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About
Hacktoberfest Lore
Hacktoberfest is DigitalOcean’s annual event that encourages people to contribute to open source throughout October. Much of modern tech infrastructure—including some of DigitalOcean’s own products—relies on open-source projects built and maintained by passionate people who often don’t have the staff or budgets to do much more than keep the project alive. Hacktoberfest is all about giving back to those projects, sharpening skills, and celebrating all things open source, especially the people that make open source so special.
For the past 9 years, thousands of people—coders and non-coders alike—have participated in Hacktoberfest to support the projects they use and love, learn and practice skills that will enhance their careers, and meet new people who love open source as much as they do.
New for 2022
Low or Non Code Contributions
Contributing to open source isn’t just for technical folks who want to write code. There are lots of opportunities to use your professional skills in support of open-source projects. This year, we’re making a point to encourage contributions that require some technical experience or none at all. No matter your experience, you can participate in Hacktoberfest!
Hacktoberfest welcomes people of any experience level to participate, and low-code and non-code contributions are fantastic choices for folks who don’t have a lot of technical knowledge. Here are some examples of ways you can contribute to open-source projects:
| Low-Code | Non-Code | |
|---|---|---|
| Writing |
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| Design |
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| Advocacy** |
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Contributors submitting low- or non-code content to projects should create a PR/MR to track it. While Hacktoberfest tracks all PR/MRs submitted for the event, maintainers may need to facilitate tracking of those contributions through an activity log or similar.
Advisory Council
Each year, we bring together a talented group of open-source superfans who help ensure that Hacktoberfest is accessible, inclusive, and enriching for both contributors and maintainers.
Lisa Tagliaferri
Head of Developer Education at Chainguard
Software Security, Python, Digital Humanities
Lisa Tagliaferri is Head of Developer Education at Chainguard. Working at the intersection of teaching, research, and development, Lisa is committed to lowering barriers of entry into technology and open source. Lisa has written popular open access books and tutorials on Python, machine learning and other technical topics, and is a maintainer and builder of open source software.
Marlene Mhangami
Developer Advocate at Voltron Data
Python
Marlene is the Vice-Chair and a director at the Python Software Foundation, the non-profit organization behind Python. She is also the co-founder of ZimboPy, a Zimbabwean non-profit that empowers women to pursue careers in technology. She is based in Harare, Zimbabwe, and was the chair of the inaugural Pycon Africa, the annual pan-African gathering of the Python community. Marlene is interested in seeing technology used for social good and to unite communities across borders globally. She is currently interning as a Software Engineer with the RAPIDS team at Nvidia, working on an Open Source Python GPU DataFrame library.
Joe Nash
Developer Educator at Twilio
Developer relations, developer education, community
Joe is a developer educator at Twilio, where he helps people teach and learn with TwilioQuest. Joe helps companies with their developer relations and communities strategies as a consult, via Interhacktive.co.
Duane O'Brien
Head of Open Source at Indeed, Inc.
Open Source Programs Offices, Open Source Sustainability
Duane leads the vision for open source at Indeed. He manages the people, policies, and ideas to grow open source participation within the company. He loves telling the story of open source through collaboration and conversation. Duane is a force of chaotic good using his high stats in intelligence and charisma to advocate for the open source community. If you encounter him in forested areas, he will share his fire, drink, and philosophy.
Mason Egger
Lead Developer Advocate at Gretel.ai
Python, Synthetic Data, Data Privacy, Cloud Computing
Mason is currently the Lead Developer Advocate at Gretel where he specializes in synthetic data, data privacy, and Python. Prior to his role at Gretel, he was a Developer Advocate at DigitalOcean and an SRE helping build and maintain a highly available hybrid multi-cloud PaaS. He is an avid programmer, speaker, educator, and writer. He is an organizer of PyTexas, President of the PyTexas Foundation, and actively contributes to open source projects. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, camping, kayaking, and exploring new places.