Five years ago the community team at DigitalOcean wanted to create a program to inspire open source contributions. That first year, in 2014, the first Hacktoberfest participants were asked for 50 commits, and those who completed the challenge received a reward of swag. 676 people signed up and 505 forged ahead to the finish line, earning stickers and a custom limited-edition T-shirt.
This year that number is an astounding 46,088 completions out of 106,582 sign-ups. We’ve seen it become an entry point to developers contributing to open source projects: much more than a program, it’s clear that Hacktoberfest has become a global community movement with a shared set of values and passion for giving back.
To learn more about the results from the 5th anniversary of Hacktoberfest, please check this blog post from DigitalOcean:
https://blog.digitalocean.com/a-review-of-hacktoberfest-year-5/
The Open Source Initiative would like to thank DigitalOcean for not only for being a sponsor of the OSI and for hosting our website, but most importantly for creating such an inspiring program like Hacktoberfest. Happy 5th Anniversary, Hacktoberfest!
Image Credits: “Hacktoberfest2018.png” ©DigitalOcean, 2019, via A Review of Hacktoberfest Year 5! Used with permission.