This week in Open Source we had the opportunity to explore the benefits of Open Source by reading The Cathedral and the Bazaar, an essay by Eric S. Raymond and by hearing from the Verizon Media Director of Open Source and Technology Gil Yehuda.

In addition to learning more about Open Source, my group members and I continued to work on our Open Source contribution this week.

The Cathedral and the Bazaar

Last weekend I read The Cathedral and the Bazaar and learned about the benefits of Open Source. In the Essay Raymond details two types of development models: Cathedral and Bazaar.

Cathedral Model

The Cathedral Model adheres to more traditional ideas about software where the source code is available with each release but the code between releases is not open to the public. Rather the code can only be viewed by a certain group of developers.

Bazaar Model

The Bazaar model on the other hand is the Open Source model where code is not only available to the the public, but it’s development is also dependent on the contributions of the public.

I enjoyed reading this essay and discussing the different lessons Raymond presents throughout. The lesson that stood out the most to me was his first lesson “Every good work of software starts by scratching a developer’s personal itch.” Even outside of the scope of contributing to open source, I feel like this lesson is what drives me in every aspect of my life as a developer. The reason I decided to pursue Computer Science was because of the opportunity it gave me to solve real world problems. I liked that I had the tools to construct real solutions to everyday “itches” that I was personally dealing with. I am currently working on an an application called Vibe Check. What makes Vibe Check different from other personal projects I have attempted to finish is that it solves an issue that I deal with personally. It is a tool I would use every single day and would want in my life. Vibe Check allows you to connect with new people on multiple social media platforms through one step - scanning a single QR code. I have gotten pretty far with this application and have put in a lot of time and I think it’s because I personally would want to see it become a reality. Looking at this lesson in an Open Source context I definitely feel like it also applies to the project my team and I are working on now. We are contributing to Oppia and as someone who is very passionate about education and believes that everyone regardless of where they are from should have access to education, I strongly believe in the Oppia mission. I think my group and I are making good progress on our contribution and I believe that is because we are proud to be contributing - we believe in the product and understand the issues they are solving.

Group Project Progress

This week my group and I worked on wireframing the website page we intend on building for the Oppia team. To reiterate we are working on a page that will serve as a guide for teachers and parents of students who are just starting to use Oppia. We first drafted the actual content that will be on the page. Then we created wireframes on Figma.

Once we were done we had our weekly meeting with Oppia where they gave us feedback on our wireframes. One improvement we needed to make was making sure the page was more user friendly and uniform. We took this feedback and decided to revamp our wireframes. Over the weekend we drafted a new wireframe and have sent it over to the Oppia team for further feedback.

So far I am really enjoying this project. We get to be as creative as we want, and at the same time contribute to an actual existing project. I am excited to start coding after our wireframes get approved!