You might know it by now, React Native still
exists because of its open-source community. Beyond these repositories, releases and nicknames,
there are people. And you know what? I think it's about time you get to know who's been working for
years on the great project we all love. So today I want to introduce you to one of them. This, is Thibault
Malbranche also known as titozzz on the internet. It's almost certain that you have used his
work already. "So hello everyone, I'm Thibault. I'm working in a company and also doing open-source
at the same time. I'm currently the maintainer of some React Native projects that you might know, such
as the webview and other stuff. When I first heard of open source it was like, it's Linux, it's only
0.1% of people around the planet that really do this stuff and it's probably not for me.
No one is going to work for free, but then I learned it's about many other things and
it's not that small, it's helping and it's maintaining tons and thousands
of apps, products. So many companies would be gone if open-source software was not here.
It's very interesting because it kind of shifted what I thought you know, like at first I
was like no one is using it and it's probably not so big, and then you understand that everyone
is using it, and people doing open-source are in charge of so much power and so many things."
To be honest, I felt the same way a long time ago. I was a hardcore user of many open-source libraries
but didn't think this was also something I could do. "How I got really engaged with React Native community
was because I just love tinkering and updating and being on the latest stuff, and so there was
this update—I don't remember the number but maybe like 54 or 53—and so it just got out, I update,
I have a bug and i'm like okay I'm gonna fix it so other people don't get the same bug, and so I
track the bug down, I try to understand, I don't understand it, I find a hacky way around and I'm
like it works but I'm sure we should not do this. And so I go on Github and I create the issue, write
down everything that I've searched, everything that I think and I know it's not everything
because I don't know the project well enough. But people saw that I was willing to try and
willing to spend time and willing to help. Some people at this time answered and told me
that's really cool and it's okay to fix it like this, and we can do that, thanks
for taking time to do this and searching for the issue, and do you want to help more? And I was like
yeah I want to do more things! And this is how it started." This is very interesting because some
people might think it's hard to get started, when in the end this could all begin with you fixing
a bug and then being offered to help more on a project. "What's great about open-source is the fact
that you're part of a community. You start noticing the same names around and around on many
repositories. At first I was like "oh these guys must be so great, I see their
names everywhere, they're doing everything" and then you start talking to them and you understand these
guys are like you, and you just like grow inside this community. And then you go to a conference,
and you see them in real life and you're like "oh so cool so that's how you look and that's
who you are" and as long as you show that you're motivated and that you are willing to do stuff, any
of these people that I've met are willing to spend time and talk with you. And that's
great because at first I never imagined I would meet and talk with these guys as
I do now. It's not a small step, but it's way easier than what you think. You just have
to DO IT (!), get engaged, do stuff and talk. And now that I'm like, now that I
know that, I'm always trying to look at when I see someone that's motivated, that
wants to help, I'm always like "hey you want to do more?" and you always need this fresh batch
of people that are the new generation you know, of people interested. And there are tons of
new developers now doing React Native and doing other stuff. I've been feeling very lucky
when I started being able to talk to everyone and exchanging with people, and learning tons of
cool stuff, and I want other people to feel the same way you know". The essence of open-source is to
share your work with others, and if it's successful, this means a lot of people will benefit from your
work. "It's kind of hard to know how many people use what I do just from all the numbers of
installs and everything you can't really know. But I know that it's many people because
every place that uses React Native and that uses a webview, that's I would say a
big percentage of the apps, I've had so many people come to me and be like okay so you're doing this
and we're using it too, and we're using it too and some other people are using something else but
now that I've made contributions to React Native or React directly, anyone that uses this
technology I mean, even if it's a small thing, they're using something you did so it's fine. Doing
open-source pays back. All the time you spend helping people, that's time that
I know other people are going to be willing to spend to help me. If there's a bug and I can
solve it, i fix it for everyone. And if I can't solve it, someone else is going to help me so
I never get stuck anymore". So at this point you might be thinking: open-source seems great, but
how do you know if you should start doing it? "I feel like open-source is something you should
only do if if you think it's interesting. And if you want to be part of a community, if you want
to help other people, you don't have to do open-source, it's not a requirement. But I feel
like you should at least understand open-source and understand that it's people behind it. Always
try to know why you're doing things you know. I just created a request or something to help,
and then someone offered me to help more and I said yes because I like helping, not because I
had some big plan or something. And it kept going like that, it kept going bigger and bigger
and then you get asked to do things on big repositories and it's really cool. I like
the feeling that I'm helping people when I can. Give yourself your own motivation and your
own reason to do it, and you'll have a great time". All right, I hope this was interesting and for
those of you who don't know where to start, repositories you love are filled with lots of
issues waiting to be fixed. Thanks again to Thibault who made time for this. He's a nice guy and you
can find him on Github, Twitter, and recently Twitch. Remember to subscribe
if you want more React Native videos. Thanks for watching and see you next time :)
