The contribution submitted was done for an inactive community. This lead to a lack of basis as to expectations, no feedback and no communication or response.  There was no pre-determined direction as to the contribution but was mainly based on user research and expectations from developer as well as feedback from potential viewers of the portfolio. Due to no one being on top of the community there was a lack of feedback resulting in a one way communication route with the developer taking full control of the output and providing a single perspective.

This contribution provided an example of an inactive community and how it impacts a contribution in removing the beneficial collaborative element often in place. Communication could have resulted in a different end result with a longer development process, more modification, better fitted within provided frames and possible additions not originally considered. Open source is collaboration within a community and this contribution lacked that element resulting in a lack of possible growth and further development.

The impact of the contribution is providing fine art artists a good way to showcase their art, hopefully resulting in more exposure and appreciation. The portfolio was specifically made for them in the hopes of providing an understanding of their media and how it’s best presented. Many fine art artists are solely focused on exposure through exhibitions or Instagram, yet providing an alternative platform could improve on the viewing alternatives available to users and make their air more accessible.

Contributing to an open source project was interesting and a great learning opportunity. One had to consider, to a greater extent, other people in the community, what would work, what wouldn’t work and how others might use the code as a foundation for improving their work. The aim was to contribute with a portfolio template that wasn’t a simple and basic portfolio but more specific towards the chosen user group within the community. The chosen artist was a fine art artist as the word artist is incredibly broad, it was necessary to be even more specific within that term. The choice of focusing on a fine art artist was firstly based on the desire to showcase how a portfolio can differ substantially depending on who it’s made for; design needs to complement the content, at the same time as not distract. Secondly, there was easy access to artists input, opinions and needs by knowing several, and thirdly a genuine interest in contributing with a portfolio based on that specific artist’s perspective. The project was an important opportunity to contribute to a community, even with the lack of collaboration.