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(Hell, anyone who lived through the .com fiasco saw what happened to Java programmers immediately before and immediately after. Java's a good solution to a number of problems, but the market became glutted when the bubble burst, making it a totally unmarketable language in the immediate aftermath.)

People have noted Sourceforge, and that is definitely a good place to go. If you're only "allowed" to add a few lines, then I'd also recommend investigating Unmaintained Free Software for projects that probably need relatively little work but which aren't receiving any attention at all. One of the benefits of going for an orphaned project is that you have much more freedom on where to take things. You are also, by definition, not subject to jargon on chat groups or mailing lists as there aren't any. It also gives you a chance to test the full range of computer science skills - analyzing, designing, implementing and testing - in a way a current project generally doesn't allow for. You'd be exercising one whole revolution of the software lifecycle.

The benefits of an existing project cannot be overstated, though. If there are existing coders, there are more pairs of eyes looking at what you're doing. There are people to ask for help/advice. You're less likely to be overwhelmed. There's also a touch more "street credibility" attached to being associated with a project that's better known, which won't hurt your employment prospects in the least.

If this is a final-year project, they'd better damn well want something non-trivial or I will most certainly have stern words with them. Not that my words are worth anything, I just write a lot of them. A half-way point between the full lifecycle (which makes for a wonderful final-year project report, which is ultimately all that matters) and working on an existing project is to pick something that accepts plug-ins or modules of some kind. There may be abandoned projects of that kind you can borrow from, but it's also stuff that's just simple enough that writing from scratch isn't going to kill you.

Hope that gives you some ideas.

I'd add it to Freshmeat, but this looks too much like a one-off project, rather than something being sustained.

Maybe submit it to Unmaintained Free Software?
http://www.unmaintained-free-software.org/

Have you checked it's not in http://www.unmaintained-free-software.org/

Hi.

Well, according to this post, it is unmaintained... If you have any more recent information, please update the site.

I believe it's a great idea.

here would be a great place to begin.

Could look great on your CV and benefit the OS community as a whole.

The Sourceforge unmaintained page that ebbe mentioned is also know as unmaintained-free-software.

Maybe Slashdot can add a new feature.... Projects in need of a home, and can showcase a new project every day or week.

Like unmaintained-free-software.org?

If you have or know of a project that no longer has its leader(s), post it on http://www.unmaintained-free-software.org/. At least people will have a chance to find it. Check it out; you might be surprised what's there -- gs f'rinstance.

If you have or know of a project that no longer has its leader(s), post it on http://www.unmaintained-free-software.org/. At least people will have a chance to find it. Check it out; you might be surprised what's there -- gs f'rinstance.

Unmaintained Free Software is a site which keeps track of unmaintained (or orphaned) Free Software related projects.

It's a central place for people who want to

• find out whether a project is unmaintained or not
  
• find a project they can work on
  
• announce that their own project is not maintained anymore and that they search a new maintainer for it
  
• gather some statistical data about why Free Software related projects become unmaintained, how long it takes to find a new maintainer (if at all), etc...