It’s been 3 months since the release of Build a Ruby Gem and I’ve gotten tremendous feedback since the launch.

I’ve love to share some news and an opportunity to win a FREE copy of the book. If you’ve already purchased the book, don’t worry, we’ll find a way to make it worth it for you.

Feedback

The two questions I’ve heard the most since the release of the email course and book are:

1. Why should I get involved with open source software?

2. How do I get started contributing to an open source project?

Benefits of Getting Involved

Participating in open source projects is an enlightening experience. The benefits are widespread and different for each developer. Speaking personally, I’ve learned a ton from the codebases I’ve gotten involved with. Learning was the primary reason I got involved in the first place.

Going beyond the learning aspect, my open source contributions have resulted in several jobs offers, among other things. It’s easy to think that getting involved is only just about doing good for the community — but it’s bigger than that.

I could go on and on, but it’s likely you’ve already heard me talk about this through my post on ways to get started contributing to open source or the open source chapter in Build a Ruby Gem.

Hear It From Others in the Community

Hearing other people’s stories has always had a profound effect on my comfort-level when approaching things I’m unfamiliar with. So with that being said, I want you to hear the answers to the questions above from those YOU look up to in the Ruby community.

This person could be the author of your favorite gem or Matz himself (disclaimer: I may or may not be able to make this one happen…). Either way, I’ll do my best to have live interview chats with your favorite Rubyists and dig through their experience and thoughts on the community and software in general.

Entries have closed for the giveaway.

Submissions will be open until 5:00pm EDT on Friday, July 11. I’ll announcement the winner shortly thereafter.

Even if you don’t win, I’ll send everyone that submits a response a 20% discount code for any package of Build a Ruby Gem.