Brief Introduction to Open Source

What is really open source?

This blog summarizes what I learned during my Diploma in Software Engineering with AltSchool Africa on Open Source Contribution.

According to Wikipedia: “ An open-source software is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Open-source software may be developed in a collaborative public manner.”

This codebase is released to the public under some copyright for the right to use, change and distribute the software.

We can say Open-source is a flourishing and beneficial ecosystem that publicly solves problems in communities and industries using software through a decentralized model and community contributions. Open-source allows one to use a particular source code for their personal need. Open-source is all about collaboration. Open source projects can be free and might not be free. So we have free open source projects and non-free open source projects.

Version control is the core backbone of open source. Version Control is the process of tracking and managing changes to software code or a set of files over time. A version control software tracks every modification to a codebase in a special kind of database.

Fields in Open Source and Methods of contributing to Open source include:

Software Engineering

• Writing code
• Writing tests for code
• Reviewing code
• Beta testing

Data Engineering

• Writing code
• Data collection and cleaning
• Data analysis
• Data visualization

Writing

• Writing documentation
• Writing tutorials
• Writing translations
• Writing newsletters
• Creating or editing content

Design

• Designing designs
• UX surveys and research
• Creating styles guides
• Producing brand materials
• Marketing
• Promoting projects
• Engaging users on the internet
• Converting new users through certain means
• Developing marketing strategies

Project Management

• Managing the development phases of the project
• Managing the allocation of resources and funds
• Tasks and issues organization
• Tooling and automation
• Community Management
• Managing people and contributors
• Organizing events
• Organizing programs

Examples of Open Source projects include OpenCV, Numpy, Linux etc Open Source is all about contribution and collaboration.

Benefits of Open Source include

• Flexibility
• Cost-effectiveness
• Scalability
• Building technical work experience
• Gain experience with collaborating with people
• Building communication and soft skills
• Gain domain-specific industry knowledge
• Earn some or more living
• Access to mentorship and network opportunities
• Access to opportunities
• Career growth