This mightn't be the appropriate place to ask this. But. Is there anything like Google Summer of Code for non-students? I had the chance to do it a few years ago in college, and now regret not doing it. You could say, just contribute to some OSS, but it's kind of intimidating/daunting without something like a 'mentor'.
I'm leaving this here instead of contacting you through your site, that way if anyone else is interested they can take part, too.
I recently made a really simple Backbone.js extension (https://github.com/napoleond/localModel) that reduces load times and the number of HTTP requests an app needs to make by caching data in localStorage. It was built as part of a closed-source project, so I can't use that as an example and I haven't had time to port the standard Backbone example (http://documentcloud.github.com/backbone/examples/todos/inde...) to a version which makes use of my project. What we need is the server half of the example app. It will only take a few hours to build, but I am unlikely to get to it for at least a week so if you do it first I will accept your pull request and thank you at the top of the README. (The client side of the example app is exactly the same as the standard example, but with the modified Backbone.sync pulled out.)
It won't make you famous, but it would be a very easy and useful contribution to an open source project that you could use on a resume or something.
It's really easy, if you use open source software on a daily basis. There will always be something you'd like to improve about it and personal interest is the best motivation.
Any time i've looked into this, especially whenever i've found bugs (in things like ODE), i always find stories of people submitting patches that get ignored and similar tales...i presume one has to get involved in the community first somewhat?
Depends on the project you're contributing to. True, there are projects that are more reluctant to accept "outsider" contributions, but I doubt that if you come up with a viable solution to a real problem, you will be ignored.
Found you one: http://bravoserver.org/ Bravo is awesome. It is the cat's knees, the bird's pajamas. It's fantabulous and extaliber. </plug>
Or, if you don't feel like contributing just because I'm plugging it, then find something that interests you. There's an awfully big list of things on OpenHatch. There's also a handful of projects that might interest you, given your current track record; considered contributing to Rails or Rubinius?
