Q. What can I contribute?


A. Anything that provides you with any amount of difficulty is a great
   candidate for improvement and contribution.  Think about the valuable
   contributions you can make to other people in your shoes.


   OpenEJB must be Functional, Useable and Understandable.  Contributions in
   all of those areas are needed.

   FUNCTIONAL - The software must do what it was designed to do.  It must be
      fast, reliable, and implement the EJB 2.0 spec and everything that
      entails.

   USEABLE - Even the most functional software is no good to anyone if it is
      too difficult to use.  The easier it is to use OpenEJB the better.

   UNDERSTANDABLE - Anyone wishing to contribute functionality or provide
      one of OpenEJB’s pluggable services must first understand how
      everything works.


   'Functional' contributions.  Keep'em coming!
   ================================================================
   Usually, the form of contribution most people find attractive is
   functional.  This is definitely needed and appreciated.  The OpenEJB
   teams is always hard at work to fulfill the EJB spec and the needs of
   the community.  Contributions here are invaluable.  But this is not the
   only invaluable way to contribute.


   'Usable' and 'Understandable' contributions.  More, More, More!
   ================================================================
   Assuring that OpenEJB is usable and understandable is an enormous factor
   in the success of the project.  The OpenEJB team has the advantage of
   understanding and knowing how to use the code it writes.  This is also a
   disadvantage when trying to make things useable and understandable from
   the perspective of someone new to the project.  Input and contributions
   in this area are extremely important.

   Considering the large number of people in the EJB and component-based
   software communities who are unfamiliar with what OpenEJB is, how it
   works, and how to use it, it becomes clear that there is enormous amounts
   of work to be done to help these people get on board.  There are
   undoubtedly many things that could make the project and software easier
   to use and understand.  I really consider anyone on the list now as
   pioneers.  The effort you put into understanding and using OpenEJB will
   most definitely be repeated by someone else.  If you can make the process
   a little easier, great!

   Anything you can contribute to make OpenEJB more understandable or
   useable is invaluable.  In the end, these contributions are what grows
   the biggest community.
