Aug 7, 2021

3 min read

Community, Open-Source & Hackathons!

When you share knowledge, you gain more!

Community…

What is Community?

Here, we are talking about tech communities, so any group of people officially representing a particular technology or domain together working on a common aim i.e. to help people learn, can be considered as Community.

Some of the major communities around the world are:

Flutter Communities
GDG Communities
AWS Communities
Firebase User Groups
Facebook Developer Circles
Tensorflow User Groups
Women TechMakers

And many more…

How you can be a part of the community?

Communities are completely open to all and their events are mostly free of cost or if paid, they are affordable. However, there are few key points you can keep in mind if you wish to be a part of any community:

Attend events. No matter what or where the event is, feel free to join them. You will get to know many people!
Communicate with people and know their journey. Especially with the Organizers of the Community. Network, network and network!!!
Share your voice and opinions. Just sitting in the event and gaining knowledge is not beneficial. You should share your perspective too.

Benefits of Community!

Your knowledge will increase by 2x
You will get to meet lots of people who might be leaders in your tech.
You get many freebies and can start your own community! 😉

So, start being a part of the Community and start giving back to the community!

Open-Source…

What is Open-Source?

Any software/project whose code is open for all and any user can contribute to the code either by filing issues or by being a code-contributor, is called Open-Source.

Some of the open-source projects include Flutter, Signal, Mozilla Firefox, LibreOffice, etc.

So, Why to contribute Open-Source?

When you start contributing to open-source, you start creating your portfolio. Contributing to Open-Source also helps you improve your communication skills. There are many organizations that have their projects open-source. When you create some valuable contribution, they pay you for the same. Or, you can have your project as Open-Source and people or organizations can pay you if they found useful.

Tips & Tricks to start with Open-Source:

Start with small contributions.
No matter what project it is, keep it public and open-source
Be perfect working with GIT because that will save your life!

Hackathon…

What is Hackathon?

A 24–48hr event where like-minded people come together to create a solution for society with the magic of technology. Some of the websites where you can find hackathons are:

How can you participate and win a hackathon?

First of all, you need to create a team of 4–5 people and search for a hackathon and register in it.
Then select a problem that society faces.
Do the pre-requisite and complete research on the problem and how you will solve it.
Solve the problem in the given time frame and create a presentation to pitch your idea. The presentation should contain all information including Business Plan to your demo video. The presentation becomes a key factor for winning the hackathon.

Note: Never work on your project before the hackathon time or don’t submit an old project in any hackathon. This will lead you to disqualification!

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Don’t stop, until you are breathing!💙
- Abhishek Doshi