Helpful Tips

• Many open source projects keep issue lists (bugs, improvements, new features, etc). These are a great way to find things that you can do (or want to learn to do). Some projects even intentionally label easier issues as help wanted as a guide to less experienced users.
• Contact maintainers!
  • Many have email lists, forumns and slack channels. You'll be surprised how willing most are to help new contributors.
• Read the READMEs. They are usually very helpful. Sometimes you'll find ways to improve them. Do it!
• Read the CONTRIBUTING document that most repos have. This will help you get your development environment set up and help you understand their specific process.

Additional resources

• This 5 minute read entitled Getting your project on GitHub is a stellar intro.
• The GitHub Guides are also excellent and available as short written tutorials or video tutorials.