Quit playing in the kiddie pool

Posted by joelgibby on May 24, 2010 · View Comments 

I’m Volunteering at Open Source Bridge – June 1–4, 2010 – Portland, OR

Time to learn to swim

Only one week remains between you and Portland’s premier community-focused open source developer conference. If I lost you there, then this post isn’t really aimed at you. If you’re already clued in, plugged in, and ready to turn it out next week, keep reading if you like, but this is stuff you already know. Users will still benefit tremendously from the amazing creations and dazzling innovations brewed up at Open Source Bridge 2010, but this post is more focused at my peeps who’ve been playing in the kiddie pool.

You’ve been using open source products for as long as you can remember. You’ve submitted bug reports. You’ve built a few “Hello, world!” console apps; perhaps you’ve even created something truly special but the code wasn’t open for the whole world to see, warts and all for whatever reason. It is YOU who I am talking to now. It’s time to take a walk over to the other side of the pool.

Just Build It

A long time ago while learning PASCAL at Grant High School (yes, PASCAL…just keeping it real – Go GENERALS) the T.A. explained a key to learning to code that I’ve held onto since: “You’ll never learn by reading alone.
You need to just sit down and build something.” So true. Many of us spend so much time thinking, planning to plan and living in our own heads that we never realize that there are communities upon communities of passionate coders, designers, business heads, hackers, artists, makers and thinkers that are all looking for the next great idea to throw their efforts and behind. Open Source Bridge was created to bring together this diverse collection of people, along with others like yourself, (who want to get involved in open source, but don’t know where to begin) to share ideas, build amazing technologies, and highlight the need for a more diverse, accountable and thriving open source community.

They want YOU

If you get excited by next-level thinking, they want you. If you passionately make things, they want you. If you believe in free software, distributed responsibility, accountability and the vital need for openness and sharing, they want you. It’s time to quit testing the waters and dive into the deep end. Don’t worry; there’s a whole community ready to teach you how to swim.

Open Source Bridge is:

Features:

  • 24-hour hacker lounge
  • Technology-agnostic, community-focused; don’t just come to listen, come to share!
  • Volunteer-run, for developers, by developers
  • Five tracks spanning Business, Chemistry, Cooking, Culture, and Hacks
  • Sessions from some of the brightest minds in the community

Already drinking the Kool-Aid? Register for Open Source Bridge 2010 now!

Official information sources:

More information from around the web:

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