Getting started with open source contributions for beginners
GitHub introduces beginners to open source contributions, explaining what OSS is, how to find beginner-friendly projects on GitHub, how to read a repository, and the basic workflow for making a first contribution.
Overview
This episode of GitHub for Beginners covers the basics of contributing to open source software (OSS) on GitHub.
What open source is
- Defines what “open source” means at a high level.
- Explains why open source projects exist and how people collaborate on them.
Finding open source projects to contribute to
- Walks through how to find projects that match a beginner’s skills and interests.
- Points to GitHub Docs guidance on finding ways to contribute:
Reading an open source repository
- Demonstrates how to understand a repository before contributing.
- Highlights common repo entry points (for example, documentation and contribution guidelines).
Making a first contribution
- Walks through the basic steps to make an initial OSS contribution on GitHub.
- Shares a GitHub resource explaining OSS concepts:
Video chapters
- 00:00 Introduction
- 00:30 What is open source?
- 01:11 Finding OSS projects
- 03:07 Making an OSS contribution
- 04:59 Outro