joining programming projects for free

Question

Hi All Not sure if this is an appropriate question for the forum.

I an experienced software developer with over 15 years in design and development of systems -mostly using Oracle software and ERP solutions using Oracle Apps. But due to some personal reasons I had to stay away from work for a period of 5 years.Now I am finding it hard to get back in. I have trained myself thoroughly in microsoft technologies C#,.NET,SQL SERVER,ASP .NET and also certified in these areas.Now I want to gain some practical experience with these technologies.I am very willing to take up some project work for free so that I can gain some experience and also add to my portfolio. Is any of you in a position to give me some voluntary work. I did try to find open source work but none is available.

I can do the following very well.

Analysis/Design
Oracle Database PLSQL/SQL  
SQL Server TSQL  
C# .NET and .NET Platform  
ASP.NET

I can also do

Web Development
HTML,CSS, JAVASCRIPT,JQUERY
Unix Shell Scripting
Java Swing Development

Thanks

Answer 1

I would suggest you search for Open Source projects with specific needs for volunteers at the OpenHatch.org website. You can even narrow it down as appropriate to your expertise and/or interests.

Answer 2

You can always browse the "help wanted" section of SourceForge. Be warned that often you will find a better experience joining a well defined project that may have already delivered a release. There are plenty of people who set up projects with little guidance, design, or vision because they want to offer the next "best thing".