Strange Loop

Jumpstart Your Open Source Journey

Getting involved in Open Source Software (OSS) can seem mysterious, elusive, cryptic. While about all of the tools and information for major projects and with established foundations can be found in the (you guessed it) Open, it may still seem unapproachable. Yes, there is a bit more to things than just posting code on GitHub for others to see - but not necessarily much of a higher bar than that.

In this workshop, Aizhamal and Austin will share their experiences with various Open Source projects, and especially drawing upon experiences with the Apache Software Foundation. We will demystify the process and share helpful tips for getting started and becoming community members. Finally, we will help those interested to make their first git-based/’code’-contribution(s) to existing open source projects.

Austin Bennett

Austin Bennett designs systems to help move, share, gather insights from data and develop products efficiently. He is also a Cognitive Linguist with a focus on multimodal communication. He is passionate about education and sharing knowledge; having reached thousands of people in interactions ranging from one-on-one to large group training. Austin is an Apache Beam committer; he encourages people to get involved with Open Source Software however sensible. When not on a computing machine, Austin can most often be found on the water in the San Francisco Bay, in the nearby hills on a bike, or on a doubles squash court.

Aizhamal Nurmamat kyzy

Google OSPO

Aizhamal is a Program Manager at Google Open Source Programs Office, where she works with product teams and open source communities on strategies to promote community health, project adoption, diversity and inclusion. She is a member of the Apache Software Foundation, a Committer in the Apache Beam project, and a PMC member in the Airflow project. Aizhamal is originally from Kyrgyzstan, but currently lives in Seattle.