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Volunteer Programming For Dummies?
Tios writes "I've been studying programming languages (C++, Java, C, Visual Basic) on my own with the self-guided, basic textbooks and tutorials, and I'm starting to get tired of working with examples that are not put into real use. I'm motivated to utilize my programming potential, but I've not had any experience programming in a team environment with lead developers, mentors, or collaborators. If finding a programming job isn't an option, I wonder if I could volunteer for programming in an open-source community. If this is a good idea, how do I start? What resources are out there that could get me oriented in volunteering? What kind of basic projects are out there, with a supportive team/mentor for me to develop, practice, learn, and contribute?"
The best practice is just doing it. That's how me and probably many others have learned about programming. In 90's I did have some programming and game developing books, but I pretty much read about those out of curiousity and because they were interesting. Actual programming knowledge comes from making something you like and learning from it. Every time you will learn more and more and it just goes along the way. In my teenage years coding games made the most fun out of it and I always learned more. This was even before Internet started to be so widespread, and only help I had was Delphi's (great!) manual.
Seems you only have experience in programming by examples. There's lots of times you need to be able to solve a specific problem, and programming by examples doesn't teach that really well. You will also be relying on someone's elses views and "best coding practices" thinking, instead of actually developing your own and seeing much further. You need to be comfortable programming and solving problems by yourself if you look to join a team.
I suggest you take some topic that's interesting to you and develop program around it. If you later get a better idea, don't be afraid to move into it. That's what happens to lots of programmers, but when learning it also improves creatly how you look at the problems and you see what you could have done better in your previous projects.
Please, please, PLEASE be careful with this. Understand that working with non-profits is a commitment, and that they're going to be 100% reliant on your expertise and documentation. You'll need to be careful to put on your consulting hat as well, ask alot of "Why?" questions. Often times NPOs will tell you what they THINK they need, not what they ACTUALLY need in technology. Be the expert. I work with non-profits as a DB/CRM consultant, and I cannot tell you the number of well-meaning volunteers who have cost non-profits thousands of dollars (not a small sum in the NPO community) in lost time, productivity, and then additional service/IT hours to people like me to fix the mistakes, holes and general sloppiness of applications developed for them in good faith. That "volunteer" project can often turn into a massive money-pit for organizations who cannot afford it. If you do go this route, DOCUMENT EVERYTHING (EVERYTHING), and make sure the org has several copies of your documentation. I'm not suggesting you shouldn't do this, but just understand its not your personal sandbox, these are real people, doing some VERY important and impactful work (most of them at least...) Please don't treat these orgs as second-class citizens or test-beds for your corporate career or cutting-edge untested ideas.
If you live in a 1st world economy, I wouldn't bother w/ RAC. Most buyers will only pay 3rd world wages to RAC sellers. It's quite frustrating and will probably be a complete waste of your time. The only Americans who make money at the RAC site are the owners.