Contributing to Open Source

Justin PottsMozilla Core Contributor

What is Open Source?

Open source is defined as software that is free, modifiable, and able to be redistributed.

Companies in Open Source

Why is Open Source Important?

• 98% enterprises are using OSS today

• Customer influence

• Low cost and effective

• Improved quality

What is Mozilla?

Mozilla is an open source company split into a foundation and a corporation. Their mission is “To

create a community of people that believe in keeping the web open and free.”

A Brief History

• March 31st, 1998 @ NetScape

• 10,000 people paid for a full page ad in the New York Times in 2004 – the day Firefox 1.0 launched

• Has contributors on every continent

• In 2008, 8,002,530 people downloaded Firefox, setting a Guinness World Record

• 2013 marked the launch of Firefox OS and their 15 th anniversary

How I Got Involved

• Google Code-In 2012 Finalist

• Began with Mozilla in March 2013

• Editorial reviews for Mozilla Developer Network

• Moved to QA in February 2014

What I Do Now

• “Senior Automation Engineer for mozillians.org”

• QA Project Lead for webmaker.org

• Contribute to marketplace.mozilla.org

• Work on a team of six

How You Can Get Involved

• Find a company that has a mission that appeals to you

• Choose a particular field that you think you would enjoy

• Look for ways to contribute (Bugs that need fixing or filing, design improvements, documentation creation/updates)

Benefits of Contributing

• Get invited to events

• Potential internships

• Increased job prospects

• Connections

• Recommendations

How Computer Science Helped Me

• Fundamentals

• Resume builder

• Broader knowledge

• Access to more projects

Things to Do

• Learn more languages (Python, JavaScript, Objective-C, PHP...)

• Find an interesting open source project

• Get familiar with the software

• Learn more tools

• Stimulate yourself outside of class (Competitions, hackathons, meetups)

Check out Some of My Work

• GitHub profile: https://www.github.com/justinpotts

• Bugzilla profile: http://mzl.la/1BwKD6O

DEMO

Questions