Unforgettable experience with FOSSASIA at Google Code-in
November has made my 2016. It all started with a warm meet-up with Ms. Dang Hong Phuc from an open-source organization—FOSSASIA. I was fascinated by her Google Code-in introduction that encouraged me to contribute to various open-source projects.
I admit that I became more and more open-minded through this contest. It is rather an opportunity to collaborate with international friends than a competition between each other. I am more than happy to get involved in such a friendly community. It's like you've found the meaning of your life after all this time, I hope you understand that feeling. I am now more optimistic than I've ever been. For I only mind my passion that I've found, and leave other unimportant things behind. I feel great about myself.
Yeah, I felt great, especially when I had created a Twitter bot. Well, it may sound trivial to many people, but to a JavaScript newcomer, it is worth a possession. I used Twit (a NodeJS library) and Susi API in this task. I encountered a few problems with Heroku deployment but thanks to FOSSASIA blog having reported these issues, I eventually resolved them.
FOSSASIA has a group of mentors of great size that are always willing to help students. One of the best one is Saptak Sengupta, who is a very lucid teacher. He was the first one to teach me how to resolve merge conflicts in Git, which, according to research, 80% GitHub users don't know how to do. Students are also active and lovely. I am grateful for Yuki having helped me squashing commits! You know, I was new to Git, but now I am even able to teach my other friends to overcome these first challenges.
However, there is another side that FOSSASIA may want to notice. I am talking about documentation and guide notes: they are a little obsolete. Some links given don't work well anymore (maybe the content was moved to a different link). Also, their products like Susi, Loklak, Open Event are not straightforwardly for the beginner, particularly in Google Code-in their object is the student.
I was glad to be invited to Google Summer of Code next year. And surely I would pick FOSSASIA as an organization to work in. Being a member of this community opens me a promising future ahead.
Thank you, Ms. Phuc, for everything you have inspired me.
I admit that I became more and more open-minded through this contest. It is rather an opportunity to collaborate with international friends than a competition between each other. I am more than happy to get involved in such a friendly community. It's like you've found the meaning of your life after all this time, I hope you understand that feeling. I am now more optimistic than I've ever been. For I only mind my passion that I've found, and leave other unimportant things behind. I feel great about myself.
Yeah, I felt great, especially when I had created a Twitter bot. Well, it may sound trivial to many people, but to a JavaScript newcomer, it is worth a possession. I used Twit (a NodeJS library) and Susi API in this task. I encountered a few problems with Heroku deployment but thanks to FOSSASIA blog having reported these issues, I eventually resolved them.
FOSSASIA has a group of mentors of great size that are always willing to help students. One of the best one is Saptak Sengupta, who is a very lucid teacher. He was the first one to teach me how to resolve merge conflicts in Git, which, according to research, 80% GitHub users don't know how to do. Students are also active and lovely. I am grateful for Yuki having helped me squashing commits! You know, I was new to Git, but now I am even able to teach my other friends to overcome these first challenges.
However, there is another side that FOSSASIA may want to notice. I am talking about documentation and guide notes: they are a little obsolete. Some links given don't work well anymore (maybe the content was moved to a different link). Also, their products like Susi, Loklak, Open Event are not straightforwardly for the beginner, particularly in Google Code-in their object is the student.
I was glad to be invited to Google Summer of Code next year. And surely I would pick FOSSASIA as an organization to work in. Being a member of this community opens me a promising future ahead.
Thank you, Ms. Phuc, for everything you have inspired me.
