Talking Drupal #317 - Govcon Keynote Non-Code Contribution: Using your passion and skills to power open source.

Oct 21, 2021

Ask episode

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

Today we are talking about Non-Code Contribution

TalkingDrupal.com/317

Topics

What is Talking Drupal
- Podcast with audio and video
We recorded our 300th episode in June, over 175 guests, 700K audio downloads
Weekly episodes covering a variety of topics
Most recent 315 with Tara King, Director of Developer Relations at automatic, Comparing Drupal and Wordpress Communities
Visit www.talkingdrupal.com
This may be a different keynote than you are accustomed to. Talking Drupal is a discussion, and that’s what we are having today.
Today we are talking about Non-Code Contribution: Using your passion and skills to power open source.
What is contribution in an open-source project?
Providing your time, skills or resources to benefit the project
Today we’re talking about non code contributions
Early on contribution was considered writing code
Over time we have learned to value non-code contributions just as much as code contrib
Rather than defining non-code contribution by what it is not, we need a term to define it by what it is
Community is built in meetups, camps, and cons
Majority of contribution has nothing to do with coding at a camp
- Attending
- Speaking
- Training
- Organizing
Organizing a camp (NEDCamp.org / Nov 19th)
Volunteering at a camp
- Stephen - Sponsorship, lead for many years
- Nic - Website & Signage
- John - Current Lead, Day of Logistics, Venue coordination
Some other examples of contribution
- Mentorship
- Documentation
- Training
- Summits
- Being on a committee/Board
- Answering questions in issue queue
- Answering questions in slack
Who is a contributor?
Is it a self designation or a community designation?
Why would you contribute?
- Contribution is a relationship
- Give and receive
- Makes you feel good
- Benefit Skills
  - Technical
  - Communication
  - Project Management
- Benefit Career
  - Skills
  - Visibility
  - Building Personal Network
  - Networking at Events
- Financial Compensation
Contribute does not always mean nights and weekends
- Usually starts that way
Contribute as part of your job
- Employers are open supporting open source, there are benefits got both company and employee
- Contribute to external project or contribute internal project to open source
Will your company support your time to make NCC
- 315 we learned about Wordpress’ contribution goals
- Launched in 2014, Five for the Future encourages organizations to contribute five percent of their resources to WordPress development.
Government
- 2016 Federal Source Code Policy
- Support for open source usage, encourage sharing across agencies
- 20 percent created code should be open source
Start the Dialog with your company
Why do we contribute - Contribution can be personal like donating to your favorite charity or playing your favorite game.
- Nic
  - I was asked
  - I enjoy giving back
  - Helps my career
- Stephen
  - Sharing and Learning
- John
  - To help people and solve technical challenges for people
  - Education and knowledge sharing
  - To support something larger than myself / make the world a better place
How did TD Start
- Long before Joe Rogans podcast deal with Spotify of 100 million
- 2008 - With Liberty and Justice for All - 5th grader
- Obama McCain
- 7 episodes
- Mechanics of podcasting,work involved with pre and post record production
- Virtual book club with Jason Pamental - pick a web design book, assign weekly chapters, Google Hangout
- Like to learn - similar Drupal journeys - makings of an interesting podcast… great reason to talk every week
When did we start considering it a contribution? When did we start giving contribution credits on Drupal.org
How did Talking Drupal come to be a non-code contribution?
- It always was a non-code contribution, we didn’t consider it at first because the Drupal community was code focused.
- Drupal.org Credit for TD started 20 November 2020
Community Projects
- When did the drupal community start supporting NCC
Why is this important
How has the show & other non-code contribution impacted our lives / careers
- Stephen
  - Friendships
  - Have helped others
- Nic
  - Friendships
  - Clients
- John
  - Connections - Hey you are that guy
  - Given me a sense of value
  - Gives me a sense of supporting the community
Why are non-code contributions important
- As valuable to the health of a project as code contributions.
- There are non-code requirements for all projects
- Not everyone is a developer/coder
- Get’s more people with a variety of skills involved in the community
- Moves open source forward
Challenges of Contributing
- Contribution Imposter Syndrome
- My Contribution isn’t valuable
- Dealing with concerns that it’s not helpful
Focus on your skills and passions
Work, life, contribution balance
- Work it into your work
- Build a career based on contribution
- Contrib doesn’t have to be Nights and Weekends
- Add 30 min to the start or end of your day
- If you do tackle one thing a night
- Provide contrib during your workday
Sustainability
Projects are easy to do short time,
- Energy is high
- Newness interesting
Most podcast don’t make it past 8 episodes
- Long term is a challenge
- Pre-show guest scheduling, content planning, shownotes
- Post Production audio and video
- Release and marketing
- 1 hour show = 6 - 8 hours
Priorities and interests change over time
NCC easier to transition in and out
- Had to make transition out of my primary roles and I did that, projects have thrived in those transitions
Be honest with yourself
How to get involved / How to contribute
- Just get started
- Look at your skill set
- Look at your interests
- Ask in the issue queue or drupal slack for a starting point
- You can also reach out to most camp organizers for recommendations
Takeaways
- John
  - Anyone can and everyone should contribute
- Stephen
  - Your contribution is valuable
- Nic
  - Code and non code are equal to the long term health of the project

Resources

Hosts

Nic Laflin - www.nLighteneddevelopment.com @nicxvan John Picozzi - www.epam.com @johnpicozzi Stephen Cross - @stephencross