Since I would like to participate in an open source project I would like to know a couple of things:
Regards,
Hi
cheers
i think the best way to get started on open source projects is to write small patches and send them to the project maintainers. this way they see you are interested in their project, know some of the codebase already and they see how well you can code.
another way is to start your own small open source project, and host it on sourceforge or github
How do you apply to one?
You don't -- you just write code and contribute patches.
How do open source projects know that I am good in what I do?
By doing. If you write good code and your patches are useful, the maintainers will recognize that you're skilled.
How do you find a good open source project from which I can learn?
There are some high-profile ones you could check out, but I think the best way is to contribute to software that you actually use on a regular basis.
How open source projects are managed?
It depends. Most of them have a mailing list. Most also have a development page (like a Trac site) for tracking project progress and milestones. As for management, most have a lead developer that's the final arbiter of development-related decisions.
How do you apply to one?
You don't. You start submitting patches or improvements or docs or whatever to the project.
How do open source projects know that I am good in what I do?
They look at the quality of your patches, docs or whatever.
How do you find a good open source project from which I can learn?
You don't - you find an open source project you are interested in. FOSS projects are probably not agreat way of learning to program.
How open source projects are managed?
As an anarchist collective, usually.
How do you apply to one?
Normally you don't apply in any formal sense. Ask the project owners or on their internal mailing lists where help is needed. Start implementing a new feature or fix some bugs. If you contribute good work it's a matter of time they'll ask you to officially join the project team.
How do open source projects know that I am good in what I do?
By looking at your contributions. Good project leaders won't appoint team members before they have contributed something to the project.
How do you find a good open source project from which I can learn?
Simply browse around the major open source hosting sites. Maybe concentrate on the "meta-hosting" sites like Ohloh. The DVCS communities for git (github.com) and mercurial (bitbucket.org) have great hosting platforms that become more and more popular among OSS projects. I do strongly suggest having a look into both, DVCS ecnourages the typical OSS project workflow so much more, you will find it easier to simply start working on something and getting your code reviewed/merged into the mainline.
How open source projects are managed?
Usually there's a project owner/founder and a crew of committers, sometimes with different responsibilities. Well run projects have public/internal wikis and mailing lists. Those are the basics and both are good starting points for you. You'll find there are a lot of differences between small and large projects of course.
How to know if the project is alive?
Simply check the public code repository for the latest commits. Again, meta-sites like Ohloh analyze such things automatically and can give you a good impression of what's going on.
Another good approach is to look at the "help wanted" listings of projects looking for more developers such as the one on CodePlex: http://www.codeplex.com/site/search/openings