Our story begins in the era of mainframe computer systems, the dawn of what we now know as traditional project management. The early 1950s saw the United States Department of Defense materializing strategies to manage large, complex missions, leading to the creation of methodologies such as the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT).
Fast-forward a few decades, the 1990s brought us the first contrivances of open source contributions and collaborative software building. This was an intensive era of aggregation and adaption, with the concept of ‘free software’ dubbed by Richard Stallman enhancing the Project Contribution concept to another level.
Globally, as the 21st century took center stage, a cultural shift was underway. The advent of crowdsourcing platforms like GitHub and Bitbucket forged a new path, facilitating shared responsibilities across borders and broadening the horizons of project contribution.
Today, the collective heartbeat of thousands of enthusiastic developers can be seen in the form of contributions across various themes and assignments. Celebratory events like Hacktoberfest and Google Summer of Code are milestones that manifest the evolution and richness of project contributions culture.
The celebration of Project Contribution hasn’t waned – it has only magnified. It evolved from restricted departmental projects to open-source platforms, fostering innovation and knowledge sharing. This seamless collaboration between talents is a testimony to the advancements and iterations of project contributions, diversifying and enriching the world with every project, every line of code.