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It's somewhat more important to me (because I'm experienced) to find the right project vs a random issue in one of many projects... I don't have trouble thinkin

It's somewhat more important to me (because I'm experienced) to find the right project vs a random issue in one of many projects... I don't have trouble thinking of open source projects to contribute to, but I work in a big co and not super interested in trying to edit something like firefox because the community is too large. I would prefer something like who's hiring but for volunteer work where projects say look, I have this kind of side project, or we have this smaller company, we use this stuff, we'd love to have a competent C++ person (sub your language of choice) to fix this (Windows build/annoying bug/move us to an awesomer version of a third party/rewrite the docs), in exchange, we're ready to have a short like 10mn 1:1 over IRC or email or something to help you get started. And then I'd feel like I can really bring something to the table, I suppose. Most projects say "come hang out in our channel" or "just start with one of the beginner issues"... but it's a little intimidating to go to a new channel and not know what to say and walk in on people being already friendly insiders just to get a task. And I never know if it's socially OK to pick an issue in the tracker and post and say I'll fix it... what if I hit a problem or it turns out to be more than I could chew at this point in time, etc.

fundamental 8y ago
It's tough. Supporting someone through their first contribution is a lot of work and there's a lot of falloff with new contributors. It's easier to say "just do the work yourself if you're actually interested" and it can be exhausting to go through the initial hand holding time and time again. As someone who is interested in growing a medium sized open source project, it's difficult to find the people who are interested in contributing without feeling too pushy. You want to give people the best information and tools to go forward, but you also want to let them learn independently (since scratching your itch is typically an adage within FOSS). I do push the "just pop into the IRC channel" approach because it's hard to give better recommendations before knowing who the other individual is and what they want to get out of volunteering. I don't know if any particular thread could accomplish the negotiation of "who want's to help whom" due to the vast differences of all the different specializations, project sizes, project collaboration styles, etc. It would be nice if it did though.
- arandr0x 8y ago
  I'd consider myself a "senior" developer and I have volunteered before (not as a dev)... In most other large-ish structures there are volunteer coordinators that introduce themselves & the project to new people, give out links, set up volunteer events when growing the project is needed, that sort of thing. My understanding is open source actually makes quite a lot of money, so I'm not sure how come spending what amounts to a few hours a month doing outreach is a much bigger problem than it is for the local community garden. And of course, as a more experienced dev, really all I need is some kind of human touch so I know that if I start working my efforts won't fall into a big black void... devs tend to call that hand-holding because most devs think all socializing is a waste of time, but for most people volunteering is at least a little social. As far as actionable advice goes, I think having virtual "volunteer days" (on the 1st Saturday of the month, beginners can join the channel and get matched with somebody more experienced if they have questions for their first pull request) may work. Also appealing is publishing "openings" showing an example of what skills developers in your project commonly tend to have (working independently, obsessive about coding standards, super-problem-solver, an eye for usability, great communication skills, ability to use valgrind, whatever) so people can self-select into it.
  - fundamental 8y ago
    Interesting perspective. My own domain is within linux-audio which does not involve all that much cash (I've investigated various funding models for my projects as well as observed them for others and it is a hard game). Most of the projects are on the smaller side, so when you have a few people shift gears to spend time on volunteer events/activities it frequently slows down or pauses development. I do try to put in community outreach time as it scratches a different itch than the more development focused day-job, however it does frequently seem to not lead too far. There are many cases where people interested in contributing are very junior individuals who need some assisting along the way due more to a lack of experience rather than lack of familiarity with the project in question. Linux audio in particular is challenging since it involves the intersection of several different domains (low-latency programming, DSP, C/C++, user interface coding/design, audio/speech processing backgrounds, technical writing, etc). So, people do end up being more green than I would expect compared to other open source domains. Thanks for the specific suggestions. I've considered doing a specific hack day/weekend/etc event for a while, though I've never acted upon it since I don't really want to deal with the possibility that I end up spending a day or more and there is no activity in response. I do like the idea of openings though. It's a clever way of presenting what the project has to offer as well as presenting specific enough profiles of people that it might get someone over the initial hump of "perhaps I should ask about contributing".

fundamental 8y ago

It's tough. Supporting someone through their first contribution is a lot of work and there's a lot of falloff with new contributors. It's easier to say "just do the work yourself if you're actually interested" and it can be exhausting to go through the initial hand holding time and time again. As someone who is interested in growing a medium sized open source project, it's difficult to find the people who are interested in contributing without feeling too pushy. You want to give people the best information and tools to go forward, but you also want to let them learn independently (since scratching your itch is typically an adage within FOSS). I do push the "just pop into the IRC channel" approach because it's hard to give better recommendations before knowing who the other individual is and what they want to get out of volunteering. I don't know if any particular thread could accomplish the negotiation of "who want's to help whom" due to the vast differences of all the different specializations, project sizes, project collaboration styles, etc. It would be nice if it did though.

arandr0x 8y ago
I'd consider myself a "senior" developer and I have volunteered before (not as a dev)... In most other large-ish structures there are volunteer coordinators that introduce themselves & the project to new people, give out links, set up volunteer events when growing the project is needed, that sort of thing. My understanding is open source actually makes quite a lot of money, so I'm not sure how come spending what amounts to a few hours a month doing outreach is a much bigger problem than it is for the local community garden. And of course, as a more experienced dev, really all I need is some kind of human touch so I know that if I start working my efforts won't fall into a big black void... devs tend to call that hand-holding because most devs think all socializing is a waste of time, but for most people volunteering is at least a little social. As far as actionable advice goes, I think having virtual "volunteer days" (on the 1st Saturday of the month, beginners can join the channel and get matched with somebody more experienced if they have questions for their first pull request) may work. Also appealing is publishing "openings" showing an example of what skills developers in your project commonly tend to have (working independently, obsessive about coding standards, super-problem-solver, an eye for usability, great communication skills, ability to use valgrind, whatever) so people can self-select into it.
- fundamental 8y ago
  Interesting perspective. My own domain is within linux-audio which does not involve all that much cash (I've investigated various funding models for my projects as well as observed them for others and it is a hard game). Most of the projects are on the smaller side, so when you have a few people shift gears to spend time on volunteer events/activities it frequently slows down or pauses development. I do try to put in community outreach time as it scratches a different itch than the more development focused day-job, however it does frequently seem to not lead too far. There are many cases where people interested in contributing are very junior individuals who need some assisting along the way due more to a lack of experience rather than lack of familiarity with the project in question. Linux audio in particular is challenging since it involves the intersection of several different domains (low-latency programming, DSP, C/C++, user interface coding/design, audio/speech processing backgrounds, technical writing, etc). So, people do end up being more green than I would expect compared to other open source domains. Thanks for the specific suggestions. I've considered doing a specific hack day/weekend/etc event for a while, though I've never acted upon it since I don't really want to deal with the possibility that I end up spending a day or more and there is no activity in response. I do like the idea of openings though. It's a clever way of presenting what the project has to offer as well as presenting specific enough profiles of people that it might get someone over the initial hump of "perhaps I should ask about contributing".