You Can Be a Kubernetes Contributor Too!

Kubernetes is a popular technology with a vibrant community. It is only natural that developers want to be a part of it, but they face a hurdle of knowing where and how to start contributing, preventing many from achieving this goal.

This talk will address the curiosity and fears that many face as a new contributor and give an example of a realistic path from novice to Kubernetes contributor.

Like many others who recently graduated from a computer science program and began working as a software engineer, I had no open source software or distributed systems experience. Today, I am a contributing member of upstream Kubernetes co-maintaining two Kubernetes sub-projects, and am part of the Kubernetes 1.20 release team.

Through sharing my journey, I hope to give you the courage and confidence to make your first meaningful contribution to Kubernetes.

What You’ll Learn

• How to address the initial hurdles of making contributions to Kubernetes.
• Ways to feel more confident in tackling tasks and making connections within the Kubernetes community.

This Talk is Designed For

Anyone interested in contributing to Kubernetes but is hesitant about where and how to start.

Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of open source software and Kubernetes.

• Slides
• Kubernetes Slack channel
• DigitalOcean Kubernetes Slack channel: #digitalocean-k8s
• Contribute as a beginner by finding issues here: TestGrid
• Search for diversity scholarships such as this one when in-person events begin again

Kubernetes projects on GitHub

• Kubernetes main page
• Issues
• Test infra
• Kubernetes core
• Enhancements
• Website
• SIGs
• Cluster management API, DigitalOcean

Making a PR

• Pull requests

Testing

• e2e tests
• Advanced testing

Shadow

• Shadows.md
• Release team roles

Further reading

• https://kubernetes.io/
• Kubernetes: Up and Running
• Kubernetes tutorials by DigitalOcean

Jeremy Morris is a Software Engineer based out of Princeton, New Jersey, USA. Currently working at DigitalOcean on DOKS, he’s a member of the Kubernetes release team for 1.20, and co-maintainer of the Cluster API and the Cluster Autoscaler for DigitalOcean.