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Benefits of participating in open source projects for university students?
I always suggest students to participate in various open source projects as it is a good way to polish your skills and contribute to community. What can be another benefits from a student perspective? Will it be beneficial in getting jobs?
Let's say you have to persuade a student to participate in open source projects, what would you tell him?
- doublesprout 15y agoAlso to build up credibility as a developer. My concern as a student is that there isn't a huge community of other open source developers around - so by working on these projects, I'm missing out on the chance to build something with a fellow student, work on my own startup, etc. (consider that substantial programming takes a lot of time) And tech meetups are great, but it seems a waste of these few years to be going to them instead of meeting the people around college. So I don't know. You tell me?
- kstenerud 15y agoIf someone needs to be persuaded to participate in open source projects, they shouldn't be participating. You participate in open source to fuel a passion. You do it as an outlet for your creativity. You do it to scratch an itch. You do it after looking at the landscape and saying "I could make it better". If you're doing it for fame, glory, or job prospects, you won't contribute anything decent or noteworthy.
- anujkk 15y agoI agree to you. May be I presented the question in wrong way. I want to know in what ways we can promote "open source culture" in university students (especially in India where many don't even properly know about it). Let's call it promotion instead of persuasion.
- kstenerud 15y agoI would say that the best motivator for open source is the realization that you, YOU, can make a BIG difference in the world. Looking at all the big projects out there has a tendency to give one a feeling of inadequacy; a feeling that one couldn't even muster up enough talent to contribute to such a project, let alone start one. It's really a matter of putting your ego and the fear of bruising it aside, and diving in. You might produce crap and it might be rejected, or it might not get used at all. But no successful person ever succeeds without failing many times first. In a way, it's a lot like entrepreneurship. You need the fearlessness to say "I'm going to do this, no matter how foolish it seems." Great ideas always seem foolish compared to the wisdom of the crowd, but until you go in a different direction from them, nothing will ever change, and your life will remain dull and boring and pointless. Even if your idea really is foolishness (which often it can be), you'll still live the excitement of your new adventure. Life is too short to live safely.