[hanleybrand]

"I'd love to have an easier way to get involved in some open source project for improving my skills, enhancing my CV, etc."

Not to sound trite, but I don't think the reasons you enumerated for contributing to a project would give most people enough incentive to spend the energy figuring out how to contribute to most projects. Find the project that makes you go "yeah!" and you'll find it much easier to get acclimated to whatever it is, because you'll really want to understand how it works.