I'll demonstrate a practical guide on how you can get involved with neat projects by partnering with academics to build open source tools. We all have the ability to be Indiana Jones and I'll show you how through my experience. Come learn the unforeseen benefits of contributing to open source. My contributions to open source garnered the attention of an archaeological team doing research in Pompeii. Before I knew it I had been granted archaeologist credentials and was on my way to Italy as part of the research team collecting data in Pompeii.