INTRODUCTION

I am always fascinated by the benefits of open source and the community. I had a deep desire to start with the open source but didn't have any experience, found myself stuck over how to start. As a complete beginner, I didn't have any expertise in any technology. The only thing I was learning were HTML, CSS and Javascript. I came across KWOC(Kharagpur Winter Of Code) with the help of Google and found it as a first start to learning about open source. It was a month-long open-source festival to promote and introduce beginners.

My Kwoc Experience

Before the Kwoc, we had an intro session where the organizers gave a deep insight into Programme. When the coding period began, I scrolled through the projects and looked for simple web development projects. The first project I came across was the Top secrets app.

Top-secrets

I was going through locally running the project and found out the login UI was a bit plain and simple. I had just finished my CSS skills so thought of refactoring and improving it. I opened the pull request and asked for it, The maintainer approved it and I started working on it.

I started to make changes but noticed the backend part could get disturbed while I change the Login UI, I completely changed the UI and it was looking a lot better. But because of lack of back-end knowledge, I probably disturbed the login mechanism and the website wasn't functioning well. So as a result, the PR didn't merge.

Bandhu-Card

I was disappointed but didn't lose hope, I came through the Bandhu card project and found out it doest have a proper readme file. I found it a perfect issue and completed it within due time. Finally, the PR got merged this time!!

TEAM-BUILDER

After my first PR got merged I was happy but not satisfied. This was due to non-code contribution. I made sure to hone my CSS and HTML skills by doing Team-Builder's issue- Make a webpage about how team builder works. The maintainer was so good, but due to my midterm exams and unexpected fever I was unable to do any sort of work for around two weeks and on his courtesy, he didn't have any hard feelings. I still remember, only two days were remaining before the closing of the coding period. I did everything to perform the assigned task perfectly and It was worth it.

The satisfaction is beyond mentioning. Finally contributed to the open source and started my OPEN-SOURCE JOURNEY!!!

POST-KWOC

I really had a great time contributing to the projects, I didn't contribute to many but at least I started this journey. This journey had downfalls too, Overall had a great experience in KWOC and looking forward to next year to contributing to more quality-wise projects.