This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Perl Buzz by Andy Lester. Original Post: Where can someone find Perl modules to contribute to? Feed Title: Perlbuzz Feed URL: http://perlbuzz.com/atom.xml Feed Description: What's happening in the world of Perl programming, including Perl 5, Perl 6, the CPAN and Parrot? Latest Perl Buzz Posts Latest Perl Buzz Posts by Andy Lester Latest Posts From Perlbuzz

Bradley Andersen (his gmail username is bradley.d.andersen) wrote asking

i am looking to try and contribute to perl and foss in general. do you know of a list of perl modules that are currently marked as 'maintainer died' that i might hijack, or, some list of module maintainers who may be looking for help? i am interested also in learning python and doing roughly the same kind of thing in that domain.

Here are my suggestions, and I trust others will add suggestions in the comments:

• First, pick a module that you actually use. The best module to work on is one that you already use. Check its bug queue, which will probably be at rt.cpan.org, but not necessarily.
• Take a look at the ADOPTME user on CPAN. This is where orphaned packages go to live.
• Check out 24pullrequests.com, a holiday-themed site of open source projects looking for help.
• OpenHatch says it is "dedicated to matching prospective free software contributors with communities, tools, and education."

Remember, not all contributions to projects need to be in the form of written code. There are plenty of ways to help out that work on the module tests and infrastructure, or don't require any coding at all. For some ideas, see my article 14 Ways To Contribute to Open Source Without Being a Rock Star".