Step 1. Contribution：Finding an Open Source Project

Open Source Community：

Open-source communities flourish on collaboration and knowledge sharing, transcending geographical and language barriers to create inclusive spaces (THE OPEN SOURCE WAY, 2020). Exploring an open-source community for the first time has provided me with a fresh perspective on how individuals come together to collaborate and develop technology. During the first week of this Coding-Six course, I began searching for open-source projects on GitHub. As I perused various repositories, I was amazed by how contributors from diverse backgrounds and regions applied their expertise to enhance projects and resolve issues. This experience prompted me to reflect on my own skill set and consider how I could contribute meaningfully to a project that aligned with my abilities and interests.

1. Identifying My Skills and Contribution Areas

My studies in BSc Creative Computing have provided me with a strong foundation in P5.js, Python, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, enabling me to contribute to open-source projects in both technical and non-technical ways. My technical skills allow me to engage in tasks such as improving documentation, debugging, and front-end contributions. Additionally, as a native Chinese speaker, I possess the ability to work on translation documentation and proofreading, helping to make articles and technical content more accessible, especially for learners who are not native English speakers. By combining both my programming and language skills, I initially sought open-source projects where I could assist with content translation, documentation improvements, and coding issues.

2. Defining My Goal – Promoting an Open and Inclusive Learning Community

After identifying my skills and interests, I began searching for an open-source project that aligned with my goals. My aim was to contribute to a project that supports open education and creative coding, ensuring that more people—especially those facing educational resource limitations or language barriers—have easy access to programming knowledge and learning materials. By translating technical documentation and learning resources, I hope to help make these open-source projects more accessible to everyone.

Through my research, I identified several open-source projects that align with my commitment (Table 1).

Open Source Project	Primary Focus	Programming Languages	Contribution Opportunities	Open-source-License
P5.js website	Creative coding, making programming accessible to artists and educators	JavaScript, TypeScript, MDX, Markdown, SCSS	Bug fixes, feature improvements, documentation updates, translations for website	MIT License
FreeCodeCamp	Free programming education for all learners worldwide	JavaScript, Markdown	Curriculum development, Article documentation Translation	BSD 3-Clause License
Tensorflow	Machine learning and AI development	Jupyter Notebook, Python	Documentation improvements and translation	Apache-2.0 license
MDN Web Docs	Comprehensive documentation for web	Markdown	Documentation translation	Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5

Choosing the Open Source Project that align with my skills and my goal:

After exploring various open-source projects, I chose to contribute to FreeCodeCamp, a non-profit organisation dedicated to providing free, high-quality programming education and certification to learners around the world. More importantly, FreeCodeCamp’s mission is to ensure that individuals from diverse backgrounds, including those with limited access to educational resources, can learn to code for free and enhance their programming skills (Fig 1). This perfectly aligns with my goal of supporting accessible and creative coding education.

While exploring various open source projects, FreeCodeCamp has implemented a straightforward labeling system in GitHub issues, making it easier for translation contributors to be assigned tasks (e.g., labels for Spanish, Chinese, Italian, and other languages) (Fig 2). Moreover, the step-by-step contribution guidelines, complete with screenshots, serve as a valuable resource, particularly for first-time contributors like me (Fig 3). These well-structured instructions have enabled me to follow the contribution process seamlessly and submit my work in accordance with the project’s standards.

Reference:

THE OPEN SOURCE WAY 2.0 (2020) – https://www.theopensourceway.org/the_open_source_way-guidebook-2.0.html