| Title: Get Involved |
| license: https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 |
| |
| The best way to contribute to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) is to get involved with |
| one of our many Apache project communities. The best way to ask general questions |
| about community involvement is to read about [Community Development at Apache](http://community.apache.org/). |
| |
| The ASF is made up of over [300 different projects](http://projects.apache.org/), with many |
| new project submissions (or podlings) coming into the [Apache Incubator](http://incubator.apache.org/) every year. |
| So no matter what kinds of technology or software you use, we most |
| likely have an Apache project that you'll be interested in. |
| |
| ## Use Apache products and give us feedback |
| |
| Using Apache products, asking (and sometimes answering) questions, reporting bugs |
| and making feature requests are critical contributions to the success of the Apache project community. |
| User feedback helps drive our projects and the technologies behind them. |
| |
| - [See a listing of all projects](http://projects.apache.org/) |
| |
| - [Join Apache project mailing lists](mailinglists.html) |
| |
| - [Download Apache software releases](/dyn/closer.cgi) |
| |
| - [Report bugs and request features](http://issues.apache.org/) |
| |
| ## Contribute to the community |
| |
| Beyond simple user activities, it's great to see users becoming contributors |
| by helping with the |
| development of Apache projects. This can mean getting involved with the |
| discussions on the development mailing lists, answering other users' questions, |
| providing patches for bug fixes or features, and helping to improve developer and end-user |
| documentation. |
| |
| - [Read the new contributor guide](/dev/contributors) |
| |
| - [Join project mailing lists](mailinglists.html) |
| |
| - [Checkout the latest code](/dev/#svn) |
| |
| - [Create bug/feature patches](http://issues.apache.org/) |
| |
| - [Understand How It Works](how-it-works.html) and see other [notes for |
| contributors](/dev/#committers) |
| |
| ## Become a committer |
| |
| We love to see contributors showing commitment. Projects invite committed participants to become committers and help shape the future of a project. |
| |
| Apache is a meritocracy. Once someone has shown sufficient sustained |
| commitment to a project by helping out and contributing work to it |
| (and the ASF), the project may vote to invite that person to become a committer. |
| |
| How does one show commitment? |
| |
| Get involved and **contribute** via the user and developer |
| email lists, Wiki and forums (if any); extend or improve the documentation; |
| work on bugs listed in the issue tracker or submit code patches. Answering other users' |
| questions is a great way to get started, as is suggesting patches or improvements |
| to [Apache project websites](../dev/contributors.html#websites). |
| |
| Note that becoming a committer is not just about submitting some patches; |
| it's also about helping out on the development and user discussion lists, |
| helping with documentation and the issue tracker, and showing long-term interest. |
| |
| For more on how to get involved and the open source mentality, see: |
| |
| - [Contributing](http://jakarta.apache.org/site/contributing.html) -- |
| Craig R. McClanahan |
| |
| - [Understanding Open |
| Source](http://jakarta.apache.org/site/understandingopensource.html) -- |
| Cameron Riley |
| |
| - [Producing Open Source Software](http://producingoss.com/) -- Karl Fogel |
| |
| For more technical information, see [ASF development infrastructure](/dev/) and [notes for |
| committers](/dev/#committers). |
