From one open source rookie to an audience of experts in the industry, here are some of my thoughts about my six-month experience in open source.
I am not an engineer, I was not a writer, I don’t study cybersecurity or machine learning and for me, Python is a scary snake. I am a student at Northeastern University studying Marketing and Interaction Design just completing my co-op assignment with VMware’s Open Source team. While my basic background knowledge in computer science may have been slightly higher than the average non-computer science student peers at Northeastern, coding in HTML and CSS to make marketing-based pop-ups did not feel like nearly enough to prepare me for entering the open source world.
But I was entirely wrong.
In my six month journey at VMware, I went from not being able to explain “open source” to helping some of the best and brightest engineers in the community create a voice for themselves. Although the definition of open source may differ from person to person, I see it as collaborative software used as templates and backbones for new and improving projects — for creating the next “big thing.” If it’s new, emerging and daring — you’ll find it in open source.
But how does a rookie enter into this world? Creativity and curiosity were the stepping stones of finding a place for myself in this community. Honestly, I learned open source needs to become universal and should be shared with everyone. And I learned there’s space for everyone in open source — amateur (like me) and non-technical (like me). The open source world not only appreciates diversity; it craves it and is proud of it. It seeks diversity of all types beyond highlighting a female engineer and seeks experience, stories and backgrounds from all avenues. Writing about Tim Pepper’s keynote at KubeCon on the Indigenous Population of California and how even that can impact tech really sharpened my awareness. I never thought I could be helpful, let alone contribute to an industry that is focused on software. But again I was wrong.
I have had such amazing opportunities to work with engineers who completely inspired me and changed my outlook on coding — why had no one previously taken the time to tell me this industry revolves around creativity?
So what do I think needs to happen? Of course, don’t feel pressured to change your life based on this blog post… but I hope to open your eyes to how I, as a new entrant to the industry, think we can work to expand the open source community. Collaboration is key, right? That is the whole point of open source software — that anyone and everyone can at least try to contribute. I know for a fact I haven’t completed one project without the help of my team, and no one expected me to. We need to stop expecting one person to be able to do everything and know everything. We need to tap into the creativity and diverse backgrounds of each person and start building teams with the full spectrum of talent. We need to constantly catch ourselves when we speak a “secret language” not everyone may understand — as Nigel Brown notes in his presentation at All Things Open – LGTM.
When I first saw that was his presentation title, I wasn’t sure what this was all about — no one else seemed confused. It wasn’t until I started working on the blog that I learned LGTM is shorthand for “Looks Good To Me.”
We need to purposefully be lowering that last rung on the ladder, creating open source events for beginners like the Grace Hopper Conference. Rose Judge, one of the first engineers I interviewed at VMware spoke about the comfort of the participants at the Grace Hopper Conference in July of 2021, noting that working directly with a female maintainer allowed collaborators to ask all of their questions without feeling intimidated by the perception of judgement women sometimes feel in mixed company.
We need to constantly be opening the door for newcomers, or else we will be disregarded by all of the endlessly talented creatives and entrepreneurs that could be so influential to innovation. We need to be brave and adventuresome and say, “Sure! What’s that?” whenever we encounter something new. Just ask anyone in the Open Source or Brand Team at VMware — they’d tell you that’s my catchphrase. And when you’re on the receiving end of that question, be humble and kind as you bring this eager newcomer along. Make the word “community” genuinely mean community and putting people first.
I am consistently impressed by the world of open source and wish as a society we could adopt similar methods of contributing to work for the greater world to use. Constantly being on the brink of innovation without income as task number one. Whether you have been involved for 10 years or this is the first time you’ve heard of open source, keep your eyes open, ask as many questions as you can — and definitely do not be afraid to collaborate.
I am honored to have become a part of this welcoming community and hope to stay in the industry and inspire more people like me to participate.
