How to join OpenAI!

Ok so you just found out about us and you're interested in contributing your skills to the project. What should you do?

Here is a quick list on how to join but please read this entire page.

Read the website, look at the code, read the TODO lists.
Know what you want to do and what you're capable of contributing.
Come hang out in our IRC channel #openai on irc.openprojects.net. We're always there, not always at the keyboard but we will always see what you post at some point. This is very important and is the best way to get instant feedback from us, show that you're interested and to let us get to know you.
Send us a quick note about what you want to do in case someone is already doing it.
Get yourself a SourceForge account
Download the relevant codebase via anonymous CVS. There are instructions on how to do this (along with anything else you may want to do) on the SourceForge Docs page
Code away.
Submit the modified files to me or thornhalo for approval.
Enjoy the ensuing fame and glory. :)

Hope this helps, the more help we get the better so don't hesitate to contribute.

Now a few words on how you should and should not contact us.

Do NOT send an email to us like the following one (this is not a real email, I made it up but I see a lot that are almost exactly like this)

gleo,
My name is Gatsby and I am a student at the University of Malaysia. I am very interested in AI and have many skills in Java and C++.
I would like to join your project as a developer.
Thanks,
Gatsby

Sorry but that tells me nothing and I honestly get way too many of these to respond to each of them asking what you want to do, what your skills are, etc.

An email like this next one is what we prefer to see and what will get you noticed by our staff and involved in the project. It shows that you have initiative, ambition and the skills necessary to download code from Sourceforge and add to it in a meaningful manner.

gleo,
My name is Gatsby and I am a student at the University of Malaysia. I was interested in OpenAI and I've been having a look at the mobile agent code you have in CVS.
I also read on your TODO list that you're looking for different daemon services. I have a lot of experience in writing applications having to do with the web so I wrote a "web daemon" that allows you to download any file (html, jpg, pdf, etc) from the web.
Attached is the code I have written along with a README file explaining how to use it and what it does.
Thanks,
Gatsby

Even this next email would be better...at least they have looked at the code and the TODO lists and know what they are interested in.

gleo,
My name is Gatsby and I am a student at the University of Malaysia. I was interested in OpenAI and I've been having a look at the mobile agent code you have in CVS.
I've read your TODO list and see that you need some daemon services written. I happen to be pretty good at writing applications that use the web so maybe I can help.
I'd like to write a daemon that allows an agent to retrieve any file from the web but I'm not sure how to go about it. I stopped in your IRC channel but noone was around so I'm emailing you for some advice.
Thanks,
Gatsby