Get started with open source projects this hacktoberfest.

Sharing helpful resources and tips

Photo by NESA by Makers on Unsplash

This article is best for beginners or one who is struggling to get open source projects .I am sure you will start making contributions if not started yet.For what you waiting for,let’s do it.

Why should i contribute to open source projects?You may have your own motivation in contributing open source projects ,i’have listed few of reasones

1. You will learn how to develope your own libraries
2. Familiarity with how production code is written and continous collaboration done in project work
3. Making connections and getting recognised in developer community
4. Getting preferences in interviews and your brand value
5. Above all feeling of satisfaction and happiness that your contributuion matters a lot and your code is improving life of others.

Register at digital ocean hacktober fest to participate in hacktoberfest.
It is about contributing in open source projects in october month and make 4 Pull Requests(PRs) to win awesome swags and t-shirts.Best time to start with open source projects.

List of resources to search for open source projects in AI domain

• Explore many open source projects in machine learning at madewithml
• Open source libraries of AI where you may wish to contribute

Pytorch

Tensorflow

conda-forge

Nvidia

Facebook research

Microsoft research

Google

Numpy

Scikit-learn

Tips and tricks

• Make best use of search box in github

But how? I am suggesting best tricks to customize your search on github.

Go to search box on github profile page ,here it is located as in below picture.

Type good-first-issue and select All Github as below.You will have all issues labeled as good-first-issue.

You can further customise using filters such as open or closed good first issues ,programming languages used in project. See below in picture

See how i searched issues and result obtained.

Now i want to see open issues on which i can work in python programming language.See results in right

Now i can further customize ,see in highlighted section. You have 8 options to filter issues such newest,oldest opened issues.

Vow! it’s great. I found it really helpful to search projects i want to work on.

You can search using any kind of labels such as issues,dependencies,docs,ml libraries.Again you can choose open issues,newest opened,programming laanguage etc.

• Check other contributors profiles

While exploring great organisations open source projects,you would see there contributors and members.It’s good to click on there profiles (you just hover pointer on there name ,it will show small details if want to know more then right click) and check their work and projects they are woring on. How it can be useful for you?

You will get to know other orgaisations projects about whome you don’t have idea or heard.You may be looking for research professor you can get there easily this way.Also you can have sense of how to update ,proper github profile.You may find interesting personal project you would like to contribute.I’m sharing demo here to see other contributors/owner’s profiles.I’m referring screenshots of issue i am working on.

If you want to see profile of issue author or owner or contributor involved in issue,just hover mouse pointer on name and get little intro about them.If want to know other organisations they has worked or working for,clicked on their name and it will land you on their github profile. See below for better clarity.

See list of organisations below contribution graph and click on specific org to land on organization’s github page.

• Keep record of open source projects working on

Make sure that you have record somewhere current issues you are working on,so that you don’t loose track of your work.You can make cards on trello or anywhere else you like as i did.I have created opensource list and many cards inside it such as Issues working on,libraries where i want to contribute ,contribution and learning. You would have clear understanding on what projects,issues you are working also having learning records what you learnt in particular project.You can also use it later on to explain learning in specific project work in interviews or blog or any third party interested to know your work.

Resources if unfamiliar with how to use git and github

I am sharing few resources for beginners where you can learn how to start with git and github.

1. Step by step guide to git
2. Getting started with git and github ,beginners guide

3. You can also refer to contribution guide lines file in project to get start.

I encourage you all to start with open source contribution if haven’t started yet.I have created few issues for beginners i encourage to see issues and start your open source journey.

Need any help or struggling to start with open source project at any point,don’t forget to comment or reach out to me at Linkedin or Github.Happy to help you !