Contribution Guidelines

Contributing to XploR can be a rewarding way to learn, teach, and build your hardware and softwar design skills for emerging open source initiatives such as RISC-V.

Why do people contribute to XploR?

Improve software you use

You can start by being users of XploR Studio and components, and share your feedback and experience. If the components are open-source, you may want to look at the source to see if you can patch it yourself. If that’s the case, then contributing the patch back is the best way to ensure that your friends (and yourself when you update to the next release) will be able to benefit from it.

Improve existing skills

Whether it’s coding, user interface design, graphic design, writing, or organizing, if you’re looking for practice, there are many things that you can contribute. Reach out at [email protected] to learn more.

Meet people with common interests

Welcoming communities keep people coming back for years. Many people form lifelong friendships through their participation in discussion, whether it’s about a specific feature / bugs, or suggestions for general improvement.

Mentors and teach

Working with others on a shared project means you’ll have to explain how you do things, as well as ask other people for help. The acts of learning and teaching can be a fulfilling activity for everyone involved.

Grow your reputation (and a career)

By definition, all of your component contributions are yours, which means you get free examples to take anywhere as a demonstration of what you can do.

Learn people skills

XploR platforms offer opportunities to practice leadership and management skills, such as resolving conflicts, organizing teams of people, and prioritizing work.

Be empowered

You don’t have to become a lifelong contributor to enjoy participating in open source. Have you ever seen a typo on a website, and wished someone would fix it? You can do just that.