What is the best way to find a open source project to volunteer for?

Question

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I want to join an opensource project is there a resource to find projects?

What is the best way to find a open source project to volunteer for? Is there an "open source project" search engine?

I am hoping there is a site somewhere that lists open source project job openings? Is there such a site? I am a beginner programmer and I want to be able to search through projects, by category, sorted by skill-level, & sorted by highest "need" first. I realize that this may not exist, but can anyone point me in a good direction?

I am familiar with Freshmeat and SourceForge: 1. Freshmeat lets me search by "creation date" but "vitality" and "popularity" doesnt help me much. 2. Sourceforge has a "help-wanted" but it doesnt list difficulty level and there are only a few listings and so im not sure that helps me very much either.

How does a beginner like me (1-2yrs experience in Java) have the guidance to know where to start on a open source project?

Answer 1

I would recommend contributing to an open source project you yourself use and love. You will find it much easier to find time to contribute, and will appreciate the fruits of your labor a lot more if you are an active user of the product as well.

Answer 2

You could check out projects on Github, or maybe find a Firefox addon to which you can contribute, or even fork and create your own derivative addon.