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

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

www.talkingdrupal.com

www.talkingdrupal.com/315

www.nedcamp.org

Hosts

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