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I'm an avid open source contributor for few well know open - source software libraries. Besides writing code, I've written a few articles on medium.com related to these contributions.

Therefore, because I have less than 3 years of official industry experience as software developer, I'd like to include my open source contributions on my LinkedIn profile as well.

This would be under the 'Experience' category so the final output would be something like this:

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I listed Github as the 'Company name' because all of my contributions are on that platform.

I'd like to ask if framing the open-source work like this is a proper way to showcase that experience, even if it wasn't paid? Should I move it under the Volunteering category? In case someone suggests the Volunteering category as the correct one: would that make this experience a bit less valuable?

Any other ways in which I can present this experience on LinkedIn would be welcomed.

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    Don't list Github as a company unless you worked for Github. I guess what you actually mean is that you posted code on Github; that is very different than working for that company.
    – Brandin
    Commented Jul 22, 2018 at 13:21
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    +1 to not using Github as the employer. Another way to phrase this is: if you post videos to youtube as a hobby, do you list that you work for youtube? The answer is also no. You use Github's product as a way to "share" your work, but you aren't employed by the company.
    – jcmack
    Commented Jul 23, 2018 at 1:16

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I would suggest moving that to "Accomplishments" category - there you can select "Project", and add your contribution description, url and whatnot.

I feel that "Experience" tab is reserved for actual employment for given company. Your information might be misunderstood, which may lead to more trouble than it's worth. You really don't want to explain that you're not actually working for GitHub after you get invited to an interview.

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    I would add that you could put open source contributions under Experience if you worked on it a sizeable amount of your time for money. But then you would have to add the project logo there and not the Github one.
    – Alper
    Commented Jul 24, 2018 at 7:37

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