Kick off Your New Year Goals with #100DaysOfOSS

Welcome to 2024! With a new year, comes a lot of new goals. And if one of your goals is to contribute to open source this year, I encourage you to participate in our #100DaysOfOSS Challenge.

Last year, we launched our first #100DaysOfOSS Challenge, an initiative dedicated to empowering open source contributions, from your first exploration to your first Pull Request (PR). It’s not just about coding; it's about growing your skills, gaining real-world experience, and becoming part of a global community. Drawing from our OpenSauced page on the challenge and more posts shared here on Dev.to, we have you covered with support. The nice thing is, you don’t have to take my word for it. Our previous participants shared their words of wisdom to help you get started:

Motivations for Taking the Challenge

Our contributors joined the #100DaysOfOSS journey for many reasons. Some wanted to make meaningful open source contributions and develop a habit of sharing their journey. Others aimed to learn more about open source, help beginners, and contribute through content creation and mentorship. From improving programming skills in languages to stepping out of comfort zones and recovering from setbacks, each contributor's motivation offered a unique picture of personal and professional growth.

I had been on GitHub, working on personal projects, but I wanted to discover new communities and interesting projects outside of my comfort zone. Additionally, I aimed to sharpen my skills, particularly in Golang, and increase the visibility of my work. I had also faced two challenging interviews that had shaken my confidence, so I wanted to ensure that I could indeed excel in software development. Lastly, I wanted to gain more experience to boost my confidence in job applications.

Daily Routines and Practices

The daily routines of the participants varied widely, changing with their lifestyles and commitments. Every journey will look different, and it’s important to remember not to compare yourself with others. Take inspiration, and develop a plan that works for you. Some planned a mix of small and large tasks, fitting them into their evenings or dedicating weekends to more significant challenges. Activities ranged from drafting blog posts and attending OSS events to engaging with the OpenSauced community on issues and PRs. The common thread was a commitment to consistent and flexible involvement in open-source projects.

At the beginning of the challenge, I started by exploring some recommended repositories from the Recommended tab on Open Sauced. I gathered these repositories onto an Insights page and assessed their overall activity. From this pool, I selected repositories that fell within the small to medium size range, exhibited high activity, and were aligned with my goal.

Overcoming Challenges and Obstacles

Challenges were a significant part of the journey. Contributors faced fears of the unknown, the need to learn new technologies, and the process of receiving and giving feedback. They turned to the community for support and used personal setbacks as fuel for growth. Through perseverance and resilience, they transformed obstacles into learning and improvement.

I encountered a diverse array of challenges, spanning from personal obstacles to technical complexities. On days when I couldn't actively contribute to the projects I'm currently immersed in, primarily involving contributions through code. I dedicated my time to staying updated on the specific codebase or delving into articles relevant to the field. This allowed me to maintain my engagement with the subject matter and ensure continual learning, even when direct contributions weren't feasible. I also allowed myself to seep in these challenges in order to introspect, recalibrate and steam ahead.

Collaboration and Learning

Collaboration is an important part of the #100DaysOfOSS experience. Participants connected with others, grew their communication skills, and combined their ideas to pursue common goals. They learned to listen, share feedback constructively, and embrace new tools and practices.

I translated OpenSauced's intro course into French with Geoffrey. Through this experience, I've learned how to create remote branches and how to go about translating content into another language.

Notable Achievements and Milestones

Throughout the challenge, our contributors hit remarkable milestones. From early contributions that opened doors to more complex projects, to blog posts that gained thousands of views, each achievement reflected their dedication and growth. We loved seeing our contributors sharing their achievements and celebrating each other.

This was an early one: https://app.opensauced.pizza/feed/401 After that, I've been working on a significant contribution which is still in progress, but there will hopefully be a highlight soon. In the meantime, the PR is here: https://github.com/JoshuaKGoldberg/create-typescript-app/pull/775

Impact on Skills and Knowledge

Participating in the #100DaysOfOSS challenge led to significant knowledge and skill growth. They not only improved in specific technical areas but also developed valuable core skills such as issue prioritization, detailed feedback provision, and effective asynchronous communication. This journey proved transformative, broadening their capabilities and boosting their confidence in open-source contributions.

Spent some of my time to learn more about OSS everyday for 100 days grew my skills and knowledge significantly, especially my soft skills. I learned how to prioritize issues, look at a PR closely, give feedback to issues and PRs, and communicate async. Through these process, I got better eyes to observe and found contributors' and maintainers' pain points and how to overcome them.

Another participant said:

Participating in the #100DaysOfOSS challenge has had a profound impact on my skills and knowledge. It's opened up new horizons for me and boosted my confidence levels significantly. I've become more receptive to taking on various projects, which has allowed me to refine my existing skills while continuously learning new ones. Each dive into an open-source project has been a learning experience, contributing to both skill reinforcement and the acquisition of fresh techniques. Overall, it's been a transformative journey that's enriched my skill set and broadened my knowledge base in incredible ways.

Advice for Future Participants

To those considering the #100DaysOfOSS challenge, our contributors encourage you to take the journey with enthusiasm and an open mind. Start small, engage with the community, and remember that contributions come in many forms, not just code. Most importantly, enjoy the process and don't let the duration intimidate you; the challenge is as much about having fun as it is about learning and growing.

Just like any other habits, spending some of your time in a day everyday for 100 days to support and dive more into OSS can give you that accountability to improve yourself in OSS. And this challenge is supposed to be fun! So, taking a couple of off days in between is totally fine. Don't let the word "100 Days" discourage you from taking this challenge. When you're having fun, 100 days is too short! :)

It's a great way to track your growth too!

It has been a good consolidation experience allowing me to see how I've grown in the past couple of years since starting employment in the industry. I have also been able to apply my skills to things that are different to my usual and broaden them in the process.

The #100DaysOfOSS challenge is more than a commitment to contributing to open source; it's a journey of personal and professional growth. Through the stories of our contributors, we've seen how this challenge has opened new opportunities, built confidence, and fostered a sense of community. To get started today, check out our Challenge Page and join our Discord for all your questions.

Special thanks to our past participants, especially Ayu, Dominic, Christine, Kelvin, and Kin for their thoughtful responses.