Open Source – An Unending Journey

Who am I?

Hey there , before getting started with this blog, I would like to introduce myself.Im Nishith P , a 15 year old tech enthusiast from India.Though I’m still a beginer, I challenge myself to participate in variety of CS related contests like Google Code to Learn , Google Code-in ,etc .

Spoilers, I’m a Google Code to Learn 2019 🏆

Hoping for more opportunities and success to come my way 😉

Google Code-in

Google Code-in (GCI) is an annual programming competition hosted by Google LLC that allows pre-university students to complete tasks specified by various, partnering open source organizations. The contest was originally the Google Highly Open Participation Contest, but in 2010, the format was modified into its current state. Students that complete tasks win certificates and T-shirts. Each organization also selects two grand prize award winners who will earn a trip to Google’s Headquarters located in Mountain View, California.

Google partners with certain open source organizations, all of which have had previous experience working with Google open source programs like Google Summer of Code. These organizations come up with “bite-sized” tasks that are self-contained, designed for pre-university students to complete. When the contest begins, students can register and claim tasks. Once claimed, students will have a set period of time to complete the task and can receive help from the mentor and the organization’s community. Students may ask for deadline extensions if needed.

My Journey with GCI

My journey with GCI & Open Source development bagan back in 2017 when a friend of mine had referred this contest to me.This was the starting point which started my enthusiasm for Google and also love for coding and contributing to open source projects.

The first organisation I decided to contribute to as part of GCI was Fossasia.

This was the starting chain reaction for my various interests such as the Google Assistant & other fun Google projects.

Fossasia – Org

FOSSASIA is an organization developing Open Source software applications and Open Hardware together with a global community from its base in Asia. It is our goal to provide access to open technologies, science applications and knowledge that improve people’s lives. We want to enable people to adapt and change technology according to their own ideas and needs and validate science and knowledge through an Open Access approach. FOSSASIA was established 2009 by Hong Phuc Dang and Mario Behling. We organize and participate in conferences, meetups and code camps. The annual FOSSASIA Summit in Singapore is one of the top tech events in Asia. Other summits take place in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and India.

My Favourite Fossasia project

I really like the idea of SUSI.AI as I’m really into AI (Artificial Interlligence) and ML (Machine Learning).I believe that AI is the main key to virtual assistants in the future who will be able to do more unbelievable things in the future and should therefore be promoted.

SUSI.AI is one of the opensource based AI chat assistants available in the market presently.

As of now SUSI.AI is still in development stages but I believe that it can be able to become something like J.A.R.V.I.S with the help of more contributors as part of various programmes such as GSoC , GCI , Codeheat,etc.

Other Fossasia Projects

A few of the key projects associated with Fossasia are:

Open Source apps I use

I broadly use these open source apps in my life:

Pocket Science Lab
Inkscape
Handbrake

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