{"id":8769,"date":"2024-12-01T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-01T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/?p=8769"},"modified":"2024-11-30T23:26:47","modified_gmt":"2024-12-01T04:26:47","slug":"your-guide-to-making-a-difference-in-open-source","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/?p=8769","title":{"rendered":"Your Guide to Making a Difference in Open Source"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\r\n \r\n <\/i>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/span>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n

I have been using open-source software for almost twenty-five years now. For the first fifteen years, I was a user and an evangelist for open source. I didn\u2019t see myself as a <\/span>coder, so how could I give back to the community? That changed in 2011 when I began writing for\u00a0Opensource.com<\/a>. I felt guilty that I didn\u2019t do more to support the community. I failed to realize that there is much more than coding and evangelizing that contributes to an open-source community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some ways you can contribute to open source without being a community evangelist or a programmer:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Documentation<\/strong> is one of the most important aspects of any project. It may not be intuitive to use the software. Take WordPress and Drupal, for example. It\u2019s become easier now that you can spin up a virtual machine or a Docker image, but there are still many nuances that are not intuitive, and that is where good documentation plays an important role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

User testing<\/strong> is another way to contribute. How does the software operate on various platforms and operating systems? Providing feedback on usability and bugs. Community support by participating in forums and wikis by answering questions and supporting other users. I have been a Linux user since the late 1990s and in the early days before the World Wide Web existed, the chief support method was joining listservs and bulletin boards. Now, there are more resources for users, but community support continues to be a great help even for experienced users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financial contributions<\/strong> help maintain and develop the project. One way y<\/span>ou can support open source is through the\u00a0Github Secure Open Source Fund. I am a Linux Mint user, and I have made regular\u00a0contributions<\/a>\u00a0to the project.\u00a0GnuCash<\/a>\u00a0is another project I contribute to. Also consider contributing to podcasters like\u00a0LateNight Linux<\/a>. You can support\u00a0Fosstodon<\/a>\u00a0and other\u00a0Mastodon<\/a>\u00a0instances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advocacy<\/strong> is one of the principal ways I support open source. You can, too. Advocate for adopting open-source solutions in organizations, educational institutions, and among peers. Many folks in communities around the globe know nothing of open source and the benefits of using open-source software. Thirty-three years after the advent of\u00a0Linux,\u00a0a majority of the folks I come in contact with every day have never used it, nor do they understand the tremendous personal and professional benefits they might enjoy as users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I advocated for the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Library System to move away from a proprietary library system. The system adopted Koha, which Bywater Solutions supports. The library system saved over $60,000 per year and was ready for the pandemic when libraries were forced to close their doors. Moving from an expensive client-server proprietary system to an open-source one that needed only a Firefox browser to navigate was a game changer. I learned about Bywater and Koha from an open-source-using library director.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Consider sharing your open-source experience by writing and sharing your journey with technology blogs like\u00a0Both.org and All Things Open<\/a>.\u00a0You might also consider sharing your journey with others by volunteering at meetups, workshops, hackathons, and open source conferences. You can also offer others your open source journey at public libraries. There are many ways to give back!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You don’t have to be a developer to give back to the open source community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":4636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[157],"tags":[159],"class_list":["post-8769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-community"],"modified_by":"Jim Hall","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8769"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8772,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8769\/revisions\/8772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}