[viklas]

As a new-comer to open source projects recently, I found it was hard to get a handle on the 'roles' in a project. I was used to working on corporate, in-house technology projects where there are plenty of non-technical activities to perform (PM, Business Analyst, End-User testing/training, Governance, etc) - but it isn't obvious how those apply to most open-source projects, or even if they are required at all.

I found this link pretty useful to breakdown the activities and roles: http://oss-watch.ac.uk/resources/rolesinopensource

Like everyone else will say...first involvement is a bit nerve-wracking (How will people respond? Can I make a decent contribution? Will I look like a total noob?), but you'll only feel that way once.