Introduction to the World of Open Source with GirlScript Summer of Code
Initially I used to think that “open-source” is not my cup of tea, because I basically wanted to create something of my own. I selfishly used to ask “Why should I contribute to someone else’s work…blah blah blah”. I was wasting my summer holidays watching a lot of random TV shows , playing games and stuff, when a dear friend of mine asked me to participate in GSSOC, and then I thought, okay lets see what this is.
GirlScript Summer of Code 2018 is India’s first women-oriented technical festival with an aim to promote gender equality as well as helping people who are just starting out in the field of technology! In total, 20 open source project proposals were accepted which you can check here. Now, an individual could’ve taken part in either as a participant or mentor but being a participant, we can contribute to any number of projects on varying range of topics such as AI, Competitive Coding, Web Development, Android,etc. Apart from these there were 5 NGO Projects being offered as well, for various organisations named Zero Gravity, Upay, Makkala Jagriti & Kranti.
You can checkout the projects at : https://gssoc.tech/projects.html !
The Journey
The journey finally began on June 23rd. I was looking to contribute to an Android Project, so two of the Projects caught my eye, one was Images-To-PDF and other was Travel-Mate. Initially I wanted to show my skills on both the projects, but then the lazy coder inside me decided to stick with only one of them, so as to properly commit to one project and get into the list of top contributors 🤩. So I decided to go with Images-To-PDF since there were many issues I felt I could solve and the mentor seemed quite active with quick replies and help.
Project Images-To-PDF : https://github.com/Swati4star/Images-to-PDF
Beginning
I really liked the way this technical festival was conducted. Each issue was classified into one of the 4 main Categories: CakeWalk, Intermediate, Pro & Top Coder. Each Category awarded different amount of points. The points awarded were 10, 20, 30 & 50 for the categories respectively. When I started contributing, I was new to Git and Github, and hence i used to commit a lot of mistakes in basic git stuff, but thanks to my mentor who decided not to kill me, and help me in each and every part of this journey.
When the first evaluation results were declared on July 8, I was the topper on the LeaderBoard ! I was now comfortable with all the Github stuff, and learned a lot of cool android stuff.😎
Second Evaluation
I kept on contributing on the project, and I fell in love with the basic concept of Open Source. So much to learn, so much to adore, so much to appreciate.The simple principle of using and improving what exists already instead of re-inventing the wheel everytime, made a lot of sense to me.
My development skills were much better than before, I was extremely comfortable with git, I felt confident and started picking some Top-Coder issues. I even started some of my personal projects which I might add in the open source community.
When the results came out, I stood second in the LeaderBoard. 😁
Final Countdown
The end was near, and hence everyone improved their working speed and this journey finally ended on August 23rd.At this point, I stand 2nd on the Leaderboard.
You can see my Contributions at: https://github.com/Swati4star/Images-to-PDF/commits?author=shiv07tiwari
Conclusion
So, the concept of open source, which I felt i am never gonna be a part of, taught me a lot of important stuff and thus, forced me to fall in love with it. It improved my coding skills, introduced me to a lot of amazing developers, gave me the confidence that even I can be a “Developer”, and most importantly, gifted me a lot of stickers and goodies 😛!
So, my advice for any beginner who wants to become a developer and wants to contribute to the open source community, is that you should grab these opportunities where you get to work under some amazing and magical developers, which is always gonna improve your skills as a developer.
Checkout my Github Profile 😛: https://github.com/shiv07tiwari
All the best !! :)
