Submission + - How Can I Contribute to Open Source? 2
rtobyr writes: "I work for a state government agency. That means we can't donate money, because it's a "gift of public funds." I had the idea to put up a web page stating that we "use the following free software to save tax dollars" as a way to help spread the word about Open Source software, but management calls this "endorsement." A mirror server is a no-go as well. I'm certainly not a talented enough programmer to help with development. I've donated $10 here and there out of my own pocket, but I'm hoping you Slashdotters have some creative ideas about how my organization could give something back to the teams that create free software we benefit so much from."
One word: Documentation (Score:2)
Documentation can almost always be improved - it doesn't have to be technical-writer level.. just write out what you did and how you did it. What problems did you encounter and how did you solve them? What would you do differently?
Depends on how much (Score:1)
One thing that you can do to support open source is to buy open source software support. There are lots of companies that support open source software, and give back to the community. Instead of just getting general support, you could contract with one of these companies to add a special feature or fix a specific bug that will make the software better for your organization...everybody wins!
If your organization has enough money, an even better way would be to hire someone to work on the open source project