Below are some pointers which I think can be a starting point for people who want to get involved or contribute in open source software development These are just based on my personal experience and nothing formal.. 

1. The usual jumping point here are those technologies that you’re already using. There might be a bug or a feature you want fixed or added, or you’re just basically interested in the project.

2. Start reading the project documentation. This is available on the project’s site or wiki.

3. Subscribe to the project’s mailing lists and start reading up on the discussions happening. You could also join the official IRC channel of the project and be able to see what’s happening there. Don’t be intimidated in participating in discussions, the community would value your opinion

3. Checkout the source code, browse through it and familiarize yourself.

4. Take a look at the issues in the project’s bug tracking system and look for things which you’d like to work on. Don’t be afraid to ask for directions or help in the dev list if you’re working on a bug fix. And if you’re working on a new feature for the project, make sure to involve the community in your design. You could do this  by starting a thread in the developer’s mailing list. 

5. Implement the fix or design of the feature that was agreed on between you and the community in #4 (Don’t forget to write unit tests!).

6. After you’ve finished the fix, create a patch and submit it (may be by attaching it to the issue or mailing it to the dev list). 

**Note: Be aware of the guidelines and conventions of the community regarding patches. These are usually listed on the project site.

7. Notify the dev list that you have submitted a patch for the issue so that they could apply it.

8. Get involved continuously. 

That’s about it  Looking forward to seeing more contributors in the open source community!

Posted on 05.15.08 to Tech blogs by oching. Tagged community, open source, software development. Subscribe to follow comments on this post. 3 comments. Add your thoughts or trackback from your own site.

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