What do you know about the open-source world?
I have a deep appreciation for all the thinking behind the idea of open source and whenever I come across a project, I try to contribute to it, however modestly. Last week I sent a PR to the Developer's Toolchest, a simple and interesting open-source project that seeks to gather, catalog, and make easily findable (through tags) the useful tools any developer needs.
The project is a creation of Schalk Neethling, the Mozilla Staff Community Manager whom I had the pleasure of meeting at a recent meeting of MDN Web Docs localization initiatives. Schalk - in addition to writing very well, not only about code - independently runs some open-source projects and other significant initiatives in parallel, which I suggest everyone explore, contribute and support.
However, what caught my attention in the Developer's Toolchest, besides the idea itself, was the organization of the project. As a beginner developer, exploring the repo has given me a lot of insights on how to start and run an open-source project (or any project, in fact), no matter how small.
I especially liked how Schalk himself flagged and prioritized pending issues and ideas for improvement in issues, allowing anyone to join the initiative, rather than attempting to center everything on himself.
I also liked the fact that he created a Twitter account, where he publicly tracks the progress of the project and cherishes the contributions. I was indeed pleasantly surprised and flattered to see my name included in a tweet:
I believe that the format chosen reflects the ethics that underlie the open-source initiative and that I admire so much: giving credit where it is due, having clear guidelines for contributions, valuing and encouraging the work of others, and creating an environment favorable for collaboration, where everyone wins.
Kudos Schalk, for doing this in an exemplary way! This paragraph from your bio seems to summarize a lot about you, and explain why I could relate to you so well:
I have a core belief in the opportunities the internet can offer to empower people and communities. When you combine the reach of the web with skills in engineering, design, and compassion for others, we can impact not only our own lives but those of others as well. One of my life goals is to build a community of curious people, who share knowledge and experience in order to inspire each other to create their own opportunities using their own creativity, the web and related technologies.
Has anything like this ever happened to you? Do you have a cool project you think I should check out? Let's chat about it in the comments!
#community #opensource #webdevelopment #webdev #devtools
Originally published in Portuguese on Linkedin