As passionate developers, coding is more than just our profession. The sheer passion and thrill of coding is unparalleled. Open Source Software (OSS) has made a huge contribution in developing the world of Information Technology by showing new paths, building new roads and making the journey of a coder more interesting every day.

Who thought that a simple resolution taken in Palo Alto, California in January 1998 would change the face of the IT world forever. With passing time, source code of many software was made available giving anyone the right to study, edit or publish the code in a way they see fit.

The interactive web and the ever-fascinating world of IT is the fruit of embracing the open-source way. Open-source software are usually developed in collaborative public manner with a cluster of imaginations which shape them in their own unique manner finally developing a product which is robust as well as dynamic. This community effort has enabled an average user to avail a huge array of services and facilities at little to no price and has thus made the IT ecosystem pleasant in every way possible.

Today, one can either create proprietary software out of open-source software and benefit without spending much or it can just be a learning experience where one’s financial condition doesn’t become hurdle in gaining education and moving forward in life towards success.

By contributing to open-source, developers are able to develop their skills while at the same time, they provide the community with free products and services. Not to forget the brotherhood which connects one developer to another by unbiased sharing of knowledge and information in an effort to make the world a better place and making each other’s dreams come true.

If you're looking to polish your programming, what could possibly be better than open source experience; working on production level code which the world is using.

Contributing to Open Source is a rewarding way to learn and get experience in any skill you can imagine, like - Coding, UI design, Organizing or Graphic Design.

Being a newbie programmer and with the interest of contributing to such open source projects, I spent days browsing through GitHub. Searching for projects which interests me and which I am able to contribute to.

Explored some projects like FCC, Hospital Run Frontend and more. I learnt Git and GitHub workflow. Started using GitHub as a tool for working on college and group projects.

But I lacked mentors and the motivation tank was really getting empty.

I got to know BOSS - "Beautiful Open Source Summer" from Coding Blocks community in first week of May. This was something I was keen to participate in. I was eagerly waiting it to start from 15th of May and for me to submit my first PR. Before 15th I read all the rules & regulations. Understood the workflow for the contest, how it all works.

I explored different projects under Coding Blocks Organisation, started learning how the Jekyll work and submitted my first PR under this very blog project on github.

I started understanding the code base of other projects too, like Shotlr, Online IDE. Started with improving the UIs in both the projects and then with some more understanding, moved on to adding more features in the projects.

At every stage or where ever I needed some help, I was supported by the metors, which kept me motivated.

Far now I have contributed to the following projects:

By working on all the above projects, my skills have really improved. Building up new things with the people use, gives the nobelest pleasure of joy and self-satisfaction.

At the end all I can say is this summer has been the best of all times.