Women in Open Source: Highlight Series
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As we all know, the presence of active women in the Open Source community is scarce. Last year, GitHub conducted an online survey in which they randomly selected 5,500 developers of open source projects, and found that only 3% of that population were female (crazy right?!?). The knowledge of that fact alone can be intimidating for other women to participate in the open source community.
So this year for Women’s History Month, the Fission team decided to host the #WomenInOpenSourceHighlight series on social media, where we shined a light on amazing women in the Open Source field. We hope that by highlighting these women and sharing their journeys, that not only will they be further amplified, but that they can encourage more women to start their journeys as contributors in open source. Whether you’ve contributed 200 lines of code or 2 lines of code, no matter how big the project, remember that every contribution makes a difference!
Check out their stories below!
Jen Looper
Occupation: Senior Developer Advocate, Progress
Twitter: @jlooper
Github: github.com/jlooper
What encouraged you to get into Open Source?
I’ve been lucky enough to help incubate our company’s first OS product, NativeScript (nativescript.org)
What tools/projects have you contributed to or created that you are most excited about? Why?
Since I love mobile apps, I have been privileged to work with the amazing engineers who created NativeScript as well as the awesome community that makes it all worthwhile. I’m particularly excited by our new community-built NativeScript-Vue integration - OS on top of OS, what a win! (nativescript-vue.org).
Do you have any advice for other women who are curious about the Open Source realm, but have not yet crossed that bridge?
Be bold, and don’t be afraid to challenge yourself to innovate! Look for friendly communities and reach out to them. It’s surprising, oftentimes, how eager people are to help.
Name one thing you love about the Open Source community! :)
The fast-moving innovation that takes place every day.
Rosy Gupta
Occupation: Engineer, IMImobile
Twitter: @rosygpta
Github: github.com/rosygupta
What encouraged you to get into Open Source?
The opportunity for exposure!
What tools/projects have you contributed to or created that you are most excited about? Why?
OpenHumans open project management. It is an admin tool making lives of people at OpenHumans easier. OpenHumans is a really cool organization making access to data easier.
Do you have any advice for other women who are curious about the Open Source realm, but have not yet crossed that bridge?
Unless you cross the bridge, you won’t really know what’s there - even if its a small contribution, starting is the key.
Name one thing you love about the Open Source community! :)
Everyone supports each other, especially to the new-comers.
Mary Thengvall
Occupation: DevRel Consultant / Persea Consulting
Twitter: @mary_grace
Github:* github.com/mary-grace
What encouraged you to get into Open Source?
The communities behind open source are incredibly passionate and inspiring. I love that the work they’re doing is intended to help others rather than only help themselves.
What tools/projects have you contributed to or created that you are most excited about? Why?
I’ve always been involved in the community-building side rather than the coding side, but the Chef community has always had a special place in my heart. They’re incredibly welcoming and have a true passion to encourage and support each other.
Do you have any advice for other women who are curious about the Open Source realm, but have not yet crossed that bridge?
Look for projects that are regularly maintained and have made an effort to cater to new contributors. They often have a lot of stars and watchers on Github, and have issues that are tagged as “beginner,” “start here,” or something to that effect. Just search for your favorite programming language, sort by stars, and start browsing! Also keep in mind that contributions don’t have to be code! Documentation is incredibly important, but is often put to the side. Every little bit helps – even if you think it’s not a “big” contribution.
Name one thing you love about the Open Source community! :)
Their passion, the pure enjoyment they get out of sharing their work, and the way that they can band together to make something better for everyone!
Amy Chen
Occupation: Systems Software Engineer, Heptio
Twitter: @theamycode
Github: github.com/amy
What encouraged you to get into Open Source?
On a practical level, its great for demonstrating your technical ability in a public forum. Contributors also need to think about the health of their project and beyond company specific agendas.
What tools/projects have you contributed to or created that you are most excited about? Why?
A personal project that I’m really excited about is running at YouTube channel called Amy Codes https://www.youtube.com/amycodes. I discuss technical and non-technical aspects of being a software engineer. On the roadmap, I’ll dive into details of Kubernetes and other distributed systems topics. To me, video is a great medium to share what I have to offer to the world.
Do you have any advice for other women who are curious about the Open Source realm, but have not yet crossed that bridge?
Something I recommend is for you to find a mentor and to not be afraid to ask for help. Navigating massive projects with a lot of history in terms of why components are created the way they are is difficult. Getting someone on your side with more context and a holistic overview of the project is incredibly valuable. They’ll also be able to point out issues for you to start on and help move your PR through the pipeline to be merged.
Name one thing you love about the Open Source community! :)
I love that open source collaborates with teams across companies and individual contributors. This brings upon considerations you wouldn’t otherwise have thought of either on your own or just in one team.
Shilla Saebi
Occupation: Open Source Program Manager, Comcast
Twitter: @shillasaebi
Github: github.com/shillasaebi
What encouraged you to get into Open Source?
I started working in open source in 2013 in my previous role as a cloud operations engineer.
What tools/projects have you contributed to or created that you are most excited about? Why?
I try to contribute to the open source community as much as I can.. I was a core reviewer for OpenStack documentation and got to work on several different projects within OpenStack the past few years. Between 2015-2017 I had the honor of being nominated and selected to serve as a user committee member for OpenStack, and currently I serve as an OpenStack ambassador for the east coast USA. I am also a member of the Women of OpenStack working group which promotes diversity in open source/OpenStack. I am an organizer of the Northern Virginia OpenStack meetup group and have recently started to spread my wings into the CNCF community. I sit on the marketing committee meetings for CNCF and recently started a Philadelphia Prometheus meetup group.
Do you have any advice for other women who are curious about the Open Source realm, but have not yet crossed that bridge?
I think we are all aware that there is a massive gender gap when it comes to women in technology. Hiring women is absolutely essential and teams that have diverse viewpoints bring strength into any organization. Getting involved with open source can be intimidating. There are challenges we face, but I believe they can be turned into positive experiences. You may be the only woman working on a particular open source project or the only woman in the room, but if you start constructing something of substance, you will find that there are countless supporters in the community. If you are passionate about your work, you will succeed and you will stand out more than you think.
Name one thing you love about the Open Source community! :)
I love the transparency. I can catch up with what’s going on at anytime.
Timirah James
Occupation: Developer Advocate (Fission), Platform9 Systems
Twitter: @TimirahJ
Github: github.com/timirahj
What encouraged you to get into Open Source?
Honestly, I’ve wanted to contribute to open-source projects for a quite a while, but I kept putting it off, being drowned in work. Joining the Fission team at Platform9 opened that door for me to not only be an active contributor, but to embed myself in the open source community too!
What tools/projects have you contributed to or created that you are most excited about? Why?
Fission of course! :P I’ve been working on the team for 4-5 months now, and we’ve already pushed 3 to 4 new releases. The project has already grown so much! I’ve been able to merge my experience (and love) in mobile and software background with my newfound interest in the serverless space. (Hope that wasn’t too much of a plug, haha!)
Do you have any advice for other women who are curious about the Open Source realm, but have not yet crossed that bridge?
Start with one simple Pull Request! It doesn’t matter how big or small the fix is or how popular the project is. And ASK QUESTIONS!!! It’s definitely okay to ask questions! Open Source won’t bite. ;)
Name one thing you love about the Open Source community! :)
I love how innovative and supportive the Open Source community is! I think the Open Source community is definitely where the spirit of innovation shines the most!
Aastha Gupta
Occupation: College Student
Twitter: @aastha4104
Github: github.com/AasthaGupta
What encouraged you to get into Open Source?
I have always wanted to be a part of this community. Taking the first step in this direction was the hardest, but now I am completely enjoying being a part of this community.
What tools/projects have you contributed to or created that you are most excited about? Why?
I have been a part of Zulip which is an open source chat platform. They have an amazing community to help and guide you.
Do you have any advice for other women who are curious about the Open Source realm, but have not yet crossed that bridge?
I want those women to definitely contribute to Open Source. The first step is the hardest but it is worth it. The feeling you get when your code gets merged is unlike any other feeling.
Name one thing you love about the Open Source community! :)
I love that Open Source community is open to all and you can be a part of it whenever you want to be.
VM (Vicky) Brasseur
Occupation: Freelance Open Source Strategy Consultant & Corporate Trainer
Twitter: @vmbrasseur
Github: github.com/vmbrasseur
What encouraged you to get into Open Source?
Ever downloaded Linux v1.0 over a noisy 14.4K modem line? I have. The rest was (literally) history.
What tools/projects have you contributed to or created that you are most excited about? Why?
While I’m technical, I almost never code anymore. My contributions are mostly around leadership, policy, procedure, governance, and community management. I’m an open source advocate without portfolio, which means I don’t focus on or identify with only a single project or community, I interact with them all. Because of this, my contribution often is introducing people from unrelated communities who are now or have recently experienced similar challenges. Helping connect communities in this way shows the real power of free and open source software: We may be working on different things, but we’re all in this together.
I’m also quite proud of the Public Speaking resources repository. It and the community forming around it help new voices to share their stories at meetups and tech conferences, chipping away at the echo chamber we may otherwise find ourselves in: https://github.com/vmbrasseur/Public_Speaking
But I’m most proud of my book: Forge Your Future with Open Source. It’s the very first book to detail how to make any type of contribution to any free and open source (FOSS) project. It does not focus on the simple mechanical parts of contributing (there’s more than enough documentation out there about how to make a pull request), but rather spends a lot of time on the more difficult parts of contributing: interacting with the other people. All those unwritten rules of FOSS interactions and culture are here. Programmers, designers, infosec, writers, marketers…it doesn’t matter who you are or how you want to contribute, this book can get you there. It also spends a fair bit of time helping you discover not only what you want to contribute, but also why. Knowing your own motivations and needs can do wonderful things for your success in contributing. The book is in beta, so you can get a work-in-progress version then receive updates as the final few chapters are added: https://pragprog.com/book/vbopens/forge-your-future-with-open-source
Do you have any advice for other women who are curious about the Open Source realm, but have not yet crossed that bridge?
As a rule, I don’t provide gender-specific advice. With millions of new public repositories being added to GitHub alone every year (not to mention GitLab, BitBucket, or any of the other places where projects hang out), free and open source software needs everyone it can possibly get to help maintain and support the flood of projects. Women, men, enby, agender, pangender, any and every gender or no gender at all: You are needed and you are valuable to the free and open source world, and I will fight anyone who says otherwise or excludes you from the movement.
For all people, I recommend you understand your own motivations before simply diving in. You want to contribute…but why? If you don’t understand what you hope to learn or gain from the experience, you’re unlikely to select the best project for you, enjoy yourself, or stick around at all. My Open Source 101 keynote from Raleigh this year covers this far better than I can in a web form. :-) The video is here on Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/os101-2018-raleigh-whycontribute
Name one thing you love about the Open Source community! :)
Yeah, FOSS has its problems and there’s always room for improvement, but the people I have met through free and open source have been some of the most inspiring, most brilliant, and most generous additions to my life. They truly embody the spirit that, together, we can change the world through openness and freedom.
Radhika Puthiyetath
Occupation: Senior Information Developer, AppDynamics (part of Cisco Systems)
Twitter: @radhikapc
Github: github.com/radhikapc
What encouraged you to get into Open Source?
I am from Kerala, a southern state in India. In Kerala, government schools and offices use free and open source software since the year 2003. Schools follow the Linux-based curriculum, called IT@School. While interning at a Kerala-based Publication House I got an opportunity to develop instructional material for the supplementary reader for the IT@School project. I’ve also had the chance to write an Interview article on Richard Stallman when he visited Kerala in 2004. I was blown away by his words and the philosophy that he upholds. A year later I landed my dream Open Source job at Novell and started contributing to the GNOME and Open SuSE documentation. There was no turning back after that.
What tools/projects have you contributed to or created that you are most excited about? Why?
Apache CloudStack, Kubernetes, GNOME, OpenSuSE - all of them. However, I am more inclined towards CloudStack because I did much more than writing documentation. I built a thriving CloudStack community back in India. You can read about my journey at http://yourstory.com/2014/07/techie-tuesdays-radhika-nair/
Do you have any advice for other women who are curious about the Open Source realm, but have not yet crossed that bridge?
Fall in love with the technology. Be open. Be ready to learn and share. Communities are open, supportive, and kind. I received the KubeCon+CloudNativeCon 2017 Scholarship to attend the most sought-after conference of the year. I was selected as an Influencer at the CloudOpen conference in 2014.
Name one thing you love about the Open Source community! :)
Open, kind, and supportive. You will find ample opportunities to learn and expand your horizon–both professionally and personally.
Anubha Kushwaha
Occupation: Engineer, Microsoft
Twitter: @AnubhaKushwaha1
Github: github.com/anubhakushwaha
What encouraged you to get into Open Source?
The overwhelming community, open sourced code and infinite opportunities to participate in open source platform competitions
What tools/projects have you contributed to or created that you are most excited about? Why?
Kubernetes!!!
Do you have any advice for other women who are curious about the Open Source realm, but have not yet crossed that bridge?
Never underestimate yourself!
Name one thing you love about the Open Source community! :)
Open to all, no restrictions be it qualifications, age or gender
Floor Drees
Occupation: Developer Advocate, Phusion Passenger
Twitter: @floordrees
Github: github.com/FloorD
What encouraged you to get into Open Source?
Wanting to organize a Rails Girls workshop. Also: wanting to fix bugs for users, which got me excited about programming again after trying my hand at it while I was blogging and abandoning the topic for years after that.
What tools/projects have you contributed to or created that you are most excited about? Why?
I would say Rails Girls and Rails Girls Summer of Code, open source conference format ROSS conf (going in its 3rd edition in Amsterdam May this year) and most recently some of Phusion’s legacy projects like Traveling Ruby and Passenger itself.
Do you have any advice for other women who are curious about the Open Source realm, but have not yet crossed that bridge?
Be careful what projects you spend your first contributions on. Look for ‘good first patch’ labels in the issue trackers, get familiar with the community first, check if the project has good ‘getting started’ documentation, find out if pull requests are regularly merged and if contributors get mentioned in the changelog or a contributor file. Those things usually signal a healthy and welcoming community, one you’ll love to keep coming back to.
Name one thing you love about the Open Source community! :)
Maintainers who spend their spare minutes helping you help them with your contributions. Be it walking you to ‘rebasing’ your pull request or motivating other community members to help you on your quest.
Author: Timirah James | Fission Developer Advocate, Platform9 Systems | Tweet the Author
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