👋🏾 Message from the @bdougie

I was introduced to programming in high school while taking a computer-based math course in my sophomore year in high school. Unimpressed with learning Visual Basic to solve math trivia, I gave up on pursuing programming as an interest. I was re-introduced into programming 10 years later when I had an idea for a mobile application. Through determination, I built that application exclusively using free open source libraries and stack overflow.

Thanks to these open-source, I was able to realize my goal of building that idea in less than 6 months on my own. Not only were these libraries useable, they were also viewable to all on GitHub.

I used open source to build my career and grow new skills as a programmer, but I rarely contribute back to the projects I use. Though embarrassed by this, I realize I am not an anomaly, there is a clear deficit in the individuals contributing to open source compared to those using. This problem has grown to be a big enough issue that maintainers of projects have turned to tools like GitHub Sponsors to cover their costs while they maintain their projects full-time.

Knowing there is a clear need for open, you may very well have an interest in contributing yourself.

So where do we we start? This is where Open Sauced comes in.

🍕 What is Open Sauced?

Open Sauced exists to encourage open-source contributions. I personally don’t have a ton of extra time to learn and contribute to projects I am interested in and need help gathering my thoughts. I do this through Open Sauced, a place where I can take notes on projects and track my contributions.

(slide from the first appearance of Open Sauced at GitHub Universe 2017)

💅🏾Why raise funds through GitHub Sponsors?

Our dream is to make everyone's path into open-source easier by providing tools that improve their open-source on-boarding experience. Gathering sponsors will allow us to ship events catered to sharing how folks can contribute to open-source.