Contributing

For a while now I’ve wanted to contribute to something open source, but I really didn’t know where to begin or what would be a good fit for me. So I joined Github and just kind of hung around, watching some projects that interested me, but other than that not doing too much. Well all of that changed last week.

First, since I’ve been working on learning Python I have joined the local Pyladies group here in Portland. I’ve gone to several meetups this month and through that group I’m now helping out with one project and in talking with and becoming friends with some of the other ladies, I think other projects may come from this as well. Right now I’m contributing my front end skills to fix bugs and just help things look better, but hopefully in the future I’ll also be able to contribute something in Python as well.

The second project is a site based on trying to help developers get better at Accessibility, a11yproject.com. This site was put together in a weekend, spearheaded by Dave Rupert. I wasn’t able to do much towards the development of the site, but I’ve been trying to put write up some quick tips to add to the site’s content. So far that is working for me and since I’m currently reading Joshue O Connor’s book, Pro HTML5 Accessibility it is a perfect time since I am somewhat immersed in the topic. Now I need to clean up this site to reflect all the cool accessibility stuff I’ve been learning.

It feels good to be contributing to a community that has done so much to help me learn and grow in my field. I am really excited to see how I can give back in the future and how I may be able to start something open source of my own.