You Belong Here

We Can Make Open Source More Open

by Jason Lengstorf
@jlengstorf  ·  jason@lengstorf.com

Slides: git.io/you-belong-here

👋 Hi! I’m Jason.

• I like to learn
• I like to teach
• Formerly: Gatsby, IBM
• Portland, OR

Open source is awesome

Open source is everywhere

A huge portion of the web is powered by Open Source: WordPress, React, Drupal, Angular, jQuery, Bootstrap, and thousands of other projects.

Open source is good business

• Access thousands of developers’ collective skill
• Reduce development and maintenance costs
• Build good will with the community
• Improve your ability to attract and retain talent

Open source is empowering

• Create a body of work that looks great on a CV
• Build a referral network for paid work
• Turn it into a sustainable source of income

But...

Open source is daunting

Open Source is unfriendly

Open Source is intimidating

• Thousands of lines of code
• Tons of required context and history

Open Source is challenging

Open Source is confusing

Not to mention the awkward social dynamics

Imposter syndrome: I am surrounded by beings of impossible, cosmic intelligence

Also imposter syndrome: I, an incompetent, have tricked them all

— Jules Glegg 🏳️‍🌈 (@riotjulesfern) January 30, 2019

I have first hand experience with this. I spent a few hours working on my first PR a few years ago. The maintainer was rude while giving a short “wrong” answer with no explanation and closed it. Now, unfortunately I rarely contribute to any OSS because of that interaction.

— Jeff Smith (@jspoker) January 24, 2018

Open Source is an expense not everyone can afford

• We may not have free time to work on open source
• Our jobs may not support contributing as part of our workload

Many people don’t see themselves represented in open source

Is open source actually open?

The open source community is everything We need to make sure it’s healthy

We need to be proactivein creating community

• Actively reach out and welcome new contributors
• Remember how steep the learning curve can be
• Invest in community as a primary success metric

If we don’t, we lose

• We lose so many brilliant people who have so much to contribute
• We lose an opportunity to spread out the maintenance burden
• We lose the opportunity to build support networks

You Belong Here

To foster belonging our communities need to be welcomingcompassionateand safe.

Hold up!

We can’t just say this stuff.

Community is like a campfire keep it alive and it will keep us all warm & welcome

It’s not enough to say“Our community is welcoming.”We need to actively welcome people into the group

Actively welcoming people means:

• Investing in onboarding for new contributors
• Putting your money where your mouth is with representation and inclusion
• Showing gratitude in meaningful ways
• Building trust and safety

Invest in onboarding for new contributors

• Write docs for first-time contributors
• Label issues that are beginner-friendly
• Offer pair programming and/or mentorship

Put your money where your mouth is with representation

• Appoint leadership that looks like your community
• Hold yourself publicly accountable to the groups that need representation
• Actually do the work to meet these commitments

Show gratitude in meaningful ways

• Every contributor is noticed and thanked
• Businesses: send swag and/or donate in each contributor’s name

Gatsby’s swag store gives free swag to contributors.

Build trust & safety

• Invite contributors to your GitHub organization
• Default to transparency
• Create clear channels for feedback
• Define clear processes for handling problems
• Make space for quiet voices

Read The Culture Code.

Read April Wensel’s work on Compassionate Coding.

Remember:You Belong Here

Let’s Make Open Source More Open Together

Thanks!

Jason Lengstorf

Follow me on Twitter: @jlengstorf
lengstorf.com · learnwithjason.dev