Bret and Matt are joined by Chad Crowell of KubeSkills to walk through how you can contribute to Kubernetes open source. Chad started the kubeskills.com community and podcast to focus on learning Kubernetes by doing and in this episode, he's taking us through a detailed guide on how to get involved in the Kubernetes community.Although Kubernetes and other CNCF projects may seem big and complex with tons of activity, Chad helps us understand how the maturity of the projects and the community make it a much more pleasant onboarding experience for first-time contributors. We go through a wide range of resources and steps to help your first issue or pull request go smoothly.Live recording of this show from March 9, 2023 is on YouTube (Ep. #206).★Topics★Learning K8s by Open Source PDF slidesFirst Timers Only websiteK8s Contributor Community HomepageList of K8s SIGsK8s SlackOpen Sauced websiteK8s Contributors onboarding courseKube Cuddle podcast with Joe BedaLearning K8s Skills Support this show and get exclusive benefits on Patreon, YouTube, or bretfisher.com!★Join my Community★New live course on CI automation and gitops deploymentsBest coupons for my Docker and Kubernetes coursesChat with us and fellow students on our Discord Server DevOps FansGrab some merch at Bret's Loot BoxHomepage bretfisher.comCreators & Guests

Bret Fisher - Host

Cristi Cotovan - Editor

Beth Fisher - Producer

Matt Williams - Host

Chad M. Crowell - Guest


(00:00) - Intro
(02:45) - Chad's Book
(05:11) - Learning platforms
(05:37) - Another way to learn
(06:44) - SIGs
(07:47) - Community or Contributor Experience SIG
(10:06) - Volunteers
(11:27) - For those who want to start contributing
(13:50) - The different tags
(14:48) - Good first issues
(16:01) - Bret's first Docker fix
(16:50) - Who determines the first issues?
(18:37) - OpenSauced
(19:16) - Finding the next steps after learning
(19:59) - Dashboard to track contributions
(20:42) - A very friendly community
(22:30) - Who's paying for OpenSauced?
(23:06) - How to build your rep on the internet
(24:57) - Github Flow, Breaking it down
(27:24) - Eddie Hub
(28:10) - Assign yourself to the issue
(28:50) - Compile Kubernetes
(30:14) - Tracking the pull request lifecycle
(31:44) - Changing the k8s reference issue
(35:17) - Kubernetes Slack Channels
(35:59) - SIG mailing lists
(36:44) - Getting feedback before you do the work
(38:18) - How do you give up and issue?
(39:53) - Correlating issues with Slack
(40:28) - Start with an issue first
(41:24) - Random PRs don't go well
(43:00) - Onboarding course
(44:11) - Cheat sheet
(44:26) - What Chad has learned from contributing
(46:09) - Online resources
(48:48) - Certifications and exams
(50:46) - Matt's comment about a podcast
(52:48) - Wrap up