What is the ReadME Project

The ReadME Project amplifies the voices of the open source community: the maintainers, contributors, and developers whose powerful contributions move the world forward every day. In lifting up their personal and professional challenges, stories, insights, and lessons learned, we hope to continue to build a more sustainable open source ecosystem, together. Learn more about The ReadME Project

What is an open source community?

People often think coding is a solitary activity, but it’s actually the world’s largest community effort led by a small group of open source maintainers and teams. These invisible heroes often work endless hours without funding, support, or thanks, and the ratio of consumers to maintainers can be as unbalanced as 2,000 to 1.

The ReadME Project

“I am many things: a parent, an engineer, an open source maintainer. I’m also an immigrant and woman of color in tech, and for a long time, I felt alone.” Mariatta Wijaya

The ReadME Project amplifies the voices of the open source community: the maintainers, developers, and teams whose contributions move the world forward every day. Learn more ●students ●journalists ●parents ●authors ●activists ●business owners ●podcast hosts ●public speakers ●musicians ●chefs ●self-starters ●partners ●photographers ●immigrants ●mediators ●gamers ●freelancers ●9-5ers ●5-9ers ●board members ●grandparents ●volunteers ●educators ●community-builders ●developers ●contributors ●maintainers Meet the people behind the projects you love.

pandas was initially my reaction to being frustrated with the tools I’d been using. I think that’s what drives a lot of open source developers: They don’t find what they’re looking for, so they build it.

Wes McKinney Read Wes’s story

Open source itself is great, but the community is more important. It’s not just about contributing to this project or that project. You actually get to be part of the community and interact with people.

Gift Egwuenu Read Gift’s story

Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek

Looking deep to have a big influence

Project jQuery Location Warsaw, Poland Marc Cornellà

Inspired to not only consume, but contribute

Project Oh My Zsh Location Barcelona, Spain Robby Russell

Finding strength and purpose in collaboration

Project Oh My Zsh Location Portland, OR David Nolen

Scaling open source by creating potential

Project clojurescript Location New York Chrissy LeMaire

Finding connection and joy in the open source world

Project dbatools Location North of France Benjie Gillam

The art of helping people and setting boundaries

Project Graphile Location Southampton, UK Alex Ellis

Balancing open source sacrifice and success

Project OpenFaaS Location United Kingdom Evan You

Starting with an idea and building a community

Project Vue Location New Jersey ⇄ China Issy Long

Learning, connecting, and building a routine

Project Homebrew Location London, UK Jordan Harband

Maintaining kindness and commits

Project TC39 Location Hillsborough, CA Ovilia Zhang

Finding inspiration from, with, and for the community

Project Apache ECharts Location Shanghai, China Sonia John

Me, my computer, and the will to act

Project ProtoSchool Location Nairobi, Kenya Samson Goddy

Dreaming big to unify Africa’s open source community

Project Sugar Labs Location Nigeria Henry Zhu

A leap of faith: Committing to open source

Project Babel Location New York City Dirk Lemstra

A balancing act: Puzzles and practicality

Project ImageMagick Location The Netherlands

About The ReadME Project

Coding is usually seen as a solitary activity, but it's actually the world's largest community effort led by a small group of open source maintainers, contributors, and teams. These unsung heroes put in long hours to build software, fix issues, field questions, and manage communities, often without funding or recognition. The ratio of consumers to maintainers can be as unbalanced as 2,000 to 1. The ReadME Project is part of GitHub's ongoing effort to amplify the voices of open source software: We want the world to know these inspiring people, hear their stories, and understand what drives them.

Get involved

Support the community

Recognize and support the community working behind the scenes and help them get the resources they need with GitHub Sponsors.

Nominate a person or project

Nominate inspiring open source developers and projects you think we should include in The ReadME Project (it could be you!).

Advance your journey

Grow your skills, complete hands-on projects, and get helpful feedback with GitHub Learning Lab.

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