Open Source Project

             "The free sharing and teaching of open source are incompatible with the notion of the solitary genius."  
                                                                                                                             - Golan Levin

Great, this is the best thing you are probing for and another best thing is to getting commenced with it.

What is an "Open source Project"?

The question is the answer to this question. As the word "open" solves our query. An "Open-Source Project" refers to source code that is designed for public use, which means anyone can use it, participate in it, study it, do bug fixing, modify it, distribute, and do major changes.

Let me tell you an interesting part which you might not be familiar with, you might have used Mozilla Firefox for the web search, VLC media player for watching movies, and Wikipedia when you forgot about something. These all are open-source projects. Oh! You may also use Linux operating systems based on the Linux Kernel, which is also open-source.

The reason why many companies are making their source code open is just that more people can contribute to one source code rather than the company which depends on some particular number of people. The more and with different sets of knowledge the contributors are, the more the number of bugs will be fixed.

Should I contribute to an "Open source Project"?       

I believe that you must contribute to an open-source code. There are many benefits why you should contribute to it. some of which are

1. We gain experience working with great software engineers in the world which helps us in building the connection. 

2. Helps in learning and practicing coding language.

3. Helps in improving our mistakes. 

4. Helps in improving communication skills.

5. We give back to the community.

6. Makes our resume powerful

7. Get connected with minded people and got to learn something new.  

What skills are required and is there any particular language that should I learn?

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Open-source is an opportunity for aspiring programmers to distinguish between themselves. It's the best way for a programmer to experience new things. To get started with it, of course we should be familiar with a programming language (oh! What a lame). You don't need to know any particular language to contribute. 

If you know python, then go on, you can find many projects whose code is in python. The main thing is that you just have to find bugs and fix them. That's a good point of open source that you can find a project in which you are interested. If you want a project on ML, then you can find it easily. If you have good knowledge of any of the languages, then go and start contributing.

Oh! The main thing I forgot to tell you that you should know how to use git hub and git hub commands, commands like push, commit, pull, adding comments, etc. That's the road you will use to contribute to a project.

Do I get paid in contributing to an Open-Source Project?

If this is the main reason that you are here in search of, then I will suggest stopping here. Open source isn't about getting money, it's about doing more stuff and getting incremental innovation with your work. The main motto of a contribution in open-source is to get in touch with some great programmers and gain an unforgettable experience and get hands-on programming languages.

I'm suggesting not to focus more on money while contributing. But yes, you can earn money by contributing, but it depends totally on the company. There are some programs in which you get paid, like Google Summer of Code.

You can also earn money by starting your own project and get it monetized.

How to contribute to Open-Source Project?

Getting started with contribution is not a big deal. You can easily find many projects you are free to participate in on GitHub. Or you can take part in some programs like:

1. Google summer of code

2. Google code in

3. Google summer of docs

4. Outreachy

5. MLH fellowship

And many more. These programs are like internships only but not internships.

You just need to go on GitHub, search for projects, or in advance, you can even search projects for a particular language. Then read its read me file, go to the issue page, start with the easy one, make a pull request, find the bug and fix it, commit it, push it. That's it, isn't it simple? Yah! It's simple, but when it comes to solving the error, it's not😁.

Can I start my own Open-Source Project?

Are you thinking of that? Oh, ho! You started going too far. That's a nice idea you came up with. If you have something in mind, then the answer is yes, and go for it and don't think of its outcome. But if you haven't worked on any project yet, then it's a request to work on a project, make some contribution because it will be better if you have some experience before you start your project.

Starting your project is a great way to know more about the Open-Source Project.

Conclusion

Open-source is an open-source of many benefits for a programmer. Getting connected with a great mind and getting introduced to new things and ways of solving the problem. I always prefer to work in a team because working alone makes me a little lazy. But working with a team with different mental levels, with a different set of knowledge, you gain new experience with them.

Open-Source has a great impact on your resume. Working on Open-source is free, go on and grab this opportunity, who doesn't like free stuff?😉