In 2018, we set a goal of supporting the organizing of four “Introduction to Open Source” workshops in parts of the world with less participation in open source: Latin and South America, Africa, Oceania, and Asia*.
This was accomplished with events in
Kumasi, Ghana
The Introduction to Open Source workshop in Kumasi was held on November 15, 2018 at HapaSpace.
Albert Opoku, the main organizer for the event, commented that after an introduction to open source philosophy and relevant examples, there was a good discussion amongst the attendees.
The issue of Africa’s low contribution to Open Source was widely discussed, participants discussed what were the challenges and also came up with a few suggestions to increase our participation in open source.
The WordPress Kumasi meetup group was founded a little over two years ago, and currently has 130 members. A few new members signed up for the meetup group during the workshop, to get involved with the community.
Udaipur, India
The Introduction to Open Source workshop in Udaipur was held on November 18, 2018 at CTAE.
When asked about what the impact of the event had on attendees, main organizer for the event, Surbhi Jain commented
A lot of young students from schools and colleges took a keen interest in joining further local meetups.
The WordPress meetup group for Udaipur was formed over 3 years ago. The workshop was attended by well over 50 attendees.
Barranquilla, Colombia
The Introduction to Open Source workshop in Barranquilla happened on November 24 at CUC University.
The main organizer, Fabian Altahona suggested that many of the attendees were not aware of how to go about contributing to open source projects and would get more involved.
Many people thought open source and contributing was not that common, and they contacted the speakers to share their fears and doubts about it. Based on this experience, we would think they will actually become more involved in open source.
After the workshop in Barranquilla was planned, the Barranquilla meetup group found a sponsor to pay for refreshments and was also able to find a free venue — which meant they did not need financial from the WordPress Foundation for this event.
Castries, St. Lucia
The final Introduction to Open Source workshop was in Castries, St. Lucia also on November 24 at Sir Arthur Lewis Community College.
The organizer, Uriahs Victor, felt that the workshop helped get more attention toward the WordPress meetup group in Castries. A hot topic of discussion at the workshop was security and updates in open source software.
Looking forward to more workshops in 2019
Based on the success of these four workshops, we hope to expand this program in the future. If you’re interested in organizing an event of this kind in your community, please keep an eye out for the next call for organizers, which will be posted in the coming months!
If you’re interested in helping the WordPress Foundation support open source education all over the world, please donate today!
*According to a recent study, the majority of Github participation in OSS projects is centered in North America and Western and Northern Europe.