Maybe Sun should use this as a means of selling Java to the developer community, inorder to squash the C#/.NET Microsoft initiative - just think of the advertising possibilities...
Well I was in the same boat you were in a year ago. A friend of mine and I discussed joining an open source project and we started by hanging out on freshmeat; eventually we found a project that was appealing. So, we've chosen to modify it a little and improve the code-base (clean it up b/c it's pretty ugly looking).
From there I'd suggest doing what everyone else is suggesting...goto sourceforge, find something of interest and go for it.
A couple of key points you should keep in mind first though.
Learn how to work off/with IRC! This is very important b/c *almost* every project uses IRC as a key point of communication...this is where you'll meet the developers of said project and they may "task" you to do something.
Be relaxed! I got in there and started throwing around the computer science terminology I was learning from class. Turns out I was annoying some of the developers on the project. They thought I was taking my work (well, their work really) too seriously. Some people just do this stuff for fun. Keep that in mind.
Email one of the developers! Find someone within the project that is working on something that maybe your strong point or interest area. Make sure to be up front with them about your "newbie-ness".
That about covers it for now - just remember: sourceforge, freshmeat, and open projects are good starting points - I'm sure people will add to this thread if it's interesting enough. I've recently delved into open source work and it's been really enjoyable.
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Maybe Sun should use this as a means of selling Java to the developer community, inorder to squash the C#/.NET Microsoft initiative - just think of the advertising possibilities...
From there I'd suggest doing what everyone else is suggesting...goto sourceforge, find something of interest and go for it.
A couple of key points you should keep in mind first though.
- Learn how to work off/with IRC! This is very important b/c *almost* every project uses IRC as a key point of communication...this is where you'll meet the developers of said project and they may "task" you to do something.
- Be relaxed! I got in there and started throwing around the computer science terminology I was learning from class. Turns out I was annoying some of the developers on the project. They thought I was taking my work (well, their work really) too seriously. Some people just do this stuff for fun. Keep that in mind.
- Email one of the developers! Find someone within the project that is working on something that maybe your strong point or interest area. Make sure to be up front with them about your "newbie-ness".
That about covers it for now - just remember: sourceforge, freshmeat, and open projects are good starting points - I'm sure people will add to this thread if it's interesting enough. I've recently delved into open source work and it's been really enjoyable.