This week brought a mix of productivity and dreadfulness. As we get closer to the final weeks of the semester, our group project is taking a bit of a turn in a different direction (a good one). I also had the chance to attend a presentation by Shivam Balikondwar on his journey through open source. It was both insightful and motivating, especially hearing about how he got involved with major projects like Chromium and Hyperledger.

Our Project So Far

Over the past two weeks, our team (Justin, Lily, and Shay) has made solid progress on our Oppia contribution project. After some frustrating delays with environment setup–especially dealing with Docker rebuild issues and outdated documentation–we decided to focus our energy on the non-code side of things, specifically voice-over and content creation.

We’ve now finished reviewing Oppia’s guidelines for building exploration content and wrapped up a solid outline draft for our first exploration. The goal is to create an engaging, community-based educational experience, and we’re almost ready to start building it in Oppia’s exploration editor.

On the individual side, me and Lily both submitted voice-over audition forms and are currently waiting to hear back. Whether the reply comes within the next few weeks or not, we can get started adding voice-over lines to our own exploration lessons that we’ll be creating soon. We’re also working on mapping the skill table and skill tree that ties into our lesson flow. That will help keep things structured once we move into development and publishing.

A Look Into Shivam’s Open Source Path

Shivam’s presentation wasn’t just about code–it was about community, opportunity, and figuring things out on your own. He talked about how he started in open source during undergrad, coming from a non-CS background, and how that space gave him both mentorship and direction.

What really impressed me was how his curiosity led him to contribute to Firefox, which then opened doors to work with Chromium and eventually Hyperledger under the Linux Foundation. He made contributions that had a real-world impact, like getting Chromium to run on new graphics drivers or building a language server for Solidity that now has thousands of downloads.

Motivation And Looking Ahead

One of Shivam’s key points was that there’s space in open source for everyone, regardless of your level of experience or what domain you’re into. That was encouraging to hear, especially as someone who’s still figuring out what areas I want to explore more deeply. He emphasized that you don’t need to commit full-time–just contribute when you can, and you’ll still learn a ton.

With a few weeks left, I’m feeling good about where our project is and excited to bring it across the finish line. Shivam’s presentation was a nice boost of inspiration and a reminder that the work we’re doing–whether it’s for class or beyond–can lead to unexpected and meaningful places.

Open source isn’t just about publishing code; it’s about being part of something bigger. And that’s something I’ll definitely be thinking about moving forward.