This is pretty spot-on. Find something you like to use or are interested in. If you want to get involved in coding, you should start with some minor bug fixes.

This is pretty spot-on. Find something you like to use or are interested in. If you want to get involved in coding, you should start with some minor bug fixes. For instance, Django has a separate list of "easy improvements" to encourage newbies to get involved (http://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/LittleEasyImprovements http://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/LittleEasyImprovements). You generally should not try and go for a major bug fix right off the bat, because if your code does not follow the convention for that project or the direction in which it is going, your patch will probably be rejected. Coding aside, most open source projects are also hurting for things like proper documentation, testing on multiple platforms, plugins, and a good-looking accessible website, so you should just find the intersection of your skills and interests with what the project lacks and go on from there.