* Evangelization (answer questions on IRC/Mailing-lists, help your entourage to start using it, go on live conferences, give talks, ...)
* Testing. Test everything in each new release and give the authors a good bug report when needed. Test the tool on multiple OSs, using multiple versions of a lib, test the different drivers, different dbs, etc. Test the installation procedure and the user features.
* Triaging issues in a bug tracker. What's really a bug, what isn't? What's a major blocker for users? What's a luxury nice-to-have feature? What's too old and not relevant anymore?
You can start doing all this, without actually needing any permission or access to anything. I'd suggest you just let the active members of the community know you exist (they usually hang out on an IRC chan or something like that). That's not even required, if you're shy don't say anything and start working.
As you get more and more active, you're going to be naturally contacted by someone active in the project and from here, you'll usually be given more "official" responsibilities.
* Writing (doc, blog posts, ...)
* Evangelization (answer questions on IRC/Mailing-lists, help your entourage to start using it, go on live conferences, give talks, ...)
* Testing. Test everything in each new release and give the authors a good bug report when needed. Test the tool on multiple OSs, using multiple versions of a lib, test the different drivers, different dbs, etc. Test the installation procedure and the user features.
* Triaging issues in a bug tracker. What's really a bug, what isn't? What's a major blocker for users? What's a luxury nice-to-have feature? What's too old and not relevant anymore?
You can start doing all this, without actually needing any permission or access to anything. I'd suggest you just let the active members of the community know you exist (they usually hang out on an IRC chan or something like that). That's not even required, if you're shy don't say anything and start working.
As you get more and more active, you're going to be naturally contacted by someone active in the project and from here, you'll usually be given more "official" responsibilities.