My First Step in Open Source

So my friend had already told about me. So I don't feel any requirement to repeat it here again.

(If you are not able to relate the above line, please head over to Homepage before reading the blog post.)

"Code should never be repeated"

Programmer's Say

About GCI and Open Source - From my perspective

First things first, I joined Mifos back in September and the day is inscribed in my heart today also when I first talked to Ed as a Technical Volunteer. I felt like I am in an another family, the online one, just like a real one. I first checked out all the projects in which I can contribute and started contributing to them. The open source is not just to do some coding or make some documents and you are all done, but the main thing which touched my heart was the interaction and you get to meet such awesome people, get inspired from them. After three months of contribution I can surely tell you

A 'just another student' was turning into a open sourcer and a great coder...

Contribution before GCI - Entangling into the community

I configured all the projects on my local machine successfully and started understanding the source code. Initially, after going through all the repos , I was in doubt that, Will I be able to contribute to such big source code as I have never worked in such huge code, but mentors sorted everything for me and helped me a lot (the most common line in every blog) and even answered the silliest questions. I made 8 - 9 PRs in the month of October which gave me a general understanding of the code and most importantly, I got to know so much about the community that I can even help others. So in the month of November, I started helping out others on the gitter channel. Somewhere in the mid of November, people were mentioning me for the help and I started getting direct emails asking for help. That time I felt that I also have some significant place in the community.

Tasks I have done - Sneak Peek

Don't worry, I will be not be boring with you the list of tasks. I will be giving you a short brief only. You might be feeling like James Bond/Sherlock Homes that how many tasks I have done till now. I have done 66 tasks. A Major portion of my tasks consists of Swagger. And the man behind Swagger is Sanyam, I will be talking about him later in the blog. And I am happy that now his project will be shipped much faster and the API documentation of Mifos will beautify. Other than Swagger, I have done some code related Tasks which were fixing some bug in Mifos Mobile App or Community App. In outreach and research, I wrote some research briefs, How-To Guide etc. ,Unit Tests for Mifos Mobile App the falls under the quality assurance category.

Swagging with Sanyam

**Disclaimer - Don't get too much fascinated from the title.**

It was my most learning and amazing experience during GCI. The Swagger (documentation stack) and Sanyam (mentor for Swagger tasks) was just the perfect blend. He taught me each and every aspect of Swagger and even answered my annoying and stupid queries. I approached Sanyam in November only and configured the project successfully with his help. The first task that I took was of Swagger only. It was a bit difficult to document first 2-3 APIs but after that it was just a matter of 4-5 hours for me. His feedback was always an advice for me. But problems always doesn't leave me, I use Windows OS (Rest you can think). In a nutshell, I can say that Sanyam is the most benevolent & active mentor throughout GCI for me.

Edward Cable - The Coolest CEO Ever

It was my first time when I saw a CEO to be so cool, down to earth super-friendly, encouraging (the list never ends). My journey throughout wouldn't be this stupendous and venturesome without Ed. He was so supportive, even in my toughest times that the words fell too short for him. His passion for financial inclusion is what attracted me to Mifos and kept me magneted though I have some risk in continuing that Mifos might get or not get selected in GCI 2017. I don't know how he manages his time so efficiently that he is connected to the community so deeply (Graduation from Wharton might be the reason:-P).

Other Wondrous Mentors

Each and every mentor is a wonder in himself. And I am very sorry if I forgot to mention any mentor. I met almost all mentors (virtually). But mentioning few due to the obvious reasons.
1. Naman Dwivedi - Though he didn't mentored me officially, but he helped me a lot in getting things done. He is indeed a substantial Android Developer.
2. GopalKrishnann P - After Sanyam, he is the most active mentor. He reviews the PR in few minutes only and that also with great feedback. Truly Amazing !!
3. Mohit Kumar Bajoria - As Matthew mentioned in his blog, He is the man behind the community-app. He and Gopal and makes a great team for the community-app repository. Kudos to the Community App team.
4. Dilpreet Singh - He taught me the basic architecture of the app and helped me in writing in Unit Tests for Android App. He taught me everything from scratch that helped me in fixing other bugs also.
5. Vladimir Fomene - He took out spare time for me to help me configure the project in spite that his project was pending and he is in sophomore year. Congratulations Vladimir !!
6. Raunak Sett - He is a great maintainer for Web Self Service App and a nice mentor, gives a quick response.
7. Rajan Maurya - Gives a really valuable feedback which helped me to improve a lot and result you all can see :-).

GCI Fellows

As Matthew mentioned in his blog that if GCI is heart, then mentors are veins, but I can say that we (GCI participants) can at least be Blood Cells. All GCI participants I met are truly amazing.
1. Shivam Singh - He is also a another Indian guy so I was very comfortable in talking with him. He told some of the dark secrets of the GCI from his past experience.
2. Mathhew Katz - An amazing guy with great knowledge of web development. Though I didn't get to interact with him much, but I can say he is a lekker guy.
3. Piyush Raj - He is a true open source enthusiast, he is starting up with his organization TEDxP (I am contributing to that also). I met with him through Mifos only, so thanks Mifos for giving out a platform to meet such great and knowledgeable people.

Feedback to GCI

First of all, I want to hats off the team of Google Open Source to provide such a great platform to the high school students.
Next, I would like to give some feedback on how we can make GCI and open source more awesome :
1. The student can't really become a long time member of a community or organization so in order to achieve that Google or Open Source Organisations(individually or collectively) should run some more activities all round the year which keeps the student connected to the community and it will also incline the interest of students towards open source.
2. Some more resources should be provided to the participants to learn more about open source and programming beforehand.
3. Some more blog posts from the GCI org admins, team members, mentors (explaining the importance of the program) will be appreciable as that will work as a guide for the participants.

Saying Goodbye - Conclusion

Don't worry, I am not saying goodbye to the open source, but I am saying goodbye to you. Thanking you for keeping up the patience and reading my whole blog or I say surviving it. Nevertheless, I can say that if Mifos was not there, I wouldn't have progressed so much. I worked on all types of tasks that's because of the amazing mentors only. I will keep contributing to the Mifos and foresee myself as a prominent volunteer of Mifos.

"Miracles do not happen, they are created."

Chirag Gupta