The Future of Open Source: Empowering New Developers with Major League Hacking

In this interview, Fiona Whittington, a representative from Major League Hacking (MLH), discusses the organization's mission to empower the next generation of developers. With a community of over 150,000 developers each year, MLH is influencing the future of technology by helping their members gain hands-on experience with open source development. Fiona shares that while interest in open source is at an all-time high, many students face the barrier of getting started. The conversation concludes with Fiona’s advice for community leaders to show value and encourage contributions from people at any skill level. 

00:00 Introduction and Guest Presentation
00:28 Understanding Major League Hacking (MLH)
02:00 Barriers to Open Source Contribution
03:41 Addressing Imposter Syndrome in Tech
05:08 The Importance of Non-Code Contributions
07:57 The Evolution of Open Source
11:49 The Future of Open Source
12:16 Advice for Newcomers to Open Source
13:42 Personal Journey into Open Source
17:37 The Gap Between Classroom and Industry
18:08 Hacktoberfest
19:18 Conclusion

Guest: Fiona Whittington is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at Major League Hacking (MLH), where she supports 150,000 aspiring technologists each year. In college, she founded the award-winning nonprofit TechTogether (acquired 2022) credited in part for increasing the representation of women in collegiate hackathons globally by 18%. Her work for TechTogether has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Boston Globe. Fiona previously worked in marketing at Red Hat and Armored Things (now Lambent).