[OSGeo-Discuss] Seeking guidance for contributing to OSGeo.

[Barry Rowlingson]

On Sat, Oct 13, 2012 at 9:59 PM, Akshita Tyagi <akshita.msit at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Dear Sir,
>
> I am willing to contribute to your organization as a developer. I have a
> prior experience in Geographical Information Systems (GIS). As a summer
> trainee under Defense Research and Development Organization, Ministry of
> Defense, India; I worked on a project titled "Development of PostgreSQL to
> OpenMap interface for basic vector overlay".
>
> OpenMap is an open source GIS Tool that enables us to work on various set of
> map data. In order to create overlays, OpenMap GIS provides the
> functionality to create basic set of overlays which include point, line,
> polyline, polygon, splines etc. I was assigned a task to establish a
> connection between OpenMap and PostgreSQL using JDBC, with the aim of
> storing the overlays drawn on any particular layer of OpenMap along with its
> user given unique name and attributes, which may be retrieved as and when
> required.
>
>
> Kindly guide me on how I can start and make my contribution. I look forward
> to a positive response from you.

As Jody has said, individual OSgeo projects will be happy to take
contributions. The procedure is normally something like:

 1. Pick an interesting project or two from the list. I think PostGIS
would be worth considering for your PostgreSQL skills, and maybe
something Java-y if you did much java work for the JDBC thing (you
don't state your language skills).

 2. Download (binaries and source), use it, read the documentation.

 3. Join project developers mailing list. Introduce yourself, then
just lurk for a bit or read the archives to get a feel for the place.

 4. Figure out where a contribution coud be useful. Developers are
always happy to receive bug fixes, so that's a great place to start.
Check the project bug tracker, find something that looks fixable.
You'll probably at that point have to learn the project build and test
procedure. That means the first thing you'll actually fix is the build
and test procedure documentation. Documentation fixes are often as
well-received as bug fixes. Translations, too, if you speak more than
one language, are something many projects lack but are set up for.
With a little preparation this can mean a contribution to several
projects. Helping with translation isn't just a mechanical process, it
does also require some knowledge of the project to translate
correctly.

 5. Welcome!