Introduction

This week in our Open Source Software Development class, we continued making progress on our group contributions to Oppia, and also explored how open source fits into the world of business. It’s been interesting to not only get hands-on with a real open source codebase, but also to reflect on how companies actually use and sustain open source in practice.

Update on Group Project – Oppia

Big win this week: I got my first PR merged into the Oppia repo! After figuring out the workflow, lint checks, and submitting the pull request, it felt great to see it go through. I’ve mainly been working on translation-related issues, since that’s the part I’m most interested in, and I’ve been submitting translation contributions consistently.

I’ve also been keeping an eye out for new issues that I can pick up, especially smaller ones that will help me better understand the codebase. Meanwhile, my teammates have also been working on their own issues and are getting ready to submit their PRs.

Now that we’ve gotten a taste of the contribution process, we’re also starting to turn our attention to preparing for the final class presentation, where we’ll walk through our work and the overall experience of contributing to Oppia.

Is Open Source a Business Model?

We also dove into some videos and discussions this week on the role of open source in business. One of the key videos I watched was titled “Is Open Source a Business Model?”—which really helped clear up the distinction between open source as a model for development versus a way to make money.

Open source itself isn’t a business model. It’s a way of building software—collaboratively, transparently, and publicly. But companies can create business models around it by offering paid services, cloud hosting, support plans, or premium features.

What stood out to me was the flexibility: open source can power startups, huge tech companies, and even creative communities—but how they monetize it varies widely. Seeing the different approaches helped me better understand how companies like Red Hat or GitLab stay profitable while still giving a lot away for free.