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title: 'Talking Drupal #317 - Govcon Keynote Non-Code Contribution: Using your passion and skills to power open source.'

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# Talking Drupal #317 - Govcon Keynote Non-Code Contribution: Using your passion and skills to power open source.
Today we are talking about Non-Code Contribution

[TalkingDrupal.com/317](https://TalkingDrupal.com/317)

## Topics
* What is Talking Drupal
    * Podcast with audio and video
* We recorded our 300th episode in June, over 175 guests, 700K audio downloads
* Weekly episodes covering a variety of topics
* Most recent 315 with Tara King, Director of Developer Relations at automatic, Comparing Drupal and Wordpress Communities
* Visit www.talkingdrupal.com
* This may be a different keynote than you are accustomed to.  Talking Drupal is a discussion, and that's what we are having today.
* Today we are talking about Non-Code Contribution: Using your passion and skills to power open source.
* What is contribution in an open-source project?
* Providing your time, skills or resources to benefit the project
* Today we’re talking about non code contributions
* Early on contribution was considered writing code
* Over time we have learned to value non-code contributions just as much as code contrib
* Rather than defining non-code contribution by what it is not, we need a term to define it by what it is
* Community is built in meetups, camps, and cons
* Majority of contribution has nothing to do with coding at a camp
    * Attending
    * Speaking
    * Training
    * Organizing
* Organizing a camp (NEDCamp.org / Nov 19th)
* Volunteering at a camp
    * Stephen - Sponsorship, lead for many years
    * Nic - Website & Signage
    * John - Current Lead, Day of Logistics, Venue coordination
* Some other examples of contribution
    * Mentorship
    * Documentation
    * Training
    * Summits
    * Being on a committee/Board
    * Answering questions in issue queue
    * Answering questions in slack
* Who is a contributor?
* Is it a self designation or a community designation?
* Why would you contribute? 
    * Contribution is a relationship
    * Give and receive
    * Makes you feel good
    * Benefit Skills 
        * Technical
        * Communication
        * Project Management
    * Benefit Career
        * Skills
        * Visibility
        * Building Personal Network
        * Networking at Events
    * Financial Compensation
* Contribute does not always mean nights and weekends
    * Usually starts that way
* Contribute as part of your job
    * Employers are open supporting open source, there are benefits got both company and employee
    * Contribute to external project or contribute internal project to open source
* Will your company support your time to make NCC
    * 315 we learned about Wordpress' contribution goals
    * Launched in 2014, Five for the Future encourages organizations to contribute five percent of their resources to WordPress development. 
* Government
    * 2016 Federal Source Code Policy
    * Support for open source usage, encourage sharing across agencies
    * 20 percent created code should be open source
* Start the Dialog with your company
* Why do we contribute - Contribution can be personal like donating to your favorite charity or playing your favorite game.
    * Nic
        * I was asked
        * I enjoy giving back
        * Helps my career
    * Stephen
        * Sharing and Learning
    * John
        * To help people and solve technical challenges for people
        * Education and knowledge sharing
        * To support something larger than myself / make the world a better place
* How did TD Start
    * Long before Joe Rogans podcast deal with Spotify of 100 million
    * 2008 - With Liberty and Justice for All - 5th grader
    * Obama McCain
    * 7 episodes
    * Mechanics of podcasting,work involved with pre and post record production
    * Virtual book club with Jason Pamental - pick a web design book, assign weekly chapters, Google Hangout
    * Like to learn - similar Drupal journeys - makings of an interesting podcast… great reason to talk every week
* When did we start considering it a contribution?  When did we start giving contribution credits on Drupal.org
* How did Talking Drupal come to be a non-code contribution?
    * It always was a non-code contribution, we didn’t consider it at first because the Drupal community was code focused. 
    * Drupal.org Credit for TD started 20 November 2020
* Community Projects
    * When did the drupal community start supporting NCC
* Why is this important
* How has the show & other non-code contribution impacted our lives / careers 
    * Stephen 
        * Friendships
        * Have helped others
    * Nic
        * Friendships
        * Clients
    * John
        * Connections - Hey you are that guy
        * Given me a sense of value
        * Gives me a sense of supporting the community
* Why are non-code contributions important
    * As valuable to the health of a project as code contributions.
    * There are non-code requirements for all projects
    * Not everyone is a developer/coder
    * Get’s more people with a variety of skills involved in the community
    * Moves open source forward
* Challenges of Contributing
    * Contribution Imposter Syndrome
    * My Contribution isn’t valuable
    * Dealing with concerns that it’s not helpful
* Focus on your skills and passions
* Work, life, contribution balance
    * Work it into your work
    * Build a career based on contribution
    * Contrib doesn’t have to be Nights and Weekends
    * Add 30 min to the start or end of your day
    * If you do tackle one thing a night
    * Provide contrib during your workday
* Sustainability
* Projects are easy to do short time,
    * Energy is high
    * Newness interesting
* Most podcast don’t make it past 8 episodes
    * Long term is a challenge
    * Pre-show guest scheduling, content planning, shownotes
    * Post Production audio and video
    * Release and marketing
    * 1 hour show = 6 - 8 hours
* Priorities and interests change over time
* NCC easier to transition in and out
    * Had to make transition out of my primary roles and I did that, projects have thrived in those transitions
* Be honest with yourself
* How to get involved / How to contribute
    * Just get started
    * Look at your skill set
    * Look at your interests
    * Ask in the issue queue or drupal slack for a starting point
    * You can also reach out to most camp organizers for recommendations
* Takeaways
    * John
        * Anyone can and everyone should contribute
    * Stephen
        * Your contribution is valuable
    * Nic
        * Code and non code are equal to the long term health of the project

## Resources
* www.talkingdrupal.com
* www.talkingdrupal.com/315
* www.nedcamp.org

## Hosts
Nic Laflin - [www.nLighteneddevelopment.com](https://www.nLighteneddevelopment.com) [@nicxvan](https://twitter.com/nicxvan?lang=en)
John Picozzi - [www.epam.com](https://www.epam.com) [@johnpicozzi](https://twitter.com/johnpicozzi?lang=en)
Stephen Cross - [@stephencross](https://twitter.com/stephencross?lang=en)