In the next post, I’ll be describing my experience with GNOME’s Outreach Program for Women (OPW), but before that I would like to tell you what is GNOME’s OPW, so here it goes:

What is GNOME?

GNOME is a desktop environment, which uses Free and Open Source Softwares (FOSS).

What’s GNOME’s Outreach Program for Women?

In simple words, GNOME’s OPW gives women a fair opportunity to become a part of FOSS.

Why I should join this program?

You should join this program:

1. If you believe in using Free and Open Source Softwares. Open Source Softwares are good because a large number of people from work on it to make it good for the society.  You can modify them and redistribute them to others, as opposed to closed source and proprietary softwares.

2. If you want to become a part of FOSS community as a contributor 🙂 B-)

Is it only for women who are good at programming?

Well, the answer is NO. You don’t really need to be a programming geek for this. You can contribute by doing documentation, marketing and some other tasks also. But if you’re good at programming, that is obviously a plus point B-)

Will I get any help from people?

Of course, you’ll get help from a mentor. Apart from your mentor, there are so many people on IRC channels who are ready to help people 🙂 (Atleast, I felt so 🙂 )

From where to start?

Here are the steps:

1. First be clear with what you want to do.

2. Join IRC channels of the project you’re most interested in.

3. Say hi to people, tell them about your interests and don’t hesitate in asking for help 🙂

4. Get in touch with a mentor, if one is available 🙂

5. Ask him/her how you can contribute to the concerned project. They’ll surely help you!

6. Start with your work, ask your mentor or other people for help if you get stuck somewhere.

Pre-requisites:

1. You should be of 18 years or above.

2. Usage of revision control systems(git, subversion etc). You can try these for learning git and subversion. Believe me, they’re very easy 🙂

What will I get?

1. A chance to become a part of FOSS community. It’s always good to meet knowledgeable people 🙂

2. 5000 USD B-) 😀

3. Lots of other things to learn.

I’ve never used IRC!

It’s not really a big deal, try webchat IRC for getting a feel of how it works. You can also try these IRC clients: XChat, Chatzilla, Colloquy and many more 🙂

Do share this information with your friends, relatives, colleagues 🙂 HTH 🙂