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Contribution Ideas

To help you get started, here's a list of contributions you can make and events you can run to engage your club members. These have been divided into the following tracks: Technical, Creative & Media, Advocacy, Community & Organization and Governance & Legal.

Note: The FOSS United Foundation does not partner with Web3/Blockchain events and organisations, and asks that you don't organise any such activities as part of the FOSS Club. Read more about our thoughts on Blockchain.

If you have other ideas, feel free to book a call to discuss with the foundation team.

The Technical Track

  1. Core Code (PRs): Fixing bugs or adding features to FOSS projects. Start: Find "Good First Issues" on GitHub.
  2. Infrastructure/DevOps: Hosting an instance of an open source tool such as Nextcloud or Matrix for your club/college.
  3. Security Auditing: Finding vulnerabilities in open-source libraries. Start: Run Bandit or Snyk on a repo.
  4. Accessibility (a11y) Testing: Testing software for screen-reader compatibility. Start: Use the "Lighthouse" tool on open web apps.
  5. Quality Assurance (QA): Manually testing new releases and filing bug reports. Start: Install a beta version of a FOSS app and try to break it.
  6. Open Hardware: Designing PCB layouts or 3D printable cases for open sensors. Start: Use KiCad and check out Jigita.
  7. Open Science Advocacy: Encouraging researchers to use R or GNU Octave instead of proprietary tools like SPSS or MATLAB.
  8. The Migration Pilot: Selecting one small department or club in your college (e.g., the Sports Club) and migrating their workflow to Nextcloud or Etherpad.
  9. Campus "Tech Consultant": Helping the college admin move from paid software to FOSS (e.g., MS Office to LibreOffice, Google Classroom to Moodle). Start: A feasibility report for one department.
  10. Data Science (Open Datasets): Scrubbing and publishing a public dataset (e.g., local air quality or traffic). Start: Use Python to clean a CSV and upload to Kaggle/GitHub.
  11. Dataset Labeling: Organizing a "Label-a-thon" to help open-source AI models (like those on Hugging Face) understand local contexts.
  12. Hardware Documentation: Writing "Assembly Guides" for open-source lab equipment (like open-source microscopes or air sensors).
  13. Linux Installation Party: A hands-on event where you help community members install Linux on their laptops.

The Creative & Media Track

  1. FOSS Photography: Taking high-quality photos of events and uploading them to FOSS United Forum/Wikimedia/Ente.io with a creative commons attribution. Start: A "Photo Walk" at the next meetup.
  2. Illustration/UI Design: Designing icons or SVG assets for FOSS projects and banners for college fests using Penpot/Inkscape. Start: Design a banner for the next FOSS meetup.
  3. Video Tutorials: Creating "How to install Linux" or "Git basics" videos for YouTube. Start: Record a 2-minute screen-cap of a FOSS tool.
  4. Localization (L10n): Translating software UI into local languages (Hindi, Tamil, etc.). Start: Join a project on Weblate.
  5. Technical Documentation: Rewriting confusing "ReadMe" files to be beginner-friendly. Start: Fork a repo and fix the installation guide.
  6. FOSS in Videos: Use Blender for video editing and animations for college fests.
  7. FOSS Newsletter Management: Curating a bi-weekly "State of FOSS" email for the campus using an open-source tool like Listmonk.
  8. Font Design (Typography): Contributing to open-source font projects or creating a custom open-source font for the college. Start: Use FontForge.
  9. Open Music Composition: Composing and releasing royalty-free background scores for FOSS United videos. Start: Use LMMS or Ardour.
  10. UI/UX Research: Conducting "User Interviews" for clunky FOSS tools and creating "Persona Documents" to help developers improve them.
  11. Digital Archiving: Digitizing old college magazines, historical documents or other academic material and uploading them to the Internet Archive.

The Advocacy Track

  1. Intro to Digital Commons: Share the idea of Digital Commons with your community and make them think beyond code.
  2. Techfest Integration: Pitching a "FOSS Only" shift or a track at the next edition of the college hackathon. Start: A meeting with the organisers.
  3. Wikipedia Editing: Improving articles or making a wiki page for your campus that lists activities of all clubs in your college.
  4. OpenStreetMap Mapping: Mapping the college campus in detail on OSM. Start: Use the iD Editor to add campus buildings.
  5. FOSS Training for Faculty: Organizing "Digital Literacy" sessions specifically for teachers to show them how to use FOSS in the classroom.
  6. Podcast/Interviewing: Recording conversations with local FOSS contributors or creating video tutorials for open source tools in your regional language.
  7. Social Media Advocacy: Running a "FOSS Fact of the Day" thread on social media. Start: A 7-day thread on FOSS history.
  8. Mentorship/Teaching: Running a 4-week "Digital Commons for Beginners" course for juniors. Start: Create a 4-slide curriculum.
  9. Alumni Registry: Creating an open registry for alumni of the college. Start: A simple CSV or Git-based repository for community members.

The Community & Organization Track

  1. Event Management: Running the logistics for an in-person meetup. Start: Organize a "FOSS Tea-time" session.
  2. Community Moderation: Keeping the club's Discord/Matrix/Forum civil and helpful. Start: Draft a Code of Conduct.
  3. Sponsorship Outreach: Reaching out to local tech companies to sponsor your next open source initiative (swag, snacks, stickers or monetary). Start: Draft a cold-email template for the club.
  4. Open Ledger Bookkeeping: Using GnuCash or Frappe Books to manage and publicly display the FOSS Club's finances.
  5. Video Streaming: Use Jitsi or other open source tools for video conferencing. Start: Run your team meetings on Jitsi.
  1. FOSS Policy Auditing: Reviewing University IT policies to advocate for "Open Standards" in file submissions (e.g., requesting .odt instead of .docx).
  2. Privacy Advocacy: Conducting workshops on "De-Googling" and using FOSS alternatives like DuckDuckGo.
  3. Digital Sovereignty Research: Writing papers on why local institutions should host their own data using FOSS instead of relying on proprietary clouds.
  4. Public Policy Whitepapers: Researching how the government can adopt FOSS for digital sovereignty. Start: Write a blog on "FOSS in Indian Governance."
  5. License Compliance: Auditing a project to ensure it uses the correct GPL/MIT/Apache licenses. Start: Use "FOSSology" on a local project.

Have other ideas to suggest? Send us a PR here.