Finding a project and contributing

One of the best ways to learn about IT, and in particularly the Web is finding something you enjoy doing and contributing.  What I mean by enjoy doing, is something you’re passionate about and you don’t want it to feel like work.

For example, WordPress started out as a fork of an existing Blog platform.  The founders of WordPress just took it upon themselves to extend the functionality and fit what they were looking for from the product.  And they made it into a project that now is responsible for over 100k websites (WordPress Blogs/CMS) being created daily, according to WordPress Stats.

This is technically something that any developer can do, on any level. The cool thing about contributing is that you really start to learn an existing application, and you try to add value to it with your on flavor.  Even if it’s just improving a skin/template for WordPress.  This shows your genuine passion for learning how to be a problem solver and self-starter.  And you don’t have to necessarily write code, often times projects need great alpha or beta testers, individuals that are able to contribute in forums, and individuals that can be advocates for the technology.

By the way this is a WordPress Platform on a Windows server ;-).  I do plan to set-up an Orchard and Umbraco environment soon!

“Peep and don’t sleep the crews mad deep”