How to pick an open source project to join? [closed]

Answer 1

I find my own interests reflected in your question, so here are some o-s projects that I am considering:

• SharpDevelop - they've gone a long way, and still a long way to go :-). I think some improvements for code navigation and code refactoring a la ReSharper (or even Eclipse) would be very cool.
• NHibernate - support for generics (although I think Ayende already has this covered); support tools - visual editors for xml configs, maybe a visual tool (VS addin?) that takes one of {model, mappings, database_schema } and generates the other two.

Answer 2

I think the most important criteria for me would be

1. A project in a language I'm comfortable in or eager to learn
2. A project which has active members. Who wants to join an open source project and do it all yourself
3. A project that I would use at home.

Answer 3

Irrespective of Bogdan's comment, @Rob's suggestion is a good one for a couple of reasons.

If you pick an open source project that is in an area that interests you, e.g. if you're into music then working on the Audacity project, then:

1. you will be more motivated because the project is trying to solve aspects of a problem space that you have an interest in
2. you bring your particular knowledge to the project which will be useful to the project
3. you will (probably) learn more about your area of interest from others involved in the project
4. you finish up with an improved version of the project to use

HTH

cheers