Other Groups + Preparing for our Presentation

Lucide & Oppia Presentations

Two of the groups that really stood out to me this week were Lucide and Oppia. I found their contributions particularly interesting because they highlighted just how diverse and dynamic open source work can be.

For instance, some contributors to the Lucide project focused on adding Figma files of the icons themselves. That was surprising and exciting to see—contributions weren’t just code-based, but also centered on design assets that help developers and designers alike. This made me realize how valuable non-code contributions can be in the open source ecosystem.

On the other hand, some contributors working on Oppia were focused on language translations. This kind of work plays a huge role in making projects more accessible and inclusive to people around the world. It reminded me that even tasks that might seem “small” at first glance can have a big impact on the overall user experience and reach of a project.

What really caught my attention, though, was the difference in tone and behavior from some of the maintainers—particularly in the Lucide group. At times, their responses came across as a bit dismissive or ungrateful, which was surprising given the effort people were putting into helping their project grow. It reinforced a really important lesson: when contributing to open source, the community’s attitude and openness matter just as much as the codebase itself. Finding a community that is welcoming, appreciative, and respectful can make all the difference in a contributor’s experience.

Presentation & Reflection on the Semester

This final week, I was able to successfully submit two pull requests to the website repository! The first one involved editing the icon on the webpages to improve readability for users. The second addressed a stagnant figure by updating the total number of contributors to reflect the most recent data. I’m really glad that I was finally able to make a code contribution—this experience taught me a lot about navigating larger codebases and understanding how to make small, impactful changes.

Earlier this week, we also gave our final presentation, where we shared reflections and insights from the semester. Overall, I’m very grateful for this learning opportunity. That said, if I were to start the semester over, I’m not sure I would choose The Odin Project again. While it was a great beginner-friendly repository with relatively approachable issues, it often felt like there weren’t many opportunities to make truly meaningful contributions.

Still, I learned a great deal—from writing my first pull request to understanding how to communicate with maintainers and work within a collaborative environment. These are skills I know I’ll carry with me into future open source work.

Reflection on Other Presentations

This week marked the beginning of group presentations, and one that particularly caught my attention was Preswald. Their team had a great dynamic and presented in a way that felt polished and well-coordinated. What really stood out to me, though, was the startup they chose—a YC-backed company focused on building data apps with Python. The concept felt genuinely promising, and I could see the potential for it to succeed as the product continues to develop.

Reflection on “Why should you have and Open Source Program Office?”

I watched the video on how many large companies starting to incorporate Open Source Program Offices. I thought this would be interesting as I had previously looked into Google’s and Redhat’s open source program offices.

Watching this video deepened my understanding of how structured open source engagement can empower both companies and individuals. I hadn’t fully considered the strategic role that an Open Source Program Office (OSPO) plays—not just in compliance, but in shaping culture, encouraging innovation, and fostering community relationships.

What stood out to me most was the dual role of the OSPO as both a facilitator and a safeguard. It acts as a bridge between developers and legal/compliance teams, allowing engineers to contribute meaningfully to open source while minimizing risks to the company. I appreciated how the video framed open source not as a side effort but as a core part of a modern organization’s identity and long-term strategy.

Thoughts on The Cathedral and the Bazaar

Reading Eric Raymond’s The Cathedral and the Bazaar gave me a clearer understanding of the different ways software can be built. The “cathedral” style feels familiar from school and work—structured, centralized, and planned out in advance. The “bazaar” model, on the other hand, is more open and community-driven.

Working on our group project, I’ve seen elements of both. We started with a rough plan, but as we’ve built more and more, the process has started to feel like a bazaar: everyone jumping in, suggesting features, fixing bugs, and learning as we go. It’s definitely not perfect, but it’s flexible—and that’s made a big difference.

Semester Long Project Updates

Over the past few weeks, my group and I have made steady progress. I’ve fully completed one pull request — #29581 — and am actively working on a second — #29571. I also have been commenting on other issues on the Github, proposing my own insight and slowly becoming more involved within the community. While our submitted pull requests have been relatively small, they’ve laid a solid foundation in terms of getting more involved in the community. In the coming weeks, I’m hoping we can take on more impactful contributions — whether that means expanding the curriculum or making improvements to the site itself.

Faces of Open Source

During our first class, we touched upon a few of the most influential figures within the open source community. The person that my teammate and I researched was Karen Sandler, the Executive Director of the Software Freedom Conservancy, a nonprofit dedicated to ethical technology. Previously, she served as the Executive Director of the GNOME Foundation (2011–2014), where she led key initiatives like the Women’s Outreach Program. It was very interesting to learn how she shifted from a legal career to one focused on ethical technology.

Choosing our Semester Long Project

The project my group and I decided to choose for the rest of the semester is The Odin Project. Similar to FreeCodeCamp, this open source project is a free community resource focused particularly on web development skills. I really like this project because contributing to an educational platform that helps people learn and grow in tech feels incredibly meaningful to me. I am working with two other classmates on this project, and although I did not know them prior, I’m excited to build a stronger relationship through this group project together.

Personal Contributions

So far, my contributions have been relatively straightforward, mainly on Wikipedia and OpenStreetMap. I found it easiest to contribute to topics that align with my personal interests. Lately, I’ve been really into electronic music, and one of my favorite artists is Dom Dolla. My favorite contribution so far has been updating his Wikipedia page—it was genuinely very enjoyable to learn more about his life and career.

Looking at a Wide Variety of Open Source Projects

Throughout the course of this week, we looked a variety of different open source projects and then we did a deep dive on one specific with the help of a group. The project evalutations I looked at were Pygame, Pytorch, and Musescore. I think my own personal criteria is that the open source project I choose to work on ideally should be Python-based, will have an active community, and will be a project focused on music creation or design. I know there were some bigger projects that groups talked about, but I prefer to view projects that have a smaller, more active commmunity. Additionally, I chose to focus on Python-driven projects because I feel like the most confident working in Python, as that is my primary programming language.

Learning new Git Commands

This past Monday, we reviewed important Git instructions such as ‘git status’, ‘git log’, ‘git branch’ etc. I found this really helpful because although I have worked with Git in the past, I never sat down and truly had a review on what the common commands did. I assumed I would just pick what they all mean within due time. I also really like how it was visualized that these git commands are purely for the local machine. It gave me a greater idea of the interactions between local servers and a remote servers.

Building Our Own Browser Add-On from Scratch

My team chose to develop a browser add-on that will give users the capability to convert any two currency amounts (for example, Euros to Dollars). We came up with the idea because we all love traveling, so we thought that this would be a useful extension for travelers who need to figure out conversion rates between different currencies. I would say our greatest challenge is our inexperience with creating browser extensions. My team is rather inexperienced in JavaScript and browser extension development, so it’s important to look online for resources.

Go Project: Purpose of Code of Conduct

The purpose of Go’s Community Code of Conduct document is to provide the public with a set of guidelines on how to use Go’s open source software. It is to establish a baseline for how they expect their users and contributors in their community to behave with one another. I definitely believe that having this type of document for all projects is very beneficial because it sets an expectation for all users to treat one another with respect.

Intro to Open Source

When I think of the term ‘open source’ I imagine a giant group of people from all around the world sitting around a giant table discussing on how to best engineer a project. That’s what I imagine underlies the initial purpose of open source: to bring together people from a variety of backgrounds who might differ in their interests and excel in their personal skillsets. However, I’m still relatively new towards open source projects and that’s the main reason why I decided to take this class this semester. I want to learn more about what open source development is, and how I can contribute to different projects in the future.