Monday 4:30 p.m.–5 p.m.
Build a Better Hat Rack: All Contributions Welcome
Katie McLaughlin
- Audience level:
- Novice
- Category:
- Community
Description
By default, we idolise a 'open source contributor' as a person that contributes code. But what about all the other things in the software development lifecycle - documentation, code review, marketing, support - so much work happens without proper acknowledgement. Learn just how every little bit helps, and how to find and acknowledge these contributions.
Abstract
We have many ways of reporting and recognising our code contributions in open source projects, but often it is the work we do outside of code commits themselves that get forgotten and unattributed. Hours of code review, documentation, testing; organising of meetups and volunteering at conferences; even just brainstorming and talking about things -- just how much of this is done without any kind of accreditation?
During this session, we will discuss what it means to contribute to open source projects, what constitutes a non-code contribution, steps we can take to recognise the work of our peers, and how projects can better encourage non-code participation through recognition and acknowledgement.
The talk centres on the [LABHR](http://hawthornlandings.org/2015/02/13/a-place-to-hang-your-hat/) movement, started by Leslie Hawthorn. LABHR describes a five-step process to identify and thank, both privately and publicly, non-code contributions.
This talk also provides useful, actionable people can take to acknowledge non-code contributions in open source, and introduces `octohatrack`, a simple Python command-line tool that utilises the GitHub API to those who contribute to a GitHub project that aren't normally displayed as 'contributors'.
For open source contributors: come see just how the smallest thing you do is deeply appreciated.
For project maintainers: come learn how to find these contributors, and help retain them by giving them the gratitude they deserve.
PyCon 2016 in Portland, OR is a production of the 