There's a fairly new website called SocialCoding4Good that aims to match
mature free/open source projects with experienced developers who want to
volunteer. They've invited us to be part of the pilot.
http://socialcoding4good.org/
Specifically, in the pilot phase, SC4G will suggest open source tasks to
experienced engineers who are taking paid sabbaticals (sometime in
spring 2012) from their R&D jobs at VMWare. We and 3-4 other nonprofits
are asking to host some of their engineers. I have suggested some
tasks, both for 1-week stints and for 3-month engagements.
http://socialcoding4good.org/organizations/wikimedia
Like Google Summer of Code interns and most OpenHatch entrants
<http://openhatch.org/+projects/MediaWiki>, these engineers will be new
and will require mentorship. Unlike GSoC students, these are
experienced developers, so I feel comfortable mentioning some of our
larger and hairier TODOs, like the visual editor, extension management,
and metaschema work.
I already submitted this page to VMWare (because of their deadlines) but
I welcome suggestions for other stuff to put on it, for the post-pilot
phase.
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Annoying_large_bugs seems like the best
wiki page to put those suggestions on. I'll merge stuff together when
more stuff is on the wiki page.
And I'll be chasing you all to volunteer for mentorship in the spring,
too. :-)
--
Sumana Harihareswara
Volunteer Development Coordinator
Wikimedia Foundation