# What is GitHub?

GitHub is a cloud-based platform driven by the open-source community that hosts a vast amount of repositories and files.
It uses the Git open-source version control system; the tool needed to keep track of your files'/repositories' history.
GitHub essentially makes it easier to use the Git version control system as it provides a user-friendly interface to
make the required operations to host and version your source code. Without GitHub, using Git normally requires knowledge
in command line which can be challenging for users that do not have a technical background. Once your files are on
GitHub, you would be able to share the link to your repositories with your colleagues and allow collaborative
development of your source code.

So let's get started using GitHub!

```{exercise-start} Exercise 3.2: Exploring GitHub
:label: exercise-github
```
**Level:** {octicon}`star-fill;1em;sd-text-warning` {octicon}`star;1em;sd-text-warning` {octicon}`star;1em;sd-text-warning`

If you have not done so already, create a GitHub account by following instructions on [github.com](https://github.com).
If you already have a GitHub account, please log in now.

Identify a few GitHub organisations by writing a name of an organisation. Once you enter the organisation page, explore 
the different repositories and identify the different components present on the webpage of the organisation and
repositories.

If you do not have any organisation in mind, have a look at the GitHub organisations below:

- [Library Carpentry Lessons](https://github.com/LibraryCarpentry)
- [Data Carpentry Lessons](https://github.com/datacarpentry)
- [Hadley Wickham](https://github.com/hadley)
- [This course notes](https://github.com/ac812/reproducible-research-python)

```{exercise-end}
```