· 4 min read
Level Up Your October | ODEVs and GemJam Bring You the Ultimate Hacktoberfest!
ODevs and GDG helped our communities to connect to the Hacktoberfest festival in a kick-off workshop on Sep 29th. The energy in the room was awesome! ODevs is a very welcoming and empowering community. Hacktoberfest is an annual, month-long celebration held every October that encourages individuals globally to contribute to open-source projects.
Level Up Your October: ODEVs and GemJam Bring You the Ultimate Hacktoberfest!
Michael Rosario | InnovativeTeams.NET
We want to offer a sincere thank you for our partnership with ODevs. Our organizations feel a sense of mission to empower developers at every level. In the job climate of 2025, we recognize that our community needs to make active steps to grow opportunities for all of Orlando. (individuals and startups.) We’re excited to work together on this important work for central Florida.
Hacktoberfest Kickoff
ODevs and GDG helped our communities to connect to the Hacktoberfest festival in a kick-off workshop on Sep 29th. The energy in the room was awesome! ODevs is a very welcoming and empowering community. Make sure to check out their robust event calendar. Hacktoberfest is an annual, month-long celebration held every October that encourages individuals globally to contribute to open-source projects. Organized primarily by DigitalOcean, the event’s goal is to promote open-source development and collaboration by making it accessible to contributors of all skill levels, including first-timers. Participants register and aim to submit a specific number of quality pull requests to public, opted-in repositories on GitHub or GitLab. Successfully completing the challenge, which typically involves having contributions accepted by project maintainers, often earns participants exclusive rewards like a limited-edition T-shirt or a planted tree. It’s a fantastic initiative for developers, writers, designers, and others to gain real-world experience, build their portfolios, and support the open-source community.
Interested in joining the movement? Check out the getting started guide here: https://hacktoberfest.com/participation/
Finish your Hacktoberfest with DevFest GemJam
ODevs, GDG, and many other community leaders will be collaborating to execute DevFest GemJam. DevFest GemJam, a flagship event organized by GoogleDevsCentralFlorida.com, is a week-long, project-based sprint designed to spark massive innovation through collaboration, not competition. This is your chance to dive deep into AI agents and supercharge your skills using cutting-edge Google technologies like the Gemini AI suite, Google Cloud, Google Agent Development Kit, GenKit and Firebase. The event welcomes people of all backgrounds—from coders to designers—to build high-impact solutions in tracks like Software Prototype, App Pitch, or even a Singularity Startup Pitch. You will get hands-on mastery with dedicated labs and mentorship to refine your project during the intense week of development. Elevate your profile, forge lasting connections, and build the future with AI during the Kickoff on October 25th, culminating in a Demo Day celebration on November 2nd at the Orlando Tech Hub.
Buy a Ticket!While supplies last, please use the code FLASHSALE to get a 10% discount on tickets.
Reflecting on motivations for open source
For the folks entrenched in the industry today, open source feels like breathing. We can’t live without it. As a community, we reflected on various motivations for openly sharing and contributing to open source technology.
Early Stage Devs: For early stage devs, you can often connect with mentors connected to the community of the project. Open source recognizes the importance of community to act as change makers. Without permission, devs can practice the craft of software engineering on a variety of open source projects. The act of contribution to open source can help you boost your resume and portfolio for future opportunities.
Startups, businesses and Researchers: Open-source software provides significant advantages for businesses, researchers, and innovators by fostering an environment of accelerated development and collaboration. For businesses, leveraging open source reduces initial development costs, offers greater flexibility through non-proprietary standards, and allows for rapid customization to meet specific needs. Researchers benefit from access to transparent code bases, which enhances reproducibility of results and facilitates peer review and validation of methodologies, leading to more robust and trustworthy science. For innovators in particular, open source is a powerful engine for gaining strong market share and loyal fans: the publicly available code accelerates innovation by allowing them to build upon the work of a global community, significantly speeding up development and improving product quality through constant community testing and feedback. This community engagement also fosters a transparent and trusting relationship with users, which can ultimately lead to a stronger business model built on a foundation of devoted advocates and collaborative development.
