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New blog post on how to contribute to OTel (#3238)
Co-authored-by: Severin Neumann <[email protected]> Co-authored-by: Phillip Carter <[email protected]>
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| title: Thinking about contributing to OpenTelemetry? Here's how I did it. | ||
| linkTitle: Contributing to OTel | ||
| date: 2023-09-18 | ||
| author: | ||
| >- # If you have only one author, then add the single name on this line in quotes. | ||
| [Adriana Villela](https://github.com/avillela) (Lightstep), | ||
| canonical_url: https://medium.com/cloud-native-daily/how-to-contribute-to-opentelemetry-5962e8b2447e | ||
| cSpell:ignore: EUWG, nolan, riaan, sayin, servian | ||
| --- | ||
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|  | ||
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| Are you an [OpenTelemetry](/) (OTel) practitioner? Have you ever wanted to | ||
| contribute back to OpenTelemetry, but didn't know where to begin? Well, my | ||
| friend, you've come to the right place! | ||
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| Drawing from my own personal journey, I'd like to offer some valuable insights | ||
| into effective ways I've discovered for initiating involvement in this thriving | ||
| and inclusive open source community. | ||
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| ## Contributing to open source can be SCARY! | ||
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| Let's face it. Most of us use open source projects in our day-to-day tech jobs | ||
| (Or maybe side hustles?). But what about _contributing_ to these open source | ||
| projects? I don't know about you, but for me, up until last year, the prospect | ||
| of contributing to open source was just plain _scary_!! I mean, when you open up | ||
| a | ||
| [pull request](https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-pull-requests/proposing-changes-to-your-work-with-pull-requests/about-pull-requests) | ||
| (PR), | ||
| _[you are putting yourself out there](https://oncallmemaybe.com/episodes/adventures-in-open-source-software-with-riaan-nolan-of-servian)_, | ||
| to be judged by those little GitHub avatars that make up the approvers list for | ||
| the repository you're contributing to. YIKES! | ||
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| But as scary as the thought of opening a PR might be, it's also SO VERY | ||
| SATISFYING to see your contributions merged into a codebase. And most | ||
| importantly, your contributions can help others!! How cool is that? | ||
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| ## Ways to contribute to OTel | ||
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| Okay. Are you feeling pumped now? Awesome. Let's look at some of the ways to | ||
| contribute to OTel. | ||
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| ### Contribute to the OTel Docs | ||
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| Are you new to OTel? Are you a bit apprehensive about contributing code to an | ||
| open source project? No sweat! One of the best and easiest ways to contribute to | ||
| OpenTelemetry (or to any open source project, for that matter) is to contribute | ||
| to the docs! Remember that being new is not a disadvantage. In fact, it's an | ||
| asset for the docs: by not being too deep into the OTel world, a newcomer is the | ||
| perfect person assess OTel documentation! | ||
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| Whenever I need to dig into a new OTel concept, I always turn to the docs for | ||
| guidance. Sometimes they have all of the info that I need, and sometimes they | ||
| don't. This usually means that I have to do a bit more digging beyond the docs, | ||
| by seeking out external blog posts, bugging techie friends, etc. Once I'm able | ||
| to fill that knowledge gap, I do two things: | ||
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| 1. I blog about it. See examples [here](https://shorturl.at/vLYZ0), | ||
| [here](https://shorturl.at/hlqtE), and [here](https://shorturl.at/czHST). | ||
| 2. I contribute to the OTel docs. See examples | ||
| [here](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry.io/pull/3195), | ||
| [here](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry.io/pull/3098), and | ||
| [here](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry.io/pull/2130). | ||
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| > ✨ **NOTE:** ✨ Number two is _especially_ important, because the best way for | ||
| > the OTel docs to be the Source of Truth for All Things OTel<sup>TM</sup> is to | ||
| > have folks like us contributing to the docs whenever we see a gap. | ||
| Learn more about contributing to the OTel docs | ||
| [here](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry.io/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md). | ||
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| > ✨ **NOTE:** ✨ If you find the contribution guidelines for the OTel Docs to | ||
| > be confusing or have a mistake, improving them is a great way to contribute! | ||
| > 😉 | ||
| ### Write a post on the OTel Blog | ||
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| Another great way to contribute to OTel is to write blog posts on the | ||
| [OpenTelemetry blog](/blog). If you've done something interesting in | ||
| OpenTelemetry, or have worked on a complex OTel implementation within your | ||
| organization, the OpenTelemetry blog is a great way to share that with the | ||
| community at large. As long as your work isn't promoting a product you're | ||
| selling or requires readers to make a purchase in order to replicate your work, | ||
| your blog post is most welcome! | ||
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| You can check out an example of one of my previous blog posts | ||
| [here](/blog/2022/otel-demo-app-nomad/). | ||
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| Learn more about submitting a post to the OTel blog | ||
| [here](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry.io#submitting-a-blog-post). | ||
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| ### Join the OTel End User Working Group | ||
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| Are you just getting started with OTel and want to connect with other OTel | ||
| practitioners? Do you have feedback that you wish to share with the greater OTel | ||
| community? Or perhaps you're a more advanced OTel practitioner and want to share | ||
| your story and/or use cases with the greater community? Then the OTel End User | ||
| Working Group (EUWG) might be just the place for you! This group is made up of | ||
| OpenTelemetry practitioners who come together a few times a month to: | ||
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| - Share their feedback and ask questions through | ||
| [OTel End User Discussions](/community/end-user/discussion-group/) | ||
| - Share their stories of OpenTelemetry adoption through | ||
| [OTel Q&A](/community/end-user/interviews-feedback/) | ||
| - Share their knowledge on specific areas of OpenTelemetry through | ||
| [OTel in Practice (OTiP)](/community/end-user/otel-in-practice/) | ||
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| As an added bonus, I'm one of the co-chairs. Just sayin'… 😉 | ||
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| Learn more about the OTel EUWG [here](/community/end-user/). | ||
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| ### Contribute to the OpenTelemetry Demo | ||
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| If you'd like to contribute code, but aren't quite ready to contribute to core | ||
| OTel code, then perhaps you might want to check out the | ||
| [OTel Demo](/docs/demo/). The OTel Demo includes a distributed online telescope | ||
| shop application with services written in multiple languages and is instrumented | ||
| with OpenTelemetry. It's a great way to learn about how to instrument code in | ||
| your chosen language. | ||
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| [Per the OTel Demo docs](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-demo#welcome-to-the-opentelemetry-astronomy-shop-demo), | ||
| the purpose of the demo is to: | ||
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| - Provide a realistic example of a distributed system that can be used to | ||
| demonstrate OpenTelemetry instrumentation and Observability. | ||
| - Build a base for vendors, tooling authors, and others to extend and | ||
| demonstrate their OpenTelemetry integrations. | ||
| - Create a living example for OpenTelemetry contributors to use for testing new | ||
| versions of the API, SDK, and other components or enhancements. | ||
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| The OTel Demo [just celebrated its first birthday](/blog/2023/demo-birthday/), | ||
| and it's come a long way since its first release. As OTel evolves, the OTel Demo | ||
| must also evolve alongside it, to ensure that it is utilizing the latest and | ||
| greatest versions of things like the [OTel Collector](/docs/collector/) and | ||
| language-specific instrumentation. In short, there's always work to be done! | ||
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| You can check out an example of one of my contributions | ||
| [here](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-demo/pull/432). | ||
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| Learn more about how to contribute to the OTel Demo | ||
| [here](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-demo/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md). | ||
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| ### Join a Special Interest Group | ||
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| Feeling a little more adventurous? Then why not join one of the other OTel | ||
| [special interest groups](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_interest_group) | ||
| (SIGs)? By joining a SIG, you can contribute to things like (but not limited to) | ||
| SDK development, auto-instrumentation of libraries, the | ||
| [OTel Collector](/docs/collector/), and the | ||
| [OTel Operator](/docs/kubernetes/operator/). You don't even need to be a regular | ||
| contributor. Sometimes, contributions come out of necessity. Like maybe you | ||
| found a bug in the Collector. Why not take a stab at fixing it? Or maybe there's | ||
| a feature that you and your team desperately need. Again, why not take a stab at | ||
| implementing it? | ||
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| Now, before you go off writing code, you should make sure that you: | ||
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| 1. Raise an issue in the | ||
| [appropriate GitHub repository](https://github.com/open-telemetry) | ||
| 2. Check with folks on | ||
| [Slack](https://communityinviter.com/apps/cloud-native/cncf) to see if this | ||
| feature is needed/wanted | ||
| 3. Pop into one of the [SIG calls](https://shorturl.at/beJ09) and share your | ||
| specific interests and needs | ||
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| I'm under no illusion that any contributing code to OTel is is a trivial task. | ||
| Far from it. If you do end up contributing code, one way to alleviate the | ||
| stress/learning curve of doing it solo would be to pair with a willing OTel | ||
| community member to implement these types of code changes. I've found folks | ||
| within OTel to be nothing but helpful and welcoming. | ||
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| You can check out an example of one of my contributions | ||
| [here](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-helm-charts/pull/531). | ||
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| Learn more about the OTel SIGs [here](/community/#special-interest-groups). | ||
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| ### Final thoughts | ||
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| As we've seen, there are many ways to contribute to OpenTelemetry, whether it's | ||
| through docs contributions, blogging, joining the End User Working Group, | ||
| contributing to the OTel Demo, or joining a SIG. | ||
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| But wait...there's more! You can also contribute to OpenTelemetry outside of the | ||
| "official" OpenTelemetry channels (i.e. GitHub and Slack). These include giving | ||
| talks about OpenTelemetry, going on podcasts to promote OpenTelemetry, telling | ||
| your friends and family about OpenTelemetry...and so much more! Anything helps! | ||
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| There's no such thing as a small contribution, because every little bit adds up, | ||
| and helps make OpenTelemetry awesome. | ||
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| As a final thought, I will always encourage folks to blog about the OTel | ||
| findings and discoveries. Obviously, I do that too. But please also share these | ||
| findings by contributing directly to the OTel docs and blog, to ensure that we | ||
| have a single source of truth, and so that everyone, whether they're new to OTel | ||
| or advanced practitioners, can benefit. |
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