When it comes to open source, the best way to master the technology and improve one’s skills with open source is to contribute to open source projects. Open source development services are backed by a large, ever-growing community that also provides many opportunities and support for budding developers to distinguish themselves in the community. Many talented devs in the community are assisted by like-minded experts to build great experiences that people love.

This article serves to help developers who are just starting their career to get involved with the open source community and contribute to making what’s already good better. 

How to contribute

Though the community is large, when it comes to certain technologies, there is some decline in devs. However, many sectors, like the LAMP development services sector, still seems to be growing in demand despite declining community support. As for free open source software, the community is never inactive, which makes it the best place to begin. 

There are many ways to contribute and make a name for yourself as a great open source developer. 

• Understand GitHub: Being the most popular platform that facilitates open source collaboration, GitHub is the first big step for an open source aspirant. You start by simply creating a GitHub account and going through the guide. On the platform, you can then start sharing ideas and contribute to smaller projects by submitting issues and code. You can find errors in certain applications, and submit those issues in GitHubs along with your suggestions to resolve them. As for contributing code, you can send pull requests with corrections and improvements. 
  
• Refining skills to use Git: When leveraging GitHub, it’s important to learn the basics of Git as well. Git is a very popular version control tool that redefined open source CMS development. Developers would be constantly making changes to their code, which makes it challenging to track those changes. Git can do it, enabling developers to manage changes in a central repository. This way everyone involved in the project can download the software, make changes, and submit their contributions. 
  
• More than development skills: You don’t necessarily have to be a programmer to contribute to open source projects. The community welcomes documentation, translation, interface design skills, and more. You can even guide other newcomers in the community, and manage the community discussions by responding to queries.