Contributing to Data.gov with GitHub 101

Whether you’re a software developer or not, learning the basics to GitHub are essential to commenting on government open source and open data projects.

##Basics

• GitHub -- sign up here.
• GitHub Glossary - Git and GitHub specific terms defined.
  • Or roughly: repository means folder of files, fork means make a copy for you, pull request means submit change, and issue means problem to discuss.

##GitHub for Discussion

• Intro to GitHub for Discussion. This covers: Signing up for GitHub, Watching a GitHub Project, Starting a Discussion Thread (aka Issue), and Commenting on a Discussion Thread via the Web or Your Email.
• Writing on GitHub -- GitHub Markdown Basics - GitHub uses "GitHub Flavored Markdown," across the site--in issues, comments, and pull requests.
• Dillinger.io -- Type Markdown on the left, see HMTL on the right
• GitHub Emoji Cheatsheet

##GitHub for Code

• Intro to GitHub for Developers -- the Hello World Project. This covers: Creating a Repository, Opening an Issue, Creating a Branch, Making a Commit, Opening a Pull Request, and Merging a Pull Request.
• Git-It - A terminal based app for learning Git and GitHub.

##Government on GitHub

• Govcode.org
• Government on GitHub.

To read more about contributing to Data.gov, see Data.gov/Developers/Open-Source and our CONTRIBUTING.md file.