I participated in an offline open source contribution meetup. To be honest, whenever I stand at events like this, I always wonder: can my experiences really help someone? But once again, I realized that simply sharing our concerns together can make the time meaningful.

At this meetup, I directly introduced the open source projects that Devfive is leading. I shared stories about our projects: 'Devup-UI', a Zero Runtime CSS-in-JS library; 'Braillify', a Korean Braille conversion library; and 'Vespertide', a cross-language ORM-based database migration tool. While explaining what problems each project started from and how they evolved, I exchanged specific tips with participants about how to contribute to open source in actual work settings and where to begin.

What I wanted to emphasize most was the message that "contribution isn't something grand." Fixing a single line of documentation, registering an issue, suggesting a small improvement—all of these are contributions. I know well that the barrier to entry for those first stepping into open source is higher than expected. But perhaps that wall is something we've created ourselves. The pressure to write perfect code, the burden of having to add significant features—might these things actually be preventing us from starting?

What I've learned while serving as a mentor for three consecutive years at the Ministry of Science and ICT's Open Source Contribution Academy is exactly this: small beginnings gather to create big changes, and we grow together in that process. I want to continue building a culture of 'creating together' rather than simply being someone who 'uses' open source.

On my way back from the meetup, several participants told me, "I'll give it a try." That single comment was the greatest reward for me. After all, open source is ultimately about connecting people with people.