Speaking from experience as a Data Structures mentor, it is helpful to answer questions these two ways:
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Be understanding of the other person's question, and listen to what they're really asking before answering.
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Be concise, but don't just give them the answer. Try to direct their reasoning in such a way that they figure out the answer themselves.
From reading that chapter, I came away with a certain sense of how important it is to promote freedom of ideas and expression in technology. It's completely unfair that there exists a system whereby talented people like Jesse Jordan could be punished for tinkering with technology in a completely unharmful way. Previously, I didn't understand that it was so easy to infringe on institutions or other groups in such a harmless way that still causes such grave repercussions. As such, I feel that the open source software movement occupies a beneficial spot in society not only for what it produces, but for the systems that it helps defeat. Systems that suppress the exchange of ideas and pursuit of progress by many need to be gone with, and the OSS movement aims to assist with that. And it's not only programmers that benefit as well. The author mentioned that the artists that work with the lobby do not earn nearly as much as the lobby itself, so by working against that system, they are helping represent the rights of others as well. And I look forward to assisting this movement, to help myself and fellow students.
One open source project that I am interested in working on is the video game The Battle for Wesnoth. It is a free to play, turn-based strategy game set in a fantasy realm. The game's core engine is written in C++, and it has been developed in the open source community since 2003, after being conceived by David White. I feel that I could contribute to this project by adding small features to the game and fixing known bugs. The issues page for the project on GitHub currently contains 916 entries, with issues ranging from known bugs in the game code to suggestions for small, quality-of-life features. With my background in C++, I feel that I would be well equipped to help with many of the suggested improvements. To get started with helping with the project, the current project managers offer a developer's wiki and many tutorials to help. So in all, I am excited to help and work on this project with a motivated community.