Tag: advocacy

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Beyond Code: Ways to Contribute to Open Source Projects

I have been using open-source software for almost twenty-five years now. I was a user and an evangelist for open source for the first fifteen years that I used open source software. I didn’t see myself as a coder so how could I give back to the community. That changed in 2011 when I began writing for Opensource.com. I felt guilty that I didn’t do more to support the community.. I failed to realize that there is much more than coding and evangelizing that contributes to an open source community.

Here are some ways you can contribute to open source without being a community evangelist or a programmer. Documentation is one of the most important aspects of any project. It may not be intuitive how to use the software. Take WordPress and Drupal for example. It’s become easier now that you can spin up a virtual machine or a Docker image but there are still many nuances that are not intuitive and that is where good documentation plays an important role.

User testing is another way to contribute. How does the software operate on a variety of different platforms and operating systems. Providing feedback on usability and bugs. Community support by participating in forums and wikis by answering questions and provide support to other users. I have been a Linux user since the late 1990’s and in the early days before the World Wide Web existed the chief method of support was joining listservs and bulletin board. Now there are more resources for users but community support continues to be a great help even for experienced users.

Financial contributions help maintain and develop the project. One of the ways you can support open source is through the Github Secure Open Source Fund. I am a Linux Mint user and I have made regular contributions to the project. GnuCash is another project I contribute to. Consider contributing to podcasters like LateNight Linux. You can support Fosstodon and other Mastodon instances.

Advocacy is one of the principal ways I support open source. You can too. Advocate for the adoption of open-source solutions in organizations, educational institutions, and among peers. There are still many folks in communities around the globe that know nothing of open source and the benefits of using open source software. Thirty-three years after the advent of Linux a majority of the folks I come in contact with everyday have never used it nor do they understand the tremendouse personal and professional benefits they might enjoy as a user.

I advocated for the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Library System to move away from a proprietary library system. The system adopted Koha which is supported by Bywater Solutions. The library system saved over $60,000 per year and were ready for the pandemic when libaries were forced to close their doors. Moving from an expensive client-server proprietary system to an open source one that needed only a FireFox browser to navigate was a game changer. I learned about Bywater and Koha from an open source using library director.

Consider sharing your open source experience by writing and sharing your journey with technology blogs like Allthingsopen.org. You might consider sharing your journey with others. Volunteer at meetups, workshops and hackathons and open source conferences. Offer others your open source journey at public libraries. There are many ways to give back.

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Solar Nation

In case you’ve been asleep for the past seven years, we are in an energy crisis. The leadership of our country has failed to recognize this fact and has failed to call on us the citizens to implement strategies that will protect not only our environment, but our very way of life. Renewable energy is perhaps the one strategy which could lift our dependence on foreign oil and our over reliance on fossil fuels in general. Renewable energy is good for the environment too because it lessens greenhouse gas emissions which are contributing global warming. One of the methods governments can promote renewable energy is through the use of targeted tax cuts. Up until now all the bills that have passed through our national legislature have been defeated by both Republican and Democratic lawmakers which demonstrates the hold that the oil and gas industry has on our country. It’s easy to blame Messrs. Bush and Cheney, but while they are not advocates of this energy, they are not completely responsible for the non-action.

in brief, they’ve all been about funding: the bills either targeted oil & gas industry revenues to pay for the tax credits, or they had no source of funding at all. So they all ran into roadblocks manned, respectively, by Senate Republicans or House Democrats. To this day, no-one is willing to budge an inch from their position, even with legislation as important as this.

This week we heard something different from Capitol Hill. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi are urging the House Ways & Means Committee to support a small ($6-8 billion) renewable energy tax extenders package that would include Solar and that would be funded, not from the oil & gas industry but from the reporting of credit-card transactions to the IRS.–Solarnation

If you would like to take true patriotic action in the run up to this year’s Memorial Day call on your elected representatives to consider joining Solar Nation and do your part to foster renewable energy.