Making your voice heard: Open Source Needs You

The people who contribute to an OSS project are the ones shaping its future. But if you've never contributed to an Open Source project before, it can be daunting to submit your first pull request and become part of its community, especially if you're from an underrepresented group in tech. This might keep you from contributing in the first place, meaning your voice, experience, and opinions will be lost. What if you could submit a pull request with confidence, contribute your skills & experience, and become a meaningful part of a project?

My talk will explain what contributing to Open Source actually means, show the ways in which you can contribute (social and technical) and present paths to get started with your first contribution. By the end, you will know how to find a project you’re passionate about, and how you can go about improving it and the Open Source community—one contribution at a time.

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Laura is a manager at Travis Foundation and the organiser of Rails Girls Summer of Code — a 3-month scholarship program to support women in the Open Source community. With a background in the visual arts and a non-traditional career path, she landed in tech as a web developer somewhat by accident. Laura is passionate about making things, coaching at programming workshops, Open Source software, feminism, music and space (as in rockets).