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Decoding Open Source

Finding your first (healthy) community

Dominik Kawka

Associate AI Community Architect

Ananya Nalavathu

Community Architect Intern

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What we’ll discuss today

Agenda

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What is (and isn’t) Open Source?
Why contribute?
Community Red/ Green flags
Best Practices & First Contributions
Open Source Community Examples

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What is Open Source?

Raise of hands: Who is familiar with open source? Who has contributed to open source?
[Dominik]It isn’t a “weekend hobby”, many companies are contributing to open source, and many do it full time.
[Dominik]Organisations like CNCF and PyTorch Foundation are there to make sure projects are held to certain standards.
[Dominik]Governments are starting to adapt open source technologies; https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/collection/open-source-observatory-osor/news/denmark-embraces-open-source-software

Why contribute?

[Dominik]Open source paradox; not as much funding put into Open Source as much as it gives worth, projects always looking for any contributors.
[Dominik]Not all contributions need to be coding related.
[Dominik]Building real experience, working with a team, and reviewing pull requests.

Green & Red Flags to look out for

[Dominik]Green flags-

Active PRs/Comments,
Project Governance,
Good first issues,
Contributor Ladder
DCO signoff

[Dominik]Red flags-

One person/ One company exclusively gets PRs merged,
Low activity,
No licences,

Experience working in open source communities + Best practices

[Dominik]Some maintainers for certain projects may be unwelcoming at first

Dealing with not-skilled-enough developers, who may want to “help” but just end up asking lots of questions and “waste” the project maintainers time

[Dominik]Don’t contribute for the sake of contributing; finding a project that you’re interested in
[Dominik]Observing the community and project first:

Using your own judgment to find any potential gaps… e.g. missing feature, bug fix, documentation
Not so obvious ones can include outreach, advocacy, submitting use cases/ talks about the project, blog posts, automated youtube thumbnails

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What is Open Source?

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Misconceptions about Open Source

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Source:

https://kimmoir.blog/2011/01/14/smashing-open-source-stereotypes/

“Open Source Software is written by hobbyists”
“Open Source Software isn’t as secure as proprietary options”
“Open Source Projects don’t have consistent infrastructure and standards”
“I can’t contribute to Open Source unless I am a great programmer”
“Open source communities are not welcoming to newcomers”

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[Dominik]It isn’t a “weekend hobby”, many companies are contributing to open source, and many do it full time.
[Dominik]Open source technologies aren’t as secure, or high quality as proprietary software
[Dominik]Organisations like CNCF and PyTorch Foundation are there to make sure projects are held to certain standards.
[Ananya]Not all contributions need to be coding related. Open source for everyone!
Ananya - you need to more technical to get involved
Open source communities are not welcoming to newcomers
*Its just a volunteer thing - no real career path ( coz its community involvement)*
Open source projects are messy and unorganized.

https://kimmoir.blog/2011/01/14/smashing-open-source-stereotypes/

https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/opendata/open-source-software-addressing-some-misconceptions-and-stereotypes

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Source:

https://pytorch.landscape2.io/

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Source:

https://landscape.cncf.io/

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Source:

https://pytorch.landscape2.io/

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Why Contribute?

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The Value of Open Source Software Harvard Study

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https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/24-038_51f8444f-502c-4139-8bf2-56eb4b65c58a.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEBBPj7pIKo

Harvard 2024 Study on the economic value of open source

Many companies use some sort of open source project, even if their code is proprietary, some dependency that they use is open.

Programming languages, including Python are open source, imagine if each company had to write their own “python” from scratch, or if you wanted to switch jobs, you’d have to learn a new language.

Linux Foundation study found that approx $175m directly funds Open source software, where does the other money come from?

Companies paying devs to work on Open Source
Government funding
Academia

[Dominik]Open source paradox; not as much funding put into Open Source as much as it gives worth, projects always looking for any contributors.
[Dominik]Not all contributions need to be coding related. Open source for everyone!
[Dominik]Building real experience, working with a team, and reviewing pull requests.

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What to look out for in a open source project?

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Red and Green flags within communities

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Source:

Iopensource.guide | github.com/cncf/project-template

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Provides transparency and accountability on who leads the project

and how decisions are made.

Contributor Ladder

Project Governance

Defines a clear pathway on how to go from project user,

to contributor, to reviewer, maintainer etc.

CONTRIBUTING.md

Clearly defined README.md and CONTRIBUTING.md files,

describing what the project does and the workflow to contribute.

Green flags

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So now that we know what open source is and why it matters the next question is, how do you actually find a good one to contribute to? Because not all open source projects are created equal. Some will welcome you with open arms. Some will ghost your PR for six months and never say a word.
So let’s talk about the green flags first the signs that tell you this is a community worth your time…

Contribution Guidelines: First thing I look for does the project have clear contribution guidelines? If they've taken the time to document how to contribute, they want contributors. That's your first green flag.
Project Governance: Who's in charge? How are decisions made? A healthy project is transparent about this. You shouldn't have to guess who runs things or how.
Contributor Ladder: This is my personal favourite a contributor ladder tells you exactly how to go from complete stranger to trusted maintainer. It means the community has thought about your growth, not just their own roadmap.

Icons Repo: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1SRhy8-bYBgaA3Jsi1t_Fxz-Yo9ORgdRy5Kec9hg_wSM/edit?slide=id.g3a645ad979b_52_2133#slide=id.g3a645ad979b_52_2133

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Source:

goodfirstissues.dev | choosealicense.com | developercertificate.org

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Green flags

An intentional, welcoming front door for newcomers,

good first issues should have a low barrier of entry.

Licensing and DCO Sign Offs

Good FIrst Issues

Licences define how you can use, modify, or distribute projects.

DCO sign offs establish guardrails that protect your code.

Activity in and outside of GitHub

Proof that the project is alive, and project maintainers are

actively reviewing and welcoming new contributions.

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Activity in and outside of GitHub Is the project actually alive? Check when the last commit was, whether maintainers are responding to issues, and whether PRs are being reviewed and merged.

Good First Issues If a project has good first issues and I mean real ones, not just labelled and forgotten it means they are actively thinking about onboarding new people. It's basically the community putting out a welcome mat for you. If you see this label, walk through that door.

Licensing and DCO Sign Offs A license tells you exactly how you can use, modify, and distribute the project .

And a DCO signoff means contributors are accountable for what they submit.

Icons Repo: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1SRhy8-bYBgaA3Jsi1t_Fxz-Yo9ORgdRy5Kec9hg_wSM/edit?slide=id.g3a645ad979b_52_2133#slide=id.g3a645ad979b_52_2133

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Source:

github.com/firstcontributions/first-contributions

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Source:

github.com/firstcontributions/first-contributions

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Red Flags

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The lack of green flags is a red flag itself, but be sure to look out for these cases:

Source:

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Unaddressed or ignored pull requests; Finding a pattern or reason as to why…

Unresolved Activities

When a single company controls a project, it can be prone to drastic and sudden changes, ranging from shifting project focus, paywalling certain features, or abandoning the project altogether.

Single Company Control

“Code is the documentation” is not a valid mindset! Documentation is difficult to upkeep, and is often a bottleneck in open source communities…

No Documentation

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Is this a red flag or green flag?

Source:

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What is Open Core?

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Best Practices and Contributions

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Every Community Has a Culture

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Code of Conduct = safety signal

People stay for the community

Culture outlasts the codebase

The culture of a community shapes everything how decisions get made, how welcome you feel, how long you stay

Values over rules

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Think of it Like Joining a New Team

Read open issues and PRs

Find the project on GitHub

Join the community chat

What would you do on your first day?

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You wouldn't walk into a new team and immediately propose a complete rebrand. Open source is the same. You observe first, you learn the culture, and then you act.

Find the project on GitHub Start where everyone starts GitHub. Find a project you actually use or care about. Contributing to something you've never touched is hard. Contributing to something you love is easy.

Read open issues and PRs "Before you write a single line, scroll through the open issues and recent pull requests. This tells you what the community is working on, how they communicate, and what's actually needed right now.

Join the community chat Most projects have a Slack, Discord, or mailing list. Join it. Introduce yourself. You don't have to say anything clever just say hello. That one message makes you a face, not a stranger.

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Think of it Like Joining a New Team

Make your first small contribution

Understand contribution guidelines

Invite feedback on your contribution

What would you do on your first day?

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Looking for new Kubeflow Release Manager Shadows!

We are assembling a new release team for Kubeflow Release v26.10.

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Add us on LinkedIn!

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Thank you

Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of enterprise open source software solutions. Award-winning support, training, and consulting services make

Red Hat a trusted adviser to the Fortune 500.

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youtube.com/user/RedHatVideos

facebook.com/redhatinc

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