Anyone can help Haiku. If you love what Haiku is all about, you can get involved. It's up to you what you want to do and how much time you contribute. If you are interested, send an e-mail to contact (at) haiku-os [dot/point] org. People wanting to specifically write code for Haiku can go here [1] for more information. Read more below for specifics.

How can People Help?

Individuals

Andrew Jackson once said, “One man with courage makes majority.” In other words, a sufficiently motivated person can make a marked difference in the state of things. This is how the whole project began and how it continues.

• Financial Donations - People can donate money. This kind of funding helps Haiku pay for operations and aids to development, such as hardware for developers. U.S. residents get a tax deduction for this.


• Hardware - Spare parts in good shape can be a help when someone wants to donate without having much in his wallet. Working hardware components are necessary to write drivers. Sometimes Haiku developers need replacement components for a development machine. Sending an e-mail to someone on the Haiku project is a good way to make working spare components available.


• Time - A person’s time has the potential to be just as valuable as a financial donation. Reliable, hardworking people who have time to contribute are in short supply on the Haiku project.


• Connections – Who you know can be just as valuable as money in the bank or even more so. In some cases, Haiku may have a need that a person can fill because of someone he knows.

Businesses

• Cash Donations – Just like individuals, businesses can donate financially. Businesses registered in the U.S. get tax breaks for this.


• Other Donations – Depending on the industry, it’s possible that a business can provide other donations, such as hardware, software, or even services. In such cases, contacting someone on the Haiku project is an excellent way to start the process.


• Hardware Specs – Hardware companies can help Haiku by providing hardware and/or specs to developers so that their hardware is supported by the operating system.


• Volunteers – Employee time spent working on Haiku is a donation of services and is a very direct way of helping the project, not to mention a great way to create a positive image in an emerging community and as an advocate of the open source philosophy.


• Hosting – There is always a need for hosting files or other services, even if it’s something as simple as mirroring large files or providing torrent hosting.


• Discounts – Discounts on products or services to Haiku members or the project as a whole is a cost-effective way for businesses to help Haiku. This could be anything from something free outright or something as simple as a 10% discount. Everyone wins this way.

Haiku's Manpower Needs

Your skills, your interests, and the amount of time you wish to contribute all play a part in determining how you can best help the Haiku project. Below are examples of many of the project's needs and how an individual person can help.

Accountant

The books are currently kept by our fearless leader, Michael Phipps. It is not a time-intensive job, but it does require some specialized knowledge, namely, accounting. Someone who wanted to help Haiku with the books would need to keep records and prepare an annual report. It’s not a big job, but it would be a great help because it is a specialized job.

Lawyer

Legal expertise is a great opportunity for someone to be a sizable help Haiku without having to do much. On occasion, there are legal questions which are best answered by someone in the profession. For example, earlier this year there was discussion about handling the Haiku trademark. While the majority of the need is for U.S. law, having legal counsel for other countries would be quite helpful, particularly in Western Europe.

Graphic Design

A person with experience in graphic design has potential to be very a great help in ensuring that Haiku looks good and presents itself well to the public. The actual need for a graphic artist is only occasional, such as new graphics for the Haiku or WalterCon websites or the annual WalterCon T-shirt design. Designs for the Haiku store at CafePress [2] are always welcome. While many people can draw or do a passable job, there is a noticeable difference in quality when compared to a professional.

Technical Writer

The reason why most people don't read software manuals is because they stink. Haiku needs people with good English skills who can write reference material for people who don't know much about Haiku. This includes both basic usage and tips and tricks. This can involve significant amounts of time or just a few hours here and there.

Website Maintenance

While we are all about Haiku as an operating system, the website itself is a entirely different beast in comparison. The current situation is passable and several on the Haiku project have these skills, people dedicated to maintaining and updating content on both the Haiku and WalterCon websites would reduce the workload of the developers and afford them more time to focus on development. The job needed here would be primarily creating and editing content. Some familiarity with content management systems would be a plus.

Forum Moderator / Forum Support

The forums on the main site are one of the first stops for people wanting to submit ideas and to ask for help about various BeOS-related problems. This does not necessarily involve lots of time, but people skills and a desire to help others are desirable in this line of work.

Testers

Haiku cannot be a stable platform without people trying to find bugs in it and telling the developers. Testing is a very important job. Luckily, testers do not need specialized skills, such as the ability to write code, but they do come in handy. All that is needed is sufficient familiarity with computers to be able to install Haiku. The job merely entails seeing what works and what doesn’t under Haiku, particularly with existing BeOS applications. Once again, a tester can devote as much or as little time has he desires and can only help with his efforts.

Developers

Last, but certainly not least, developers are the driving force behind Haiku, and without them, we would not be where we are today. Conversely, this job can have the largest time investment. Even so, it’s hard to put into words the pleasure of seeing something you’ve built help many other people. Coders for Haiku need to know C++ and a willingness to learn the BeOS API if they don’t already know it.