My C4GT Experience - Contributing to CARE

In the summers of year 2023, under the C4GT mentorship program, I had the opportunity to contribute to the Digital Public Good (DPG) CARE.

In this blog, I will share my C4GT journey from drafting the project proposal to the final submission of the project. Also, how one should approach to get selected in the program.

About Code for GovTech (C4GT)

Introduced in 2022, C4GT is a program creating a network of people and organizations interested in Digital Public Goods (DPGs), Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), and technology for social good.

Selecting the Project

The first step in the C4GT program is to select a project that aligns with your interests and skills. The tech stack used in the CARE i.e. React.js and Django was something I was already familiar with so I decided to contribute to the CARE project.

Choose your project wisely as you will be working on it for the next 3 months. Make sure you are comfortable with the tech stack used in the project.

Drafting the Project Proposal

A key to the C4GT program is to draft a project proposal that shows your understanding of the project and how you plan to solve the problem.

The requirements of the projects are clear in the problem statement given, so it is important to understand the problem statement and propose a solution that aligns with the project goals. If not clear, you can always ask the mentors for clarification.

Before drafting the project proposal, I went through the project documentation and the codebase to understand the project requirements and the problems in the current implementation. I also discussed the project with the mentors to get a better understanding of the project. The mentors of my organization were really active which helped me a lot in understanding the project.

My project was to Redesign the Doctor Notes in CARE. The goal of this project is to redesign Doctor Notes to improve its look and feel, as well as the user experience of it. Notes should be shown in a chat popup ,expandable to a dedicated page. I don't want to get into the technical details of the project but you can check the project link below.

Project Link - Redesign Doctor Notes

My proposal link - C4GT Proposal - Bhavik Agarwal

What things to include in the project proposal:

• My understanding of the project

• How much work has been done so far

• Problems in the current implementation

• What are the possible solutions

• How I plan to solve the problem

  • What are the features I am planning to add
  • How the changes will improve the user experience

• Detailed explanation of the implementation you are planning to do

  • This can include what libraries, packages you are planning to use
  • What are the components of the project you will be working on
  • How you plan to test the project
  • and other technical details

• Timeline of the project

• About yourself - Yourest things about C4GT

Contributing to the Project

After the selection of the project, the next step is to start contributing to the project. As the contribution period is limited, I properly divided the project into smaller tasks and started working on them one by one. Here comes the importance of how much time you dedicated in proposal drafting. You must try to abide by the timeline you have mentioned in the proposal.

In this program, what I found interesting is you need to submit weekly reports of the work done in the week. This helps the mentors to keep track of your progress and also provide you a reality check if you are lagging behind.

Conclusion

The C4GT program is a great opportunity for students to contribute to open-source projects and learn new technologies. The mentors are really helpful and guide you throughout the project. If you are interested in contributing to open-source projects, I would highly recommend you to apply for the C4GT program.