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Benefits of Contributing to Open Source Project

After learning the basics of FOSS during the semester, I would like to contribute to an open-source project that’s written in C++. I might check its issue tracker and look at one of the open issues, and study on how other members of the community deal with an issue and build on it. As of now, I only know the general thoughts on how to contribute to an open-source project. I will have more ideas after looking at a couple more examples of the project.

There are various benefits of contributing to open-source projects. First, you will know the importance of reading and understanding the licenses and the set of rules/guidelines by heart. By learning the significance of the licenses and the sets of guidelines will help you develop a good habit of respecting copyright or copyleft and pay attention to the rules or standards that you must follow. It’s a great opportunity to expand your network of contacts when you join the communication channel of any certain open source project. Since the communication channels can be asynchronous, people from different parts of the world can participate, in other words, you can communicate and work with someone from the other side of the world without going to his/her country. The fact that you can contribute to open source projects with and without coding. You can meet and communicate with people from all the skills set not just developers. The communication channels might lead to an opportunity for a job offer, the invitation to a conference or a special event.

It’s always good to practice your coding skills or debugging skill with free guidance from professional people. It’s a great opportunity to see how other people generate their project ideas and their coding style. Through this collaborative process, the less experienced contributor gains a deeper understanding of the system’s structure and functions. This also helps you start your own open-source project. Perhaps, you have an idea, but not confident about how to achieve it; therefore, there are people in the open-source community who’re there to help. There are companies that have their works done by hundreds or thousands of developers even if they only have a few developers on staff.

Each line of the code that you contribute to an open-source project is publicly accessible. With that being said, you can show the recruiters the contributions that you have during an interview, or an employer to increase the chances of being hire. By contributing to an open-source project, it gives you real experience before landing a tech internship or a real job. as a complement