This week, I have learned a great deal about the workings of Free and Open Source Projects, aka FOSS. In the past, I had known of what open source projects were and a very basic idea on how they worked, but now I have more in-depth knowledge of the subject.

I was mostly surprised with learning about the Onion Model, as I was not expecting most open source projects to have been following a pre-made structure of organization. Like an onion, there are several layers to the organization; users, new contributors, non-core contributors, core contributors, and the founder/leaders. Each layer has different levels of access to the open source project, and have their own roles in the hierarchy.

In addition, I learned about important files that are used in every FOSS to allow users and contributors to find out crucial aspects and qualities of the project that are needed to be able to contribute successfully. For example, a README file is needed to inform users about the purpose of the project and how it works, a LICENSE file is needed to show what license the project is under, and etc. Every file serves a purpose and is important for new users to read.

Overall, through the class lectures, I have gained a solid foundation for my understanding on how to rightfully use and contribute to FOSS projects in the future.