Finding Open Source Projects Looking For Help? 151
aus writes "I've been doing web development for about 10 years now. It's been very good to me, but I want to do more than write HTML, PHP, JavaScript and CSS. Since the job market isn't all that great right now in the US, it would seem that volunteering some time on an open source project would give me the satisfaction I'm looking for. The problem is finding a project that wants/needs help that I would also be interested in. I've tried browsing around on Sourceforge and Freshmeat ... is there a site somewhere that I'm not aware of that has classifieds where open source project maintainers post 'job' listings?"
stackoverflow (Score:2, Informative)
stackoverflow features some user submitted ads for open source projects.
Does it have to be coding? (Score:4, Informative)
OpenHatch (Score:2, Informative)
Try OpenHatch [openhatch.org], a website that catalogues bugs needing fixin' in loads of opensource projects.
LaunchPad (Score:3, Informative)
https://launchpad.net/
Re:Find project you like or use (Score:5, Informative)
Find project you like or use and start contributing. Or ask them if they need any help.
Most of the big ones do have "help us here" pages, such as KDE:
http://techbase.kde.org/Contribute [kde.org]
And another KDE page for those just starting out:
http://techbase.kde.org/Contribute/Junior_Jobs [kde.org]
So either the OP needs those links, or he is looking for smaller projects to help with. Here, let me suggest some small-project tools that I use that could use the help:
Anki, flash card application: http://ichi2.net/anki/index.html [ichi2.net]
Zim, desktop wiki: http://zim-wiki.org/ [zim-wiki.org]
Gmail Conversation View for Thunderbird: http://github.com/protz/GMail-Conversation-View/issues [github.com]
Vimperator/Muttator: http://vimperator.org/ [vimperator.org]
Redshift, change screen colour per time of day: http://jonls.dk/redshift/ [jonls.dk]
OpenHatch, an "open source involvement engine" (Score:5, Informative)
OpenHatch [openhatch.org], a website I help run, exists to help people find ways they can contribute to free and open source software.
(It was covered on Slashdot a few weeks ago [slashdot.org].)
We have a few things that you might like:
If you want to work on a project which has contributors in your area (maybe you want to get together for a hackathon, or to ask questions about how something in the code works), check out the ubiquitous People Map. You can see everyone on the site [openhatch.org] or browse by project or skill.
OpenHatch is itself free software, and we have a small and growing volunteer contributor base. (-:
Let us know what you do or don't like!
Here, have some links (Score:5, Informative)
http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/53346/open-source-advertising-sidebar-2h-2010
FOSS advertisements that have run until recently (but probably still can do with some help):
http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/31913/open-source-advertising-sidebar-1h-2010-closed
Debian WNPP (Score:4, Informative)
Want to try your hand as sysadmin work?
Work-Needing and Prospective Packages
http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/ [debian.org]
Comment removed (Score:2, Informative)
OpenHatch, and the "Teaching Open Source" Wiki (Score:2, Informative)
OpenHatch [openhatch.org] was mentioned previously, but I'll mention it again for completeness sake. I'm now getting a "500 Internal Server Error from it." (Slashdot effect). Also, there's a list of projects with mentors [teachingopensource.org] on the "Teaching Open Source" wiki. Furthermore, as people noted, most open source projects could use some help and you can approach those that interest you.
Finally, touting my own horn, I'd like to note that I'm willing to mentor people with their first steps in my own open source projects [shlomifish.org]. Hack on!
VolunteerMatch (Score:2, Informative)
Not All of them (Score:3, Informative)
Not all open source software are open source because of the community collaboration aspect of it.
Some people just want to do their thing and work at it alone but for various reasons want to publish the source (ideological reasons, bragging rights, looks good on a resume, etc.)
I don't know how common this is, but it definitely exist.
Another reason a OSS project might not really be "hiring" is that it is half dead. It has a TODO list but it didn't make a release in a couple of years and there is no obvious activity that indicate another release is coming. If you are looking to make a meaningful contribution this is maybe not the project you are looking for.
Re:Find project you like or use (Score:1, Informative)
OWASP always has projects going on all the time.
http://www.owasp.org/index.php/Category:OWASP_Project
Re:Free Software Job Listings (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-projects/ [fsf.org]
I, for one, believe CoreBoot to be the most important of them
Re:Openhatch (Score:2, Informative)
OpenHatch is pretty sweet, but it is fairly unknown at present. I've had only one bite and it didn't materialize into any help at all. I'm hopeful the project will expand into a useful resource for both potential contributors and the projects, but right now, it isn't so great.
Re:idea (Score:4, Informative)
This is precisely what openhatch.org is for.
Re:Find project you like or use (Score:4, Informative)
Virtually any Bugzilla install has "love" bugs, e.g. Gnome Love [gnome.org], or bugs that are tagged in a similar way for new devs to dive in.
Re:Find project you like or use (Score:3, Informative)
Stackoverflow.com has an area where people can vote for projects that should receive additional help.
One of my favorites is asking for help: the Invisible Internet Project 'I2P'