When I hear the term “open source”, I think about the countless technologies the paradigm has brought us. From languages such as Python to information sharing websites such as Wikipedia, Open Source has worked wonders in advancing all corners of technology. There are numerous benefits to a particular piece of software being open source. For one, since the practice is not inherently profit-driven, the people working and contributing to it are usually doing so out of genuine passion for the project itself. Contributors to an open source program are very often the users of the piece of software themselves, adding features that they as a user wish to use. Open sourcing software allows users who know and love a project to make changes that users want to see. Open source can also lead to more secure pieces of software because the source code is available for everyone to see, allowing bugs to be found and corrected hastily. The non profit-driven nature of open source can of course have some downsides too. Sometimes, projects can lack enough developers to continually develop it, especially if they are not particularly large. Since there is no one on payroll for open source projects, there can be a lack of incentive for contributors to make deadlines which can often lead to projects fizzling out over time. However, with enough passionate developers, projects can and are regularly kept up to date and widely used. I chose to take this class out of a real interest in open source technology and a desire to contribute to projects that I have used or would like to use. I have never previously contributed to open source projects before taking this class but would love to get actively involved in the space. On a daily basis, I use a plethora of open source software such as Wikipedia, which I turn to for information about virtually any subject, Python, which I use for coding in the workplace, for fun, and at school, Firefox, which I use and love for browsing the internet, and Audacity, which I use for recording and editing audio.