Talk Beginner

Unlocking the Power of Open Source Contributions for Modern Career Growth

Rejected

Session Description

Linux, was my first exposure to the world of Open Source. It was non frivolous, easy to use and did the job of the OS without all the frills of being one. And similar to it, there exists a plethora of tools out there which fall under the umbrella of open source, no not free, open source, yes they are different. Well this conference for example is build around one such tool, Appium.

As human, we are all quite self – centered people. We always have excuse of not doing something, which goes beyond our comfort level. This is especially true when I talk about giving back to open source projects. But what if we learn that contributing to open source can open multiple doors for professional growth in terms of collaboration, networking, business and visibility.

I would like to showcase some of the open source projects and how you can contribute to them. You may feel encouraged to pick one, or chose any other to start. I hope through this talk people are encouraged to make an investment which returns manifolds for their professional growth in terms learning, networking, staying afloat with current trends and technologies, shine out in crowd and through all this also build a feeling of self worth, which is the highest goal in Maslow hierarchy of needs.

Through my own personal experience, and with permission from one to many open source creators and contributors, I would also show case some real life examples to learn from.

Please note most of the examples will be from the field of automation, testing, and related areas to which I have been exposed in my career.

The outline will look as follows -
a. Introduction
b. The world of Open Source with respect to Automation, Testing and similar related fields -
c. The business of Open Source, with respect to Automation, Testing and similar related fields
d. Where to begin - a bird's eye view of tools/platforms available for you.
e. Explore areas of contributing, getting associated with open source projects
f. Show case -personal experience of contributing to open source
g. Show case- people creators and contributors of open source, their reasons and success, road block
h. Q and A

Key Takeaways

The following are aimed to be learning outcome for the talk-

a. Understand how contributing to open source can help in professional growth.

b. Learn where and how you can begin contributing to open source

c. Learn, areas of contribution to open source, which are available beyond code contribution

for example - facilitate conferences around open source by participating as audience, speaker, reviewer, attendee.

-contribute to open source documentation

-found a bug while using open source, take time to raise the PR

-volunteer at events around open source

-using open source to teach people skills, saves lot of time and money

-leveraging open source in projects to solve technical problems-understand how to judge health of open source projects, this again in the end should be based on your decision, these could be used as some guiding factors

- uplift people creating and contributing to open source by just expressing a thank you, yes that is a contribution, at the end of the day those are still human, as of 2024.

d. Hopefully by end of it, one should learn to find the project that best resonates with them and contribute to them.

References

https://youtu.be/PIrWpfJuQHE?si=M3eeoYeqr-AglaFi

Session Categories

Contributing to FOSS

Which track are you applying for?

Main track

Speakers

Pallavi Sharma Founder | 5 Elements Learning

Pallavi is a versatile professional with a rich experience spanning two decades. She has contributed in various capacities as an individual contributor, technical product manager, scrum master, intellectual property rights coordinator and coach on various open source tools for test automation, programming for non programmer throughout her career and continues.

She is the Founder at 5 Elements Learning, an E Learning Organization and Mosaic Words, a Green Literature Publishing company. She is a published author of 4 books on Selenium. She is a committer to the Selenium Project, currently with Selenium Documentation. She is an active participant for various international conferences on Testing, Automation, AI and other similar areas, where she serves as a reviewer, judge, organizer, speaker and enthusiastic attendee. She also holds various certifications in her field, interests and passions.

Beyond her professional pursuits, Pallavi spends active time in writing, reading, travel, nature watching and conservation. She is dedicated to giving back to society and environment through both her time and resources. She believes in #BeKind, starting with self.

Reviews

This is an interesting talk for sure, but this has already been done a lot of times at IndiaFOSS.

Reviewer #1 Rejected

Reviewer #2 Rejected

Already been discussed many times.

Reviewer #3 Rejected

While this seems very well-intentioned, there are way too many people trying to hack career growth by contributing to open source.

This flies right in the face of the altruistic symbiotic principles that open source is built upon. The world needs more maintainers and contributors, not more flyby committers. FOSS United stands to foster the healthy development of the FOSS ecosystem in India.

Reviewer #4 Rejected

Reviewer #4 has put it well.

Reviewer #5 Rejected

The topic of the proposal has been covered many times at previous IndiaFOSS events. A significant concern was also raised that the proposal promotes "hacking career growth" through FOSS contributions, which goes against the spirit of the open-source community.

Reviewer #6 Rejected