Types of Contributors and Tasks

There are many tasks in open source projects aside from actually writing code. In this section, we point to some articles worth reading presenting the different types of contributions you can make yourself or that you can encourage others to give your project.

This extensive list nicely shows how many different ways there are - so get started now and participate yourself and motivate others.

• 7 Ways Non-programmers Can Contribute to Open Source Projects
  • use the product
  • bug test
  • write documentation
  • translation
  • evangelise
  • donate
  • be professional
• 10 ways to contribute to an open source project without writing code
  • provide reports
  • create feature requests
  • test the code
  • write documentation
  • translate the UI and documentation
  • answer questions on forums and mailing lists
  • help design UI/logo/website
  • promote the project
  • provide hardware
  • thank the community
• 14 Ways to Contribute to Open Source without Being a Programming Genius or a Rock Star
  • start listening
    • join mailing list
    • follow blog
    • join IRC channel
  • work with tickets
    • diagnose a bug
    • close fixed bugs
  • work with code
    • beta test
    • fix a bug
    • write a test
    • silence a compiler warning
    • add a comment
  • work with documentation
    • create an example
  • work with community
    • answer a question
    • write a blog post
    • improve a website
• How to Contribute to Open Source in 10 steps

But of course, things are not that simple. The following paper is an extended reading on what barriers newcomers might face: A systematic literature review on the barriers faced by newcomers to open source software projects by I. Steinmacher, M.A. Graciotto Silva, M.A. Gerosa, D.F. Redmiles, A, Information and Software Technology (2014), doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2014.11.001