Week 5 - Projects
Open Source Projects
A goal of mine this spring is to make a major contribution to an open source project. An ideal open source project to contribute would have to be accessible for beginners, have a clear project goal in mind, have an active community, and a wealth of instructions for contributors.
Potential Projects
Once such project I am considering contributing to is LMMS. LMMS is an open source “Digital Audio Workstation” to produce music. I found this project as a viable option because it has clear contributing instructions and it has a good number (20) of open beginner friendly issues. This combined with a responsive community and a communication discord makes it worth considering. However, there seems to be some trouble when it comes to installation meaning the first hurdle might be the biggest one1.
LMMS
Another project I am seriously considering is VSCode. My main motivation for contributing to VSCode is because of how robust the project is. There is a lot of different areas and issues that need fixing and clear instructions on how to assist with development. Unfortunately what makes it good might also be a deactivator because issues are closed too fast to be attainable for beginners2.
Visual Studio Code
These are two of the main projects I plan on further evaluating but what is exciting about open source software development is the opportunity to search and contribute to a project that really provokes your own interest. In the future, I may begin to search based on issues that pertain to skills I hope to develop.
Jumping over Hurdles
In my personal opinion, the biggest challenge for a beginner in open source development is making a commitment to a project once they’ve chosen. Smaller hurdles such as issues in installation, community, finding proper issues to take on can all lead to failure to contribute and follow through with their original project selection. One must thoroughly investigate and evaluate a project before making a choice or they might fall into the trap of making progress and then having to abandon halfway through.