The meaning of “open source newbie” and my 12-year journey

When I entered the open source community 12 years ago, I was an open source newbie. I didn’t know the meaning of open source software. I had to Google the definition when I was offered a copy editing role on the Opensource.com team at Red Hat. 

It sounded pretty cool, and even though I didn’t code my husband did, and as a millennial, I understood the significance of programming and computer science in our day-to-day lives. At the time, I didn’t understand the significance of sharing code and opening up contributions to the public. As I learned, I enjoyed supporting this perspective and ultimately, this business practice.

Opensource.com was a place where anyone could share their story about open source. It was openness on top of openness because the typical business has a blog about their own products by their own employees or customers. To do otherwise would be heresy.

But, Opensource.com was open to anyone from any company talking about any product, it only had to be open source. As a content marketer, it felt true and smart. As a result, I spent 10 fantastic years shepherding authors, training new contributors, and managing our programs.

It felt true because “a rising tide lifts all boats.” If practicing openness by sharing information across business borders is the tide, individuals and companies are the boats. We could all sort of win together versus competing in silos. Perhaps, too hippy-dippy for you? Well, capitalism is a bit too extreme for me. And I know many others feel the same because I heard it and saw it every day in that job. 

Open source feels true to people. It feels grounded and perhaps, like a better way to be.

Opening up contributions on a business-run blog like Opensource.com also felt smart because, with more voices, we could answer more user pain points and questions. Anytime someone entered a question into the search box that one of our articles could answer well, our Google rank went up. Remember there are 8.5M searches a day, with a large fraction of those being technical questions like “How do I run Linux on my Chromebook?” or “How do I use open source on my drone?”

It made good humankind sense, and it made good business sense.

Eventually, I moved on to new challenges at new companies, but I’m back around to open source these days working closely with OpenProject and growing my content marketing business on the fertile soil I cultivated during those years at Red Hat on the Opensource.com team. The rich systems we grew there are getting a chance to become something special inside others’ teams and companies now. 

It feels good… true and smart.