One of the great challenges the Ubuntu project has confronted (and arguably conquered) is figuring out how to pull individuals out of the pool of users and into the pool of contributor-users.  Ubuntu is perhaps best known for its user-centricity and its focus on community.  Even so, the user looking to contribute to the Ubuntu Community in a meaningful way faces an overwhelming task.  The Ubuntu Community is large, multi-faceted, and not always as inviting as you would hope.  The intention of this post is to point you to the door of community participation.  However, it’s up to you to get your foot in there and not to look back.

Development

For many, getting involved in the Ubuntu community evokes images of long Mountain Dew powered nights spent hacking kernel code. Our Dew powered coders are certainly important and necessary (love you guys!) but the average contributor can not, and frankly, should not spend time writing code.  Instead, the most valuable way the average user can contribute to the development of Ubuntu is by assisting with bugs.

All you’ll need to contribute here are some basic troubleshooting and information gathering skills, a Launchpad account, and some free time.  Start on the Ubuntu wiki to get in on the bug fixing fun.

Are you bilingual?  Ever dream of working as a translator at the United Nations?  Well, translating software may not be quite as glamorous as translating for Vladimir Putin, but please believe you will have a much more significant impact on the world around you doing the former than the latter.  More effective high quality localization of free and open source software helps to bridge the technological divide and helps bring amazing free software into every nook and cranny of the globe.  Translators are always welcome.  Take a tour of translations in Launchpad, check out all the projects that use it, and look at all the languages into which you can translate Ubuntu.

Documentation and Support

Documentation is vastly important for any software, free or proprietary.  You can contribute to the Ubuntu project in many ways that all fall under the umbrella of “documentation”.  Contribute to forum threads or help with the creation and maintenance of wiki pages. Peruse the forums for problem-fix threads.  Test and verify solutions and then add these solutions to the wiki.  You can also join the Documentation Team to contribute to documentation efforts in a more official capacity.

Testing

Ubuntu is under near constant development.  When one development cycle ends, another is without fail soon to begin.  The six month development cycle has been something of a trademark of Ubuntu since its inception.  Testers are essential to releasing a robust and stable operating system every six months.  To help out with testing, simply install the alpha or beta release of Ubuntu currently under development (Intrepid Ibex at the time of this posting).  I’d recommend dual booting a stable version of Ubuntu with a development release.   As a tester, your primary duty is to simply poke around and try things.  When you find something that does not work or is buggy, file a bug in Launchpad.  Its simple, fun, necessary work and you’ll always be on the bleeding edge of Ubuntu development.

The “Get Involved” pages on Ubuntu.com are a great resource for links to further reading and information.  Now, get out there and get involved!