Contributing to open source can feel intimidating—but it’s the fastest way to 10x your growth as a developer. In this session, I’ll share how I went from coding, struggling with devops and deploying production grade applications on a phone (https://x.com/iyanda2234/status/1812110963711050097) to contributing to LinuxFoundation projects like OpenStack Ironic & Bifrost: bossfreeman9@gmail.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://review.opendev.org/q/owner:bossfreeman9@gmail.com
and patch bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/~freemanboss mentoring at She Code Africa Lagos: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sca-lagos_scalagos-devops-technicaldeepdive-activity-7342914010343792640-Gr2y
, authoring tutorials: https://medium.com/@habeebbabasulaiman_39135/.
We’ll explore how beginners can start with programs like LFX, Outreachy, MLH, and OnlyDust, stay consistent until they become core contributors, and leverage CNCF projects like Kubernetes, OpenTelemetry, and OpenStack to unlock global opportunities—from mentorship to international conferences.

This talk draws from my lived experience of learning, building, and deploying production-grade applications entirely on a mobile phone using Termux and Neovim for two years (https://x.com/iyanda2234/status/1812110963711050097
), before eventually contributing to large-scale open source ecosystems like OpenStack Ironic & Bifrost (bossfreeman9@gmail.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://review.opendev.org/q/owner:bossfreeman9@gmail.com
) and reporting bugs on Launchpad (https://bugs.launchpad.net/~freemanboss
).

Technical Requirements: Projector, stable internet connection, and permission for live demos or pre-recorded videos showing open source contribution workflows (Gerrit + GitHub).
Target Audience: Early-career developers, DevOps engineers, and students from underrepresented or low-resource regions looking to enter open source and cloud-native communities.
First Delivery: Adapted from open source mentorship sessions conducted at She Code Africa Lagos (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sca-lagos_scalagos-devops-technicaldeepdive-activity-7342914010343792640-Gr2y
) and technical mentorship at ALX Africa (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/habeeb-babasulaiman_as-a-community-champion-at-alx-while-tutoring-activity-7294235175490617344-B1E9
).

Community & Advocacy Work:

MIT AI Global Hackathon Ambassador – promoting African participation in global innovation (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/habeeb-babasulaiman_mit-hacknation-ai-activity-7382700188538146816-8OAR
)

AWS Cloud Club Maintainer (UNILORIN) – leading contributions to the official website (https://github.com/AWSCC-Unilorin/Official_website
)

Open Source Contributions: NFTOPIA (https://github.com/NFTopia-Foundation/nftopia
), Veritix-Python (https://github.com/Lead-Studios/veritix-python
), and Layer5 / Meshery (https://github.com/layer5io/layer5/pulls/FreemanBoss
)

Preferred Duration: 25 minutes (20-minute talk + 5-minute Q&A).
Presentation Format: Storytelling, technical walkthroughs, and practical strategies for beginners to enter and grow within CNCF and Linux Foundation ecosystems.

Previous Speaking Highlights:

Hacktoberfest 2025 – Open Source 101: https://bit.ly/alx9ja-se-hub-Open-Source-101-HacktoberFest-2025

AWS Community Day West Africa 2025: https://www.youtube.com/live/2k2kd0njoTY?si=yXXAaMiQHj-EPEqf

DevFest Ilorin 2025 (Volunteer & Speaker): https://gdg.community.dev/gdg-ilorin/