Getting started with open source

Question

I'm an undergraduate who has decided that he wants to join the open source community and contribute. However, I have come to think that, once you have chosen an open source project, a lot of time is spent in learning the nitty gritties of that project in addition to stuff like subversion,etc which a typical undergraduate isn't exposed to. So, you have to stick with that project for a long time, say a year or two, before moving on to other projects.

In this case, choosing the right(for you) initial project is very important since if you choose one,and say, the development in your field of interest(in that project) is a low priority and not exciting enough, you'll lose interest and stop contributing to open source all together.

So what I wanted to know was, since there are thousands of open source projects, is all this being documented somewhere with tags,etc so that a beginner can choose his projects. The GSoc 2010 ideas list is a great starting point, but it only covers a handful.

Hence, I thought why not ask this at stackoverflow: if you have any pointers as to where to start, when choosing a FOSS project or any other tips related to starting with FOSS.

P.S. I'm interested in projects involving mobile ad hoc networks(those using TinyOS, preferably), so pointers related to these will be great. I'm looking through Freifunk and OLPC as of now, needed more ideas.

Answer 1

This question has been asked many, many times before. For instance:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/27793/well-written-open-source-projects-for-learning

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/203369/finding-an-open-source-project-to-work-on

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/193473/is-there-an-easy-way-to-find-small-open-source-projects

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/240972/getting-started-with-open-source

Answer 2

Yes, as Adrian as said the question has been asked many times, but don't lose heart everyone starts once.

Then when writing code or designing applications, instead of starting from scratch (which Universities still seem to encourage) look for existing solutions in the open source area. If one doesn't exist considering writing one. Remember that writing documentation and contributing patches in also particpating in open source.

Eric S Raymond: "Every good work of software starts by scratching a developer's personal itch."

I recommend reading some of the early writings on open source, for example "The Cathedral and the Bazaar"