We have always loved using open source and we believe in giving back to open source as much as we benefit from it. There are many reasons contributing time and money to these projects benefits us and our clients. We put together a short video about why we and others believe in giving back and the benefits of helping the open source community:
(less than 4 minutes, you'll enjoy it)
We grow our expertise greatly when we contribute to sprints, attend or present at meetups, or focus on something we are passionate about during a ShipIt day. Contributing to the source code of a project we use daily for our clients grows our expertise to a level that you can't have otherwise. This is also why we create and maintain many tools that we release as open source. It takes a lot of expertise and discipline to run or contribute to a popular open source project.
Of course if no one contributes to these projects, they won't get better. Also when we contribute to a project we can help direct it, and modify it, to fit the needs of our clients and our business. In the end we get better tools that we understand how to apply to the complex problems our clients rely on us to solve. Whether it's a CMS, web integration project, or custom app, we have better tools because we've helped build them.
If you are like us, what could be better than spending 4-5 days straight with a group of similar people working to build something cool? We are passionate about technology and we love hanging out with others who feel the same way. Whether it's over a beer at a local meetup, or traveling to Germany for a week-long sprint and spending the whole time looking at a computer screen, (seriously, a few of our Sixies just did that) we love it.
Because of these great reasons and more, we are very actively involved. Some of our team spends three weeks a year just attending sprints! Here are some of the ways we are active:
We also believe it's critical to be a good corporate citizen in your local community. That's why we run Indiana Bastille Day, provide free internet to local non-profits and volunteer in many other ways.
If you'd like to get involved in any of these initiatives, or want help setting up your own, contact Carol Ganz, our director of client services at +1 (317) 861-5948 x610 or carol@sixfeetup.com.
Six Feet Up, Inc.
11208 Windermere Blvd.
Fishers, IN 46037 - USA
Phone: +1 (317) 861-5948
Email: info@sixfeetup.com
