<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" --> <!-- Parent-Version: 1.69 --> <title>How you can help the GNU Project - GNU Project - Free SoftwareFoundation (FSF)</title>Foundation</title> <!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" --> <!--#include virtual="/help/po/help.translist" --> <h2>A guide to helping the GNU operating system</h2> <p>The GNU Volunteer Coordinators <a href="mailto:gvc@gnu.org"><gvc@gnu.org></a> can assist you if you wish to help the GNU Project. They will be able to put you in touch with other people interested in or working on similar projects. When you have selected a task from our task lists, please let them know you're interested in working on it.</p> <p>Please let the GNU Volunteer Coordinators <a href="mailto:gvc@gnu.org"><gvc@gnu.org></a> know if you take on any task from this list. We want to keep track of what tasks our volunteers are working on.</p> <p>For general questions about the GNU project, mail <a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a> and for questions and suggestions about this web site, mail <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> <h3 id="helpgnu">How to help the GNU Project</h3> <p> This list is ordered roughly with the more urgent items near the top. Please note that many things on this list link to larger, expanded lists. </p> <ul> <li>Help with <a href="http://savannah.gnu.org">Savannah</a>. We are especially looking for technical sysadmin volunteers to help with underlying infrastructure support. Volunteers to help with pending project submissions are also very welcome. Please see this <a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/maintenance/HowToBecomeASavannahHacker">general information on how to become a savannah hacker</a>. Please communicate with us on the <a href="http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/savannah-hackers-public">savannah-hackers-public</a> mailing list.</li> <li>Organize a new <a href="http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group_list">GNU/Linux User Group</a>.</li> <li>Organize a new Free Software Activist Group to promote use of free software in your country, region or city.</li> <li>Set an example by switching to a <em>completely</em> <a href="/software/software.html">free software</a> operating system. The easiest way to do that is to install and use one of the <a href="/distros/free-distros.html"> free GNU/Linux distributions</a>.</li> <li>Write free software: <ul> <li>Contribute to the <a href="http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority.html">high priority free software projects</a>.</li><li>Write <a href="/server/takeaction.html#python_configure">GNU configure for Python packages</a>.</li><li>The <a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/people/?type_id=1">GNU Help Wanted</a> list is the general task list for GNU software packages. You might also consider taking over one of the <a href="/server/takeaction.html#unmaint">unmaintained GNU packages</a>.</li> <li>When writing software for GNU, please follow the <a href="/prep/standards/">GNU Coding Standards</a> and <a href="/prep/maintain/">Information for Maintainers of GNU Software</a> documents.</li> <li>To offer software you have written to GNU, please see this <a href="/help/evaluation.html">GNU software evaluation</a> information.</li> <li>We are sometimes offered software which already does substantially the same task as an existing GNU package. Although of course we appreciate all offers, we'd naturally like to encourage programmers to spend their time writing free software to do new jobs, not already-solved ones. So, before starting a new program, please check the <a href="http://directory.fsf.org/">Free Software Directory</a> for free software that does the job already.</li> <li>We can offer <a href="/software/devel.html">some resources</a> to help GNU software developers. </li> </ul></li> <li id="documentation">Write documentation for GNU software.</li> <li>Volunteer as a “Freedom Verifier” to check whether a given distribution contains only free software, so it can be included on the <a href="/distros/free-distros.html">list of free distributions</a>.</li> <li>Volunteer as a GNU Webmaster by completing the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/server/standards/webmaster-quiz.html"> webmaster quiz</a>.</li> <li id="helptranslations">Translate the GNU Web site into other languages. More information about the issue can be found at the <a href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Guide to Translating the www.gnu.org Web Pages</a>. Write to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"><web-translators@gnu.org></a> if you want to help.</li> <li>Tell others about the GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation by: <ul> <li>informing your friends about the GNU <a href="/philosophy/philosophy.html">philosophy</a> and <a href="/software/software.html">software</a>.</li> <li>informing your friends that the “Linux” operating system is really <a href="/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html">GNU/Linux</a>: that is, the GNU system, plus Linux, the kernel. Simply making a consistent and unfailing distinction between GNU/Linux (the whole system) and Linux (the kernel) when you write or speak about the system will <a href="/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html">help us greatly</a>, while taking very little time once you have unlearned the old habit.</li> <li>by both <a href="/help/linking-gnu.html">adding a link to GNU's home page</a> to your home pages, and suggesting that others do likewise.</li> </ul></li> <li>When you are talking with people that don't value freedom and community, you can show them the many practical advantages of free software (see <a href="http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html">Why Open Source / Free Software? Look at the Numbers!</a> for some useful evidence). But keep mentioning the ethical issues too! Don't change your voice into an open-source voice just to cater to others.</li> <li>Help the FSF raise funds by: <ul> <li> making a donation, either <a href="http://donate.fsf.org/">directly to the FSF</a> or <a href="http://flattr.com/thing/313733/gnuproject-on-Flattr">via Flattr</a>. </li> <li> becoming an <a href="http://member.fsf.org/">Associate Member</a> of the FSF. </li> <li> choosing the FSF as a beneficiary in your <a href="http://www.affero.com/ca/fsf">Affero page</a>, linking to your FSF Affero page in your email signature, software project, and writings. </li> <li> <a href="http://order.fsf.org/">ordering</a> manuals, t-shirts, stickers and gear from the FSF. </li> <li> convincing your office to <a href="http://order.fsf.org/">order</a> manuals and t-shirts from the FSF. </li> <li> <a href="/philosophy/selling.html">selling free software</a> and donating a part of the proceeds to the <a href="/fsf/fsf.html">Free Software Foundation</a> or some other free software development project. By funding development, you can advance the world of free software. <p> <strong>Distributing free software is an opportunity to raise funds for development. Don't waste it!</strong> </p></li> </ul></li> <li> Volunteer to make sure that essays from our <a href="/philosophy/philosophy.html">philosophy page</a> and other GNU URLs are on and/or linked from WWW directory, portal, and various hierarchical web index sites, such as Yahoo!, dmoz.org, and Google. Get these sites to add detailed entries about our different web pages. Make sure that essays from our <a href="/philosophy/philosophy.html">philosophy page</a> and other GNU URLs are linked to often in the appropriate categories. If you'd like to help us with this task, please contact the GNU Volunteer Coordinators <a href="mailto:gvc@gnu.org"><gvc@gnu.org></a>. </li> <li>Donate <a href="/help/help-hardware.html">hardware</a> to the FSF.</li> <li>Take on one of the <a href="/server/tasks.html">jobs</a> we need done for this <a href="/server/server.html">web server</a>.</li> <li id="ServiceDirectory">If you or your company work supporting or developing free software in some way, you can list yourself (or your company) in the <a href="/prep/service.html">GNU Service Directory</a>.</li> <li>If you run a company that needs to hire people to work with free software, you can advertise on our <a href="http://www.fsf.org/resources/jobs/">Free Software Job Page</a>.</li> <li>Offer to contact companies looking for additional job postings to put on our <a href="http://www.fsf.org/resources/jobs/">Free Software Job Page</a>. If you would be interested in this, please contact <a href="mailto:job-page@fsf.org"><job-page@fsf.org></a>.</li> </ul></div><!-- If needed, change the copyright block at the bottom. In general, pages on the GNU web server should be under CC BY-ND 3.0 US. Please do NOT change or remove this without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first. Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the document was modified, or published. --> </div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> <!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> <div id="footer"><p> Please<p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to <ahref="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><em>gnu@gnu.org</em></a>.href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> the FSF.<br /> Please send brokenBroken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent to <ahref="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><em>webmasters@gnu.org</em></a>. </p>href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> <p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, replace it with the translation of these two: We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection. Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p> <p>For information on coordinating and submitting translations of our web pages, see <a href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations README</a>. --> Please see the <a href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations README</a> for information on coordinating and submitting translations of this article.</p> <p> Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc. <br /> This page is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License</a>. </p> <p> Updated: <!-- timestamp start --> $Date: 2012/11/17 09:28:02 $ <!-- timestamp end --> </p> </div> </div> </body> </html>