It takes a village to raise a repo

FOSS has been a huge part of the last decade of my career. I have been a consumer of open source tools. I have shared FOSS philosophies in my teaching, and have contributed a bit as well. Most, if not all of my contributions have been part of the Processing Foundation - https://processingfoundation.org/

In this lightning talk, I would like to talk about the contributing to FOSS -

• What I have learnt about accessibility in FOSS. (Access can mean many things, and many communities - how do we look at all of them?)

• Different perspectives into a FOSS project, from my first pull request, to now serving on the board of the Processing Foundation

Initially, I was simply using these tools, later I got the opportunity to contribute as part of a fellowship to make programming more accessible to those with low vision and blindness. 

After about 2.5 years on the development side, I moved into community and education: how can we bring more artists and developers together over this unique concept of "creative coding"? With that in mind, a  co-conspirator and I started CCSante - a place for creative coders to come together to talk about their work. This led to larger events like Processing Community Day ( https://processingindia.com/).

For the last 2 years, I have been serving on the board of the Processing Foundation, and for the last year, as Treasurer. All my assumptions about FOSS communities' work have been challenged, and I'm learning a lot - the impact of governance, the communities that keep these projects alive, and the intentional care that people put behind them. With this talk, I would like to highlight these different points of view and encourage people to think of the ways they have been contributing to FOSS without even realizing it!

• Very briefly - What are ways in which one can contribute to a FOSS project?(code and beyond)

• Lessons I have learnt about “accessibility” in FOSS over the last decade

• My takeaways from being a board member of a FOSS organisation