KubeCon + CloudNativeCon is the flagship cloud native conference. It happens multiple times a year on different continents, and every edition is massive. It is many things at once: a learning opportunity, a social event, a job fair, an open source gathering, and an industry showcase, all compressed into a few busy days.

More than anything, though, KubeCon is an experience.

Today I received a pull request in a project that I haven't touched in over five years. It was a simple change, but it made me think about the state of the project and ultimately led me to archive it.

This isn't the first time I've gotten rid of something I no longer need, and I've realized that cleaning up old stuff is a good practice—not just in general, but also for keeping the open source ecosystem healthy.

A question I often get from people—both from beginners stepping into the world of programming and seasoned developers alike—is about how they can start contributing to open source software projects. In this post, my aim is to provide practical advice that will guide you to become not only an active participant in the open source community but also a significant contributor to it.