So you're non-technical person and you've decided to meet some strangers and help them with their free software project, now what? Not all projects were created equal, and you definitely want your own experience to be a positive one. How do projects signal to the world that they're ready for non-technical contributors? Where do you look for these signals? And once you find them how do you make contact and manage the relationship so that the experience is mutually rewarding? Luckily, there are some very concrete ways to separate out projects that would be great to work on and ones that would be, well... challenging. This talk is for both project seekers and for folks who would like their project(s) to become sought after.

1. Finding a Great Project to Work On, or
Great People to Work
on Your Project
Deb Nicholson, MediaGoblin
January 12th, 2015

2. “Don't put up with any crap”
Shauna Gordon-Mckeon

4. Are their current
contributors happy?

6. Are they teaching
people to fish?

8. Code isn't everything

9. When a project has contributors
with lots of different skills

11. When coders think they can do all the
“soft skill” tasks

13. Start up a conversation
as soon as possible

14. (this should be the easy part)

15. Just contact us through this box.

16. A good website should function as a
welcome wagon

18. A healthy project will be happy to greet
new people

20. Find something interesting to you

21. Non-coders are the same

23. But they're also different

25. How some other folks have
found great projects

26. Look for a Code of Conduct

27. Look for participation
in outreach programs

29. GNOME OPW Projects
Thanks to Molly DeBlanc for this image

30. Google Summer of Code
http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/homepage/google/gsoc2015

31. https://openhatch.org/
https://openhatch.org/wiki/Recommended_Projects
OpenHatch

32. Look for blog posts
about non-coding work

33. http://www.mediagoblin.org/

34. Look for internship postings

36. Friends of friends!

37. “Don't put up with any crap”
Shauna Gordon-Mckeon

38. Picture CreditsCC.0 or Public Domain
I heart MediaGoblin (Logo by Thorsten Wilms, Sticker layout by Deb Nicholson)
– Torrance High School by Scott Dykzeul (from Wikipedia) – Aretha Franklin by
Ryan Arrowsmith (from Wikipedia)
CC.BY.SA
GNU 30th Cupcakes by Libby Reinish – Karen Sandler, Software Freedom Law
Center by Teemu Mäntynen (Flickr) – FSF Membership Stuff by stwn (Flickr) -
Bear and Kid by tatsful tn (Flickr) – Awesome Welcome by rameshg (Flickr) –
Labels on Produce by quinn anya (Flickr)
CC.BY
Sandbar Sunrise by zoovroo (Flickr) – Firefox Debut Poland by mozillaeu (Flickr)
– Hockey Fans by Lulemon Athletica (Flickr) - Mountain Prairie Fishing by
USFWS (Flickr) – Maslow's Hierarchy by Better Works (Wikipedia)
Fair Use
Bad Jesus Painting – OpenHatch Logo (by Karen Rustad) – GNOME Poster

39. Thanks!
deb@eximiousproductions.com
www.mediagoblin.org
www.openinventionnetwork.com
www.openhatch.org