Week 2
Ways I’d like to Contribute & Potential Benefits 
Defining goals can be a tricky thing. One often has to wonder about balance, timeline, and perhaps even go as far as to define a global motivation variable that can be read often to renew one’s vigor and interest in that goal. So when I establish the ways in which I aspire to contribute to open source projects this semester, it is with these boundaries in mind.
1) A Good Place to Start 
Contributing to a project’s documentation (whether it be improving it, appending it, and/or converting it to a more useful format) is one way that I’d like to contribute to open source projects this semester. Since I already enjoy note-taking and stylizing, this goal seems to be up my alley; however it will be interesting to see what kinds of problems I may encounter in this arena.
- On an extension to this, it may be interesting to see if I could contribute icons or backgrounds to a project, if needed. I do like to sketch a lot in my free time so this goal could be fun. But style is subjective, and it will be interesting to see what contribution guidelines projects have in regard to this.
3) Personal interests 
I would love to expand the resources of an educational FOSS project by contributing amendments to the project’s content and perhaps even offering a few additions to that content. For example, I would love to make FOSS study tools more user-friendly and less buggy. I would also love to improve readability and engagement for FOSS educational sites.
4) A reach for the stars kind of goal 
I’ve read a ton of bug reports when debugging my code, however, I’ve never actually submitted any bug reports. It will take a lot of time and familiarity with a project in order to identify a bug in the program and then formulate that bug in terms that resonate with the community, but it would be cool to help the team improve their program.
5) One for the bucket-lists: It would be super cool to contribute an actual line of code to a FOSS project. I imagine that it’s a goal that takes a lot of time and familiarity with a project to accomplish, but it would be really awesome.
Potential FOSS Benefits:
FOSS Benefits to Your Skills
Communication 
Contributing to a FOSS project will force me to take account of how I present myself in a virtual discussion. I am unfamiliar with communicating with strangers on the street, let alone strangers half way around the world (#strangerDanger), so it will be cool to acquire those skills. I hope to become more comfortable with conveying my ideas and listening to any feedback that I’m given.
Collaboration 
I will benefit from exposure to a diverse range of opinions, troubleshooting practices and ideas by colloborating with other talented people. I will have the opportunity to learn from my peers, and better understand how they handle technologies within the project to benefit their FOSS community.
Tools & Best Practices & Technologies 
I will learn how to adapt to new tools in a project and (hopefully) adopt better practices in using those tools by adhering to a project’s contributions page. This can include better ways to make API calls in a program, being introduced to new technologies I can use for testing like Postman, and following a coding convention. I will also gain exposure to contributing to a GitHub repository with more than 5 active contributors. Having a larger team forces me to be careful about the files I’m changing (to avoid merge conflicts) and to write better commit messages (to sustain clarity). This improves my use of Git and GitHub on a professional level.
FOSS Benefits to Your Career 
Being able to say that I contributed on a FOSS project would show (career-wise) that I take an interest in giving back to the community and in volunteering my time. While it would probably act as a character card on my resume, the prospect of leaving “my city…greater than I found it” is my favorite line from an oath that I pledged in my freshman year of highschool. Contributing to a FOSS project will only bring me a step closer to fulfilling the goals behind that line.
FOSS Benefits to Your Personal Network 
Contributing to a FOSS project will not only connect me to other talented and driven people in the FOSS community, but it will also give me the opportunity to engage (in a technical manner) with other professionals in the field. I will have a chance to learn and grow as a fellow contributor.
Benefits from Preparation 
Finally, preparing to contribute to FOSS projects also has its benefits. For example, taking the time alone to read through the different kinds of FOSS projects out there improves my familiarity with tools and projects existing in the tech community. Moreover, by familiarizing myself on various project contribution guidelines, licenses, and code of conduct rules, I will develop a more precise instinct for conducting myself within a community’s accepted ettiqute. This is a judgement skill that I can apply anywhere going forward.
