Your First Contribution

What’s great about being part of an open-source community is that there are many ways to contribute! Your first contribution should be small enough to get a feel for the project without needing to learn everything at first.

All teams should have a list of possible first contributions. You might:

• Test a feature and share what was confusing. Oftentimes, regular contributors can overlook issues that are more obvious to new contributors.
• Help conduct research on the community problem the project is trying to solve.
• Download the code and learn how to run the project locally.
• Help prepare questions for an interview with a community partner.
• Write or improve documentation to make it easier for others to understand or contribute to the project.
• Review a website or tool for accessibility and identify areas for improvement.
• Help organize project information, update task boards, or document meeting notes.

Participating at Your Own Pace

Civic Tech DC runs entirely on volunteer energy, and we want you to feel comfortable participating at your own pace. If life gets busy and you need to step away, just let someone on your team know! We completely understand.

If you’ve taken on a task and can no longer finish it, try to let your team know so someone else can pick it up. A little communication goes a long way in keeping volunteer projects moving.

What You Can Get Out of It

Civic Tech DC is an opportunity to work on real problems and connect with people who care about making technology work better for their communities. What you take away will depend on how you get involved, but there are plenty of ways to grow along the way.

• Contribute to open-source projects that address real community needs, with publicly documented work you can share in a portfolio or discuss in an interview.
• Meet people across DC’s civic tech community and learn from the different perspectives they bring.
• Try a new technical skill, practice design research, facilitate a team discussion, or help shape a project’s direction.
• See how civic technology works in practice by learning how teams identify community needs and work with partners.