iTranslated by AI
Reflections on My First OSS Contribution as a Non-Engineer
Hello!
In this article, as the title suggests, I have documented my experience as a non-engineer trying out OSS (Open Source Software) activities. Specifically, I will describe the process of translating a menu item in the note-taking app Obsidian from "footnote" to "脚注" (the Japanese term for footnote) and how that change was eventually reflected in the official update.
Motivation
First, I would like to explain the background of why I, as a non-engineer, decided to engage in OSS activities.
1. Ideological Motivation: Interest in "Open Source Activities"
As a doctoral student researching social sciences, I have an interest in public goods. Within that context, I became interested in "open source activities" as a movement rather than just a research subject. In 2025, Audrey Tang's "Digital Democracy" was a hot topic, and in Japan, the activities of a political party called "Team Mirai" were drawing significant attention. Amidst this trend, I also developed an interest in OSS activities.
To start, I read the famous essay in the OSS community titled "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" [1]. This paper explains the open-source model using the analogy of a "bazaar"—a vibrant, market-like space for exchange—which often proves more successful than the "cathedral" model of large, rigid organizations.
Next, I picked up the book Plurality [2]. Written by Audrey Tang and E. Glen Weyl, it introduces the concept of Civic Tech—citizen-led activities by engineers powered by open source. The book's passionate invitation to "actually try OSS activities yourself" motivated me to take action.
2. Technical Motivation: Wanting to Experience Collaborative Development Using GitHub
As mentioned earlier, I am not an engineer, so I am not in an environment where I use GitHub collaboratively with others. While I can use GitHub for individual version control, I cannot experience collaborative development tasks like "Pull Requests (PR)." If I were seriously aiming to become an engineer, I could just jump into an industry where that is possible, but my motivation was more about seeing what would happen if I used GitHub for my research. This is why I turned my attention to OSS activities, which are based on GitHub.
Putting It Into Practice
Finding a Place to Contribute
First, I looked for a project to contribute to. After reading several websites about OSS activities, I learned that "translation" is recommended for beginners. Although I cannot write JavaScript, I understand Japanese better than non-native speakers (!). So, I decided to go with translation.
I then looked at the apps I use daily and focused on Obsidian, a note-taking app I use for my research. I thought I might be able to handle translating this.
While Obsidian itself is not open source, I found that this obsidian-translations repository is developed as an open-source project. I searched for areas where I could contribute here.
Getting Used to Using GitHub
Before jumping into the real thing, I practiced collaborative development on GitHub with others.
For practice, I used a repository called "fork-commit-merge." As the name suggests, it allowed me to practice the series of steps in OSS activities: fork, commit, and merge.
Actually Contributing
Finding and Fixing Parts to Correct
First, I forked obsidian-translations on GitHub and placed it in my remote repository.
Obsidian's translations for various languages are stored as JSON files. The Japanese translation is in ja.json. While consulting generative AI about the structure of this file, I looked for any parts that were still in English and hadn't been translated into Japanese. I eventually discovered that the menu item for inserting footnotes was still labeled "footnote."
So, I changed "footnote" to "脚注" and committed the change to my local repository.
Then, I pushed this to my remote repository.
Sending a Pull Request and Getting Merged
Next, it was finally time to send a pull request. It was the first "PR" of my life, and to someone I didn't know at all. I was nervous. Since I wasn't familiar with the proper etiquette, I had ChatGPT write the text for me (I explained what I had done to ChatGPT and asked it to draft a proposal). Then, I sent the pull request.
About two weeks later, it was successfully merged. With this, I was able to experience the full cycle of fork-commit-merge.
Results
When I updated my Obsidian a few months later, "footnote" had changed to "脚注"! I felt a small sense of accomplishment, knowing that my work had contributed to Obsidian's Japanese-speaking users.
Thoughts on Trying It Out
Having actually rolled up my sleeves and engaged in OSS activities, I now have a real sense of how the "open source" community operates. Before actually doing the work, I had imagined "open source" to be some kind of wonderful magic wand. After experiencing it firsthand, I can now see a glimpse of both its practical advantages and its limitations.
Briefly put, the advantages are: (1) transparency, and (2) the fact that anyone can participate as long as they have the motivation and a minimum level of technical skill. On the other hand, the limitations—which are the flip side of the advantages—include: (1) since you cannot hide what you might want to hide, there is a potential risk of attacks, and (2) there is a high barrier to entry for those without technical skills, and projects that developers are not interested in will not grow.
Anyway, I have shared my experience of going through the entire cycle of OSS activities. I hope you find it useful.
References
-
Raymond, Eric S. 1998. “The Cathedral and the Bazaar.” (=Translated by Hiroo Yamagata, 2000, The Cathedral and the Bazaar.) ↩︎
-
Weyl, E. Glen, Audrey Tang, and ⿻ Community. 2024. ⿻ 數位 Plurality: The Future of Collaborative Technology and Democracy. Independently published. (=Translated by Hiroo Yamagata, 2025, PLURALITY: The Future of Collaborative Technology and Democracy (Cybozu-shiki Books), Rights Publishing.) ↩︎
Discussion