you already use.

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EXPLORE &EXPLORE &
FOLLOW PEOPLEFOLLOW PEOPLE
You can always find the latest
trending projects in GitHub from
their Explore page. But you can
also follow people you know or
look up to for a feed of projects
they star. It also gives you clue of
what they're up to in case you
want to collaborate!

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NEWSLETTERSNEWSLETTERS
Newsletters that list trending
news are common nowadays.
Some tech newsletters feature
noteworthy open source
projects. My favorite is
which focuses on
Open Source. They also have
which sends
you a daily digest of the
upcoming open source projects.
The
Changelog
Changelog Nightly

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HOW CAN YOU CONTRIBUTE?HOW CAN YOU CONTRIBUTE?

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CONTRIBUTE CODECONTRIBUTE CODE
The primary way to contribute to
open source software is through
code. Fixing bugs, implementing
features, refactoring, adding
tests, etc.

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Tip: Always check for the contributing guidelines!

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FILING BUGS ANDFILING BUGS AND
FEATURE REQUESTSFEATURE REQUESTS
Testing software is hard. A bug
report for an edge case can be
really helpful for project
maintainers. Feature requests aid
in figuring out the direction of a
project.

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DOCUMENTATIONDOCUMENTATION
Although often neglected,
documentation is an integral for
a successful open source project.
Don't make light of typo
commits!

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SUPPORTSUPPORT
Maintainers will sometimes fail
to answer queries of people
using their projects. You can
help out by answering for
them if you know what's up.

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UNICORNS
DESIGN
Developers the also do Design
ARE CALLED​

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DONATEDONATE
Monetary support is also an
option for those who don't have
the time.

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“ Manners maketh man
William of Wykeham

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