Contributing to open source projects
The world relies on open source software, full stop: Linux, Android, Mozilla Firefox, Chromium (the underlying code for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge), Visual Studio Code, WordPress, Vue.js, React, and others. Everyone likely interacts with some sort of open source technology almost every day, even if they aren’t aware of it. You can find a ton of really interesting open source code too! Even the original Apollo 11 guidance computer source code has been open sourced (https://github.com/chrislgarry/Apollo-11/)! But without people using and contributing to these projects, they wouldn’t survive and propagate as they have.
Contributing to and participating in the open source community has changed a lot over the years, particularly with the advent of GitHub. In many ways, it’s easier than it ever was before. GitHub has great search functionality, standardized source code management, and common terminology. Regardless, there...