# GitHub monthly Africa MeetUp GitHub just announced its second [Africa Meetup](https://twitter.com/github/status/1316363282807230465?s=19) with African techies that will be hosted on that day among them being [Ruth Ikegah](https://hashnode.com/@ikegah_ruth) open-source advocate ![IMG_20201014_190048.jpg](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1602693087673/jz8nDMJSi.jpeg) Maybe you're wondering what the meetup is all about and if you should attend or not. If you're in the tech space it's a great chance to Meetup with fellow African techies and to hear opportunities and technologies present for us. Last month GitHub held its first monthly Africa meetup and I was lucky to attend the session. Here are some of the speakers and respective tech topics covered by them:- **CodeQL** Session facilitated by [Xavier Corail](https://twitter.com/XCorail) from [GitHub Security Lab](https://twitter.com/GHSecurityLab) > code the broader pattern to adapt to specific codebases and launch several [CodeQL](https://securitylab.github.com/tools/codeql). Contribute to community queries and get paid. (open-source) **Quick GitHub Packages** Session facilitated by [@unicodeveloper](https://twitter.com/unicodeveloper) who is an open-source fanboy, PHP & Laravel community, and shares resources for beginners on his repo. *Building packages [GitHub Packages](https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/packages/using-github-packages-with-your-projects-ecosystem/configuring-npm-for-use-with-github-packages)* > are *Software Packages* hosting services that allow you to host your software packages privately/publicly and use packages as dependencies in your project. *Why release code* Since everything one place:- - using your fav package tools eg [npm](https://www.npmjs.com/package/) - integration with GitHub actions, GitHub container registry i.e [npm](https://nodejs.org/en/), [Ruby](https://rubygems.org/), [Java](http://maven.apache.org/), [.NET](https://www.nuget.org/) *Publishing a package* Access Token - Go to [GitHub](https://github.com) select settings/tokens/new - Select scope i.e repo/ write package/ read/ delete - Give access token a name then copy token to a secure space Authenticate with GitHub - Package client of choice eg npm then log in via npm using your GitHub username, password, and email - configure package client to work with the GitHub package on package.json file. You can [Read More](https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/packages/using-github-packages-with-your-projects-ecosystem/configuring-npm-for-use-with-github-packages). **Vs Code for Remote Development** Session facilitated by [Lawrence Muthoga](https://twitter.com/larrygify who talked of development in the context of remote machine/ container and client tools linked to remote services/extensions that makes magic happen like: > [Remote WSL](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/wsl-tutorial) (for linux) > [Remote SSH](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/ssh) Raspeberry Pi (Raspbian for vs code ) > [Remote containers](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/containers-tutorial) development environment like [Code SandBox](https://codesandbox.io/) which avoids impacting local machine config. It also doesn't require the installation of environments like Nodejs or PHP > [Code Space](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/services/github-codespaces/) allows you to work beyond PC. On your GitHub open Code on the browser and work on your online. > [LiveShare](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/services/live-share/) extension that allows real-time collaboration You can access related resources [here](https://aka.ms/GHAvscode)! **Open-Source Terminilogies** Session by [Samson Goddy](https://twitter.com/Samson_Goddy) co-founder of [Open Source Community Africa](https://twitter.com/oscafrica) and also terms himself as Commissioner of Open-source. > OS can be read, modified, and shared by others. It's design and code which is publicly accessible. > Contributing to open-source can be a rewarding way to learn, teach and build experience in just about any skill you can imagine *Why OS* - make an impact - career growth - people skills - remote work experience - paid opportunities like [Outreachy](https://www.outreachy.org/) > "Nobody did it because everybody thought somebody could do what anybody could have done" *Create a role* Either as Designer/ Developer/ Technical writer/ Engangement/ Product manager/ Translator/ User/ Donor/ QA & Tester/ Researcher *Getting started* - Find OS project to contribute to - Join contributors - Make a meaningful contribution (quality > quantity) Contribute | Learn | Grow *OS Opportunities* [Google Summer of Code](https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/archive/), [Outreachy](https://www.outreachy.org/), [Google Season of Docs](https://developers.google.com/season-of-docs), [Open-Source Friday](https://opensourcefriday.com/), [Collections](https://github.com/collections), [First Contributions](https://firstcontributions.github.io/), [Up-for-grabs](https://up-for-grabs.net/#/) > Think of ways to use GitHub to give back to the community. Either by:- code | donation |Technical skills | design **Terraform with GitHub Actions** Session facilitated by [Cobus Bernard](https://twitter.com/cobusbernard) from Cape Town, SA. This session was a whole new topic for me I've never dived in Cloud or microservices but this gave me insights. Here is what was shared:- *Infrastructure as code* > create and deploy resources through code - make infrastructure changes - GitHub/ workflow > Declarative "I tell you what to do " whereas Imperative, "I tell you what I need to operate" *Terraform AWS* > creating AWS resources through GitHub actions that can run terraform to create resources in QA, lead, production, etc. > commit to developing: build resources in production *Goals* > make infrastructure changes repeatable and predictable - release infrastructure changes using similar tools & code changes - replicate the production environment in staging env > Use multiple accounts i.e - user data on development/test/Production You can Learn more [here](https://learn.hashicorp.com/tutorials/terraform/github-actions)! Thank you for reading my article. With this, you'll realize that the Github Africa meetup covers all areas of tech and it's a resourceful session for us as developers. Don't miss the next meetup register [here](https://www.meetup.com/GitHub-Africa/events/273641234/)!