Join Hacktoberfest 2023: Celebrate Open Source with Us!

Are you ready for the annual extravaganza of open source collaboration? Hacktoberfest 2023 is almost here, and we’re excited to share that Esri will be taking part in the month-long celebration of open source projects. We have a range of opportunities available to developers of all skill levels to get involved. To find out how you can join in on the fun, read on for more details! And if you happened to miss it, be sure to watch our Hacktoberfest livestream recording for additional insights.

• Why Esri is participating
• Participation benefits for contributors
• How to Participate
• Designated Hacktoberfest repositories list
• Rules
• Prize and points
• Conclusion

Why Esri is participating

Starting in 2013, Esri began publishing repositories like Esri Leaflet and Terraformer. In fact, Esri Leaflet is one of the top Leaflet plugins based on Github stars. Since then, our commitment to open source has continued to grow, especially with the release of ArcGIS Platform a couple of years ago. Our commitment to open source is evident through our developer demonstrations and comprehensive documentation. We offer a wide range of open source integration options, including support for popular libraries like Leaflet, MapLibre GL JS, OpenLayers, and CesiumJS.

Esri’s Open Vision Initiative, established in 2015, exemplifies our dedication to maintaining ArcGIS as an open and interoperable system. This commitment encompasses our support for open source technologies, open specifications, open standards, and open data. Throughout recent years, we have initiated numerous open source projects, actively participated in third-party endeavors, and integrated open source solutions into many of our product offerings.

While we consistently encourage contributions to open source projects, our involvement in Hacktoberfest signifies a heightened commitment. Throughout the entire month of October, we’re here to assist newcomers as they take their first steps into open source project contributions and to offer additional support to seasoned contributors.

Participation benefits for contributors

Contributing to open source repos can have several benefits including (click ▼ to expand):

How to participate

Participating in Esri’s Hacktoberfest event is straightforward. If you plan to participate, please join our Slack channel. While we encourage participants to ask questions related to specific issues in the repositories themselves, the Slack channel will be an additional way for you to get help and support from Esri employees and other contributors, as well as engage with other community members.

Next, select a repository from the Hacktoberfest designated list below. Within these repositories, you’ll find issues to contribute to labeled with “good first issue” or “help wanted”. Determine which issue you would like to work on and be sure to adhere to all our general open source guidelines and code of conduct before submitting a pull request.

Should there be any Esri premium services that you need to utilize when completing an issue, please contact us via Slack or email. We can provide a voucher for any valid requests, in this case.

Designated Hacktoberfest repositories list

• Esri Leaflet
• Esri Leaflet Vector
• Esri Leaflet Geocoder
• ArcGIS REST JS
• KoopJS
• Calcite Design System
• Arcade Expressions
• ArcGIS JS VSCode Snippets

Rules

Valid contributions include:

• Contributing to projects from the list of the selected projects between October 1st – October 31st.
• Having a pull request (PR) accepted and merged.
• No more than one “good first issue” per person.

Prize and points

To incentivize participation, we will be giving away one free registration to the Esri Developer Summit in either Berlin, Germany, or Palm Springs, CA (winner’s choice). The participant who receives the most points from their valid contributions will be awarded this registration.

The points allocated for each valid contribution type are as follows:

• For a “good first issue”, the participant will receive 10 points. NOTE: Any one person may only earn 10 points once from completing a valid “good first issue” contribution.
• For an issue labeled “help wanted”, the participant will receive 15 points.

An issue must have either the label “good first issue” or “help wanted” to be considered a part of the contest. If an issue has both “good first issue” and “help wanted”, then it is considered a “good first issue” issue and will be worth just 10 points. For more detailed information, please carefully read through all of the contest rules.

Conclusion

We’re looking forward to participating in Hacktoberfest this year, and we hope that your own curiosity, along with the incentives offered by both the official Hacktoberfest presenters and us, will be the perfect excuse for you to participate this year. There are opportunities for individuals regardless of skill level. Reminder – if you have any immediate inquiries or feedback, join our Slack channel or send us an email.

About the authors

Courtney Yatteau

Courtney Yatteau is a developer advocate on the Developer Experience team. She is responsible for outreach and awareness related to Esri's developer SDKs and APIs. Before Esri, Courtney worked in the secondary education field, teaching computer science and mathematics.

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Raúl Jiménez Ortega

Developer on the Developer Experience (DX) team, looking for ways to improve the DX through better educational resources, developer tools, and community support among other things.

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