My project with Creative Commons(CC) is extending the scope and/or usage of CC Vocabulary. What is Vocabulary and what does it mean to extend its scope and usage? I will try to explain this in the simplest form.

What is Vocabulary?
Vocabulary is Creative Commons’s web design system. This project was originally started by my mentors Dhruv Bhanushali and Hugo Solar to unify all of CC websites and applications.

Vocabulary comprised of reusable UI components and an interactive playground built with Storybook.

What does it mean to extend its scope and usage?
This means using Vocabulary’s UI components to rebuild or revamp CC websites and platforms. Since Vocabulary provides a shared library of reusable components and guidelines, building products and maintenance becomes easier and much faster.

My Project Progress so far
Vocabulary initially comprised of UI components built with Vue.js and a live styleguide built with Styleguidist. My first task was to create an interactive playground experience with Storybook which should replace live styleguide built with Styleguidist.

• Styleguidist and Storybook are both open-source tools for developing UI components. You can read up about them

A live version of the interactive playground I contributed to building can be seen here.

Next, I will be working on building the same functional UI components with vanilla JavaScript for other CC websites that are not built with Vue

You Can Also Contribute
Vocabulary has been undergoing a lot of changes lately. We welcome anyone who wishes to contribute to its development. Its GitHub repository can be found here.

My third and fourth week has been more of struggling to learn new technologies and applying them to my task. My major take is sharing your struggles with others in the team helps to provide a solution faster instead of causing delays with the project.

My first task was to move our new web design system built with Vue styleguidist to Vue storybook. This was kind of a huge start for me because I had a couple of problems;

• I was getting familiar with Vue and Vue styleguidist and now I had to understand Vue storybook.
• Storybook is currently more developed for React, and studying the documentation and applying using Vue was a little challenging.

My biggest mistake was trying to find a solution on my own and wasting time. My mentor had to step in and even helped with an example to give me a headstart.

Now, this is how I handle my struggle with any task.

• Read documentation
• If I still do not understand, search for help online
• If I still do not understand, ask my mentor
• If I still could not solve it with the explanation from my mentor, ask for an example.

The truth is everyone struggles even with a task that seems very simple but asking for help can save a lot of time and energy.

I applied to Outreachy after seeing a tweet from Anjana Vakil; an Outreachy alum. My main motivation was these words: “APPLY! Even if you don’t get in, you’ll get your 1st contribution under your belt!”. This was because I was looking for ways I could build and develop my skills. This is my second week as an Outreachy Intern with Creative Commons working on “Extend the scope and/or usage of CC Vocabulary” project and am pleased to share my journey.

Outreachy! Outreachy!! Outreachy!!!, What is Outreachy?
Outreachy simply put is a program that provides three months paid internships in the Free and Open Software community. Outreachy internships are not limited to programming, it stretches to design, research, documentation, data science, project marketing, etc. Outreachy provides you the opportunity to improve your skills working on real-world products used by people around the world.

The Application Process
The application process for Outreachy is in three phases:

1. Initial Application: this starts your application and confirms your eligibility for the next phase. It requires some details about the applicant. The key here is to start your initial application early as soon as the applications are open so you can complete it in time.
2. Contribution Phase: Here you have to select a project from a long list of projects from the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) communities and contribute to it. This can be overwhelming but what I did was to select the projects I would love to challenge myself with and matched my skill set. Aside from matching my skill set, another reason I chose Creative Commons was because her mentors were welcoming and ready to get me through the process.
3. Final Application: Even after making great contributions to your selected projects, you need to submit a final application to be considered. Your final application should include a little more information about you, contributions made to your selected project and an outlined plan you will stick to during and after the internship if accepted. Most applicants forget this is also important, well I did not.

After the Application Process and Acceptance.
After the application process, I continued contributing. My aim here was to learn and challenge myself, I did not know I was going to be accepted but I am happy I got in.

Thank you Outreachy and the team at Creative Commons for this opportunity. Special thanks to my mentors Dhruv Bhanushali and Hugo Solar and Creative Commons Outreachy coordinator; Kriti Godey for their support through my application process. Also congratulations to my fellow interns. I can not wait to read about your experiences.

Well that said, I have got my first task to complete; see you in two weeks.