How can I participate in FOSS projects?

Question

I work for a software company (not quite as a developer, but I want to move into that role). For now, we are moving on to the .NET platform (C # / ASP), which is still a few years old. At the same time, I don’t want my only skills to be on older technologies if I want to switch to another company. Plus, I would like to be ahead of the game, so I can contribute early on.

Therefore, I would like to contribute to an open source project, but I do not know where to start. How do you contribute? I would be more than happy to do such small things as bug fixes or even documentation. Who owns the projects? Who decides what “makes a cut” and what does not? How do you even know what is going to happen? I know about sourceforge etc., I just don't know how to intervene or even start.

Answer 1

SourceForge has a Help Wanted system - you might think about something to do with it.

If you have a specific project, you can start by submitting a patch - basically a set of changes to the project source that solves the problem, and that developers can accept and apply. The project owners then take the patch, evaluate it and decide whether to enable it or not. For some projects, such as the Linux kernel, this is how most contributions come about.

Smaller projects tend to have most of the changes made by people with direct access to the repository. If a small project in the language you are interested in attracts attention, let the developers know and ask if you can help.

To determine what should happen, it really depends on the project. In the short term, most projects have bug trackers containing bugs that need to be fixed and features that need to be implemented. In the longer term, a larger project may have a steering committee and an official roadmap, while a smaller project will likely have a list of things that developers think will be cool.

Answer 2

There's a fairly recent site called OpenHatch , which was specifically created to attract people like you involved in the open source process.

As an alternative, there is a Launchpad , which was longer and is supported by Canonical, a company behind Ubuntu Linux. There are many projects where you can help.

Go check them out! :)

Answer 3

Explore the development of the FOSS project that you are using or really want / plan to use. Check out their roadmap, their current discussions, error messages, try to fix them or implement your own ideas and submit your code (show for discussion).