To Contrib is to Receive: A Case Study of Mediacurrent's "Contrib First" Policy

Open Source Software is software where the source is open for others to read, critique and improve upon. In today’s world, there are huge communities built around these software projects, with hundreds and thousands of people collaborating to support them and make them better. The majority of software used to build and run websites is open source. Part of the benefit of using open source software is being able to improve upon it collaboratively. Instead of having to create everything from scratch every single time - every plugin, every documentation page, every tutorial, every bugfix, working together with others gives a greater chance to build better, more secure software.

While pushing ahead on new improvements, this process can work really well. There’s excitement, people are energized to driving the platform forwards, and great advancements are made.  Often, the problem sets in once the project is launched or the functionality is completed - who’s going to maintain it? Who’s going to continue improving the documentation? Who’s going to provide support and fix bugs that arise?

In this session, you will find out how contributing to open source software can lead to happier, more skilled and productive staff. Using the example of Mediacurrent’s successful contrib committee – an internal team focused on recognizing and coordinating our contributions – you will learn the importance of this work, both for the long term benefit of the tools you use and those who work with it. You will also learn tips to better organize internal contribution efforts, including working with others outside of the business. Lastly, you’ll learn how contributing to open source can help with sales, marketing, and, ultimately, boost the business’ bottom line. All that without forcing anyone to work insane numbers of hours or prematurely go grey.

Damien McKenna is one of the top most active contributors to the Drupal project and has been working from a “contrib first” mantra for fifteen years, long before there was a name for it. Since 2015 Damien has lead the contrib committee at Mediacurrent while also working on an interesting range of projects. Damien intends to first present this presentation at NERDSummit 2017 in March, with ample time to give the topic the polish it deserves.