Open-Source project

[Kevin D. Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P.]

[Please forgive the cross-posting to advocacy, and
the possibility that this is no longer questions material,
and any personal affronts :-) ]

From: "Dylan Nicolini" <dvnicolini at comcast.net>

Dear Sir:

I am very eager to contribute to the FreeBSD project. Currently, I am a
Junior in college, majoring in Computer Science. I believe in the theory of
open source very strongly, and I would love the oppurtunity to contribute to
this project. If there are any suggestions on where to start I am very open
to anything.

Dylan Nicolini


Cezar Fistik wrote:

>Hi Dylan,
>
>I believe this kind of questions has been answered here thousands of times.
>Anyway, open source is a term with a very broad meaning, but if you are
>interested to contribute to FreeBSD, this could be a good starting point.
>
>http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/contributing/index.html
>
>Regards,
>Cezar
>  
>

Hi, Cezar, Dylan:

The "contributing" article on the site is great.  I just
had to add the following, though (I hope it's under the
BSD copyright ;-)

Scott Long (of the R.E. team) posted a message to
hackers@ yesterday entitled "My project wish-list
for the next 12 months".  Lots of technical stuff, but
enlightening, rather bold; good stuff.  I was especially
impressed, however, by Poul-Henning Kamp's response,
and as it was directed at "non techies", under the
copyright ideals of the BSD license, I'd like to repost
it here ... [keep in mind this is from PHK, a FreeBSD
Developer, and not me.  I loved it, though]:

PHK> I agree on all of the above but I think we also
PHK> need to have things on the list that doesn't take super
PHK> hackers, and architectural reviews. So let us add the
PHK> following points which I think are just as, if not more
PHK> important for FreeBSDs future:

PHK> 7. More people writing FreeBSD related articles for
PHK> online and traditional media. If you have never written
PHK> a piece about FreeBSD, how about sending something
PHK> to your local IT trade rag ? Heck, even your local paper
PHK> will probably run it if you send them a piece.

PHK> 8. More people stomping for FreeBSD in universities and
PHK> schools. Have you actually offered the science/IT teachers
PHK> at the local hi-school to pop around and give a lesson on
PHK> this open source phenomena to their pupils ? Or call your
PHK> local college and ask if they need a teaching assistant for
PHK> their evening courses in IT ?

PHK> 9. A band of happy 1st line reponders dealing with PRs etc.
PHK> We're getting better at this, but one way to really gain users
PHK> is to help them when they need it most: right when they begin.

PHK> 10. A more dynamic and interesting www.freebsd.org frontpage.
PHK> Come on, at least we should be able to beat the "Congressional Record"
PHK> when it comes to being interesting.

PHK> 11. More people attending BSDcon conferences. Come to BSDcan2005!
PHK> come to the next EuroBSDcon or AsiaBSDcon. Or make your own mini
PHK> conference! Many Linux User groups would welcome you if you offered
PHK> to give a talk about FreeBSD on one of their evenings.
PHK>
PHK> 12. Research/Coding grants (3/6/12 months) from the FreeBSD Foundation
PHK> and other deep(er) pockets to help some of the heavy lifting happen.
PHK> We're not only in it for the money, but money surely helps.

PHK> And I'd like to stress that none of the above requires you to get 
permission
PHK> from the core team, just go out and do it!

Certainly, Dylan, #8 sounds right down your line; probably #9, #7
too.  If I remember college correctly, I didn't have much cash,
so #12 is out currently; but I think some of the conferences (#11)
even have discounted rates for students ;-)

Anyway, welcome to FreeBSD --- I'm sure you can find many
ways to help --- and it sounds like all of them would be appreciated
by many, and by many of those with whom it might count the most.

Kevin Kinsey