Using open source software contributions in an internship program

Abstract

Interns and new employees right out of university or technicians need practical experience in software development projects before they can effectively contribute to an organization's own software development. Encouraging such interns and/or employees to contribute to existing open source software projects during the first few months of employment gives the interns/employees an opportunity to take part in a larger project, hone their software development skills, and learn to develop while collaborating with remote partners without the stress of hard and firm deadlines. Depending on the project, such contributions can also help codify indigenous African knowledge systems and/or aspects of African culture. This paper examines a program where interns made positive contributions to the Apache Lucene open source project during their internships