Contributor profile
@Shrinivassab
My name is Shrinivass Arunachalam Balasubramanian and I am from Boston, MA, USA, working as a Senior Full Stack Engineer at Fidelity Investments. I have been contributing to MDN Web Docs for over a year, diving into documentation updates like the CSS :has() selector performance tips and DOMContentLoaded clarifications etc. My areas of passion are front-end optimization, AI web tools, and ethical tech. This is evident in my open source project reactive-lint (over 500 downloads) as well as my IEEE I2ITCON 2025 Best Paper Award for "GovernAI". My 9+ industry experience also includes significant time with Angular, React, and Node.js at Nielsen and In4mation Insights. I enjoy dancing (freestyle) and playing tennis, which keep me energized and balanced. My journey from a rural Indian village to a Master's at UMass Dartmouth (2016) inspires my pursuit to make technology impactful and accessible around the world.
Shrinivass Arunachalam Balasubramanian
MDN closely follows W3C standards which helps me keep up with important topics. It's a complete package as it caters to everything; complex APIs, new browser functionalities, and best practices. MDN serves as a truly valuable resource and continues to assist me in my everyday development.
How did you start using MDN?
Back in college, I started resolving JS challenges on my projects and came to MDN for the first time as a student in Chennai. At the time, I was overwhelmed by scattered resources, and MDN stood out for its accuracy and developer-centric explanations. We don't have AI like we have now, which sometimes explains code or bugs. For me, MDN has been there all the way, assisting my evolution as a developer. It's my daily reference and guides my work on reactive-lint and my other contributions.
What do you like about MDN?
I really appreciate how MDN combines depth and accessibility. From an inexperienced individual to an advanced programmer, you can meet your information needs in an unambiguous and organized manner. It's a pleasure to engage with people, whether you're resolving GitHub issues about CSS content, or mastering new application programming interfaces (APIs). What makes it a pleasure is the project's collaborative spirit, interactive examples, as well as the community interaction.
Why do you contribute to Open Source or MDN?
MDN shaped my career, and I wanted to give back to the community that shaped me. Contributing to MDN ensures developers worldwide from students to senior engineers can build on a shared, trusted foundation. For me, it's also about mentorship at scale; each improvement I make potentially helps thousands of developers solve a problem faster.
What do you enjoy about contributing to MDN?
I find the collaboration aspect of this work very enjoyable. It's fulfilling to work with the community, refine PRs with insightful comments from people like Chris Mills, and witness the impact of those modifications on developers globally. This is the intersection of a technical challenge and community enthusiasm. It is particularly rewarding to know that even small, incremental work can make a big difference. This is what continually motivates me.