Since early 2016, Public Lab has worked to make our open source software projects more welcoming and inclusive; to grow our software contributor community in diversity and size. This page collects some of those strategies and initiatives.


## Friendliness

As highlighted by [the Hoodie community](http://hood.ie/about/) and the [First-timers only movement](http://www.firsttimersonly.com/), one of the first steps to having a more welcoming and inclusive community is to be really nice. 

This can come through in documentation, in discussions, by providing positive and constructive support, and when thanking people for their work. Modeling and talking about welcoming and friendly tone is important to establishing and sustaining a welcoming culture for newcomers and long-time contributors alike. 


## Code of Conduct

An even more important counterpart to friendliness is to ensure people feel safe by clearly forbidding inappropriate behavior in a [Code of Conduct](/conduct), and by making sure people know the Code of Conduct and follow it. 


## First-timers-only

As pioneered by the site http://firsttimersonly.com and championed by [Hoodie](http://hood.ie/about/), we provide newcomers a chance to learn how we collaborate by going through a step-by-step guided issue to make their first contribution. 

These issues take longer to make than fixing the actual bug, but the purpose is to engage with a new community member and show them how to work with us in an encouraging and supported way.

[notes:first-timers-only-blog]


## Welcoming page

(coming soon)


## Social media outreach

(coming soon)


## Modularity

(coming soon)


## The next step


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## Questions

[questions:software-outreach]