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#100DaysOfOSS: Growing Skills and Real-World Experience

Inspired by the great work of the #100DaysOfCode challenge, we're starting #100DaysOfOSS.

With this challenge, OpenSauced hopes to help contributors enhance their skills, expand their abilities, gain practical experience over 100 days, support maintainers, onboard more contributors into open source, and expand the open source community. With a focus on open source software (OSS), we encourage contributors of all technical backgrounds to immerse themselves in the world of collaborative development and engage with a supportive community.

How to Participate​

The beauty of this challenge is that you're not required to code. The main purpose is to grow in your understanding of open source software (OSS), contribute in ways that are meaningful to you, and further develop the skills and knowledge you're interested in pursuing. It's all about personal growth and making a positive impact on the OSS community. Because this challenge is focused on growth, you can participate in any way that helps you achieve your goals, including taking days off when you need it.

There are numerous ways to participate in the #100DaysOfOSS challenge, including:

Content Creation​

Love creating content? Here's how you can use this skill for the challenge:

  • Give a talk or presentation on OSS.
  • Participate in or even start an X Space.
  • Write a blog post or create a video about OSS.

Project Management​

Want to improve your project management skills? Need to get better at communicating or giving feedback to others? Here's how you can use this skill for the challenge:

  • Review pull requests.
  • Triage issues.
  • Start meaningful discussions.
  • Write issues to identify bugs or suggest new features.

Community Engagement and Leadership​

Community experience is involved in many different tech jobs, including support, success, Developer Relations, Developer Experience, and more. Community experience can be a valuable skill to develop. Some ways you can do this:

  • Engage in the community by sharing your insights and knowledge.
  • Support contributors working on OSS projects, providing guidance and support.
  • Create a study group or accountability group where you work on your goals.

Technical Skills​

Now is a great time to show your technical growth. Here are some paths you can take:

  • Update or write documentation to improve clarity and usability.
  • Maintain a project: review pull requests, triage issues, and respond to questions.
  • Submit pull requests to contribute code changes.

Tracking Your Progress​

To keep track of your progress, post on social media, your blog, or any other platform you prefer with:

  • progress you made,
  • the day of the challenge indicated by 'D',
  • the hashtag #100DaysOfOSS.

For example, if you're on day one, you could say, "Today, I reviewed the documentation for the OpenSauced/App repository. D1 #100daysOfOSS." Then, on day two, you would continue with D2, and so on.

Here's what you can do if you're ready to join this challenge:

The Official Kickoff​

The #100DaysOfOSS challenge is flexible; you can join whenever you're ready. Just jump in at any point and begin with day one of your personal challenge.

Support​

To make the most of your #100DaysOfOSS journey, here are some additional resources and events you can explore:

  1. Weekly X Spaces: Join our X Spaces, where we discuss open source topics, share insights, and connect with like-minded individuals. Follow us on X to stay updated on upcoming sessions.

  2. Community events: Discover a wide range of events on our community docs page. Whether hack days, workshops, or office hours, these events provide excellent opportunities to learn, collaborate, and find new projects to contribute to.

  3. Contribution opportunities: If you're actively looking for open source projects to contribute to, check out the post for new contribution opportunities.

  4. Weekly office hours: Have questions or need help? Join us on Discord during our office hours or post on our #100DaysOfOSS channel. We're here to help you succeed!

Where to Start?​

If you're ready to start your #100DaysOfOSS journey, here are some tips to help you get started:

  • Find a project: Explore the OpenSauced website to find a project that interests you. You can also check out the weekly post for exciting contribution opportunities.
  • Take our Intro To Open Source course: If you're new to open source, we recommend taking our Intro to Open Source course to learn more about open source and how to get started.
  • Record your journey: You will learn a lot as you navigate this challenge, so we highly recommend using our #100DaysOfOSS journal template on GitHub or Notion to help you reflect. Remember, this is your journey, so feel free to customize them however you like.
  • Check our Contributors Guide: If you're new to contributing to open source, we recommend checking out our Contributors Guide to OpenSauced to learn more about the process and best practices.

The Power of the #100DaysOfOSS Challenge​

The #100DaysOfOSS challenge offers a supportive community where developers can find encouragement, share experiences, and overcome roadblocks together.

Our hope is that the community will provide a safe space to discuss challenges, celebrate achievements, and exchange insights, creating an environment that helps individuals stay on track and avoid giving up.

Why Join the #100DaysOfOSS Challenge?​

  1. Skill enhancement: By working on real-world projects, you'll gain practical experience and exposure to different projects, documentation, communities, programming languages, frameworks, and tools. You'll also learn from experienced developers, receive feedback on your code, and improve your problem-solving abilities.

  2. Collaboration and networking: You'll have the opportunity to work alongside other contributors, collaborate on shared goals, and build professional relationships. This experience can lead to networking opportunities, mentorship, and exposure to diverse perspectives in tech.

  3. Resume and portfolio boost: Experience in open source demonstrates your ability to work in a team, follow best practices, and contribute to larger codebases. Open source contributions are tangible evidence of your skills, commitment, and ability to grow.

  4. Learning from peers: By examining the codebase, participating in discussions, engaging in the community, and reviewing pull requests, contributors can gain insights into different approaches to community, projects, coding styles, architecture patterns, and software development best practices, accelerating a developer's learning curve.

  5. Making a positive impact: Your contributions benefit other contributors who rely on these projects, fostering a sense of fulfillment and giving back to the community.

Weekly Office Hours​

Have questions or need help? Join us on Discord and post on our #100DaysOfOSS channel. We're here to help you succeed!

Happy contributing, and best of luck on your #100DaysOfOSS adventure!