My Winter Of Code 2.0 experience at Moja Global
Tags: opensource, experience, webdev, devjournal
Published: 2022-02-04 17:53:06

Hey Folks!
I recently got selected as a mentee under Moja Global via WOC 2.0. It was my first time working with a large organization, and it has been a fantastic journey so far. I'll share my overall experience and learnings from this program in this blog.

## About WOC 2.0
WOC 2.0 is a two-month-long open-source program made on the lines of GSOC, organized by IIIT Kalyani and 10+ other GDSCs. There were a lot of open-source organizations, each having different projects. Like in GSOC, the participants had to submit their proposals for the organizations they were interested in. The mentors then selected them based on the same.

## Choosing an organization and The Proposal Writing Process
I was familiar with HTML, CSS and Javascript. I started to look for an organization that had the requirement for the same tech stack. The project which caught my interest was Moja Global's 'Community Website.' The hard part was to write a proposal for that project. Writing a proposal for the very first time could be daunting. Developing an idea of how I plan to execute the project requirements and then lay down a roadmap was challenging. The key is to communicate with the mentors. Ask any doubts you may have and discuss the ideas you come up with. Also, getting your proposal reviewed by someone is crucial. My mentor, Harsh, was very helpful and thorough in clearing any doubts. My GDSC Lead, Shubham, was kind enough to help me with the review. 
My proposal was focused on refurbishing the community website. I took inspiration from the community websites of many different organizations, including LAYER5, Kubernetes and Apache. I proposed ideas to make the UI of the community website of Moja global more modern and make the overall website look more organized. I also suggested fixing the responsivity issues and functionality bugs in the website.
I was ecstatic when I got my selection mail. All the hard work I put into writing my proposal paid off :)

## Experience working with Moja Global
"Amazing" is the word. I have learned many things in the past two months and met so many amazing people. My first task included redesigning the website footer. Moja Global's community website is primarily written in ReactJS and Docusaurus. I am a beginner in both of these, and thus it took me some time to get comfortable with it. I had to swizzle the footer code, rearrange the JSX, and write a lot of CSS. I also had to make the footer mobile responsive, as it was too long in the mobile view. It took me a week to accomplish all of this. The next task Harsh gave me was a bit more challenging. It was to redesign the Roadmaps page. I already had experience stylizing websites made with ReactJS using CSS, but it was my first time coding in ReactJS. The hardest part was creating a state-based solution for opening and closing the dropdown menus. After watching a dozen ReactJS tutorials on Youtube and surfing through even more Stackoverflow answers, I was finally able to make them work. All this while we had our regular bi-weekly meets where we used to discuss our progress and clear any doubts with the mentors, I found that a nice way to keep in touch with the mentors and also to keep a track of each others progress.
All this while my mentors Harsh, Soham and Sarthak have been a great source of help and guidance. 

## Final Takeaway
Open-source could look overwhelming at times, especially when working with a large organization. But it is all about going at your pace, learning on the way, having confidence in yourself and asking for help wherever you get stuck. Learning in public is an essential part of open-source, and it is something a lot of people are sceptical about. But at the end of the day, growth occurs out of ones comfort zone.

## Future Plans
The learning experience I had at Moja Global was precious. I would love to stay connected with this community and contribute to it in the future. Currently, I am looking into contributing more to the community website and exploring FLINT.