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<chapt id="contributing">Contributing to the Debian Project

<p><url name="Donations" id="&debian-donation;"> 
of time (to develop new packages, maintain existing packages,
or provide user support), resources (to mirror the FTP and WWW archives),
and money (to pay for new testbeds as well as hardware for the archives)
can help the project.  See also
<url name="How can you help Debian?" id="&debian-help;">.

<sect id="contrib">How can I become a Debian member/Debian developer?

<p>The development of Debian is open to all, and new users with the right
skills and/or the willingness to learn are needed to maintain existing
packages which have been "orphaned" by their previous maintainers, to
develop new packages, to write documentation, to do translation work, to
help with the Debian website, to provide user support, etc.

<p>The description of becoming a Debian member can be found at the
<url name="New Member's Corner" id="http://www.debian.org/devel/join/newmaint">
at the Debian web site.

<sect id="contribresources">How can I contribute resources to the Debian
  project?

<p>Since the project aims to make a substantial body of software rapidly
and easily accessible throughout the globe, mirrors are needed.
It is desirable but not absolutely necessary to mirror all of the archive.
Please visit the <url id="http://www.debian.org/mirror/size" name="Debian
mirror size"> page for information on the disk space requirements.

<p>Most of the mirroring is accomplished entirely automatically by scripts,
without any interaction.  However, the occasional glitch or system
change occurs which requires human intervention.

<p>If you have a high-speed connection to the Internet, the resources to
mirror all or part of the distribution, and are willing to take the time
(or find someone) who can provide regular maintenance of the system,
then please contact <email/debian-admin@lists.debian.org/.

<sect id="supportingorganizations">How can I contribute financially to the
  Debian project?

<p>Donations from sponsors allow Debian to have machines, as well as other
hardware, organise conferences and development sprints, amongst other things.
For more information please visit <url
id="http://www.debian.org/donations" name="Debian Donations">. The page
also lists the different methods that can be used to donate.

<p>One can make individual donations to organizations that are critical to the
development of the Debian project. The main organization is Software in the
Public Interest, incorporated in the United States, but there are others.

<sect1 id="SPI">Software in the Public Interest

<p>Software in the Public Interest (SPI) is an IRS 501(c)(3) non-profit
organization based in the United States. The purpose of the organization is to
develop and distribute free software.

<p>It encourages programmers to use the GNU General Public License or other
licenses that allow free redistribution and use of software, and hardware
developers to distribute documentation that will allow device drivers to be
written for their product.

<p>SPI acts as a fiscal sponsor to many free and open source projects. The
Debian project has been an associate project since the organization's creation.

<p>SPI can be reached at: <url id="http://www.spi-inc.org/">.

<sect1 id="TrustedOrgs">Other organizations

<p>There are a number of organizations created in different countries that hold
assets in trust for Debian. The <url id="http://www.debian.org/donations"
name="donations page"> lists the trusted organizations individuals can donate
to. At the time of this writing there are three of them: <url
id="http://www.ffis.de/" name="Verein zur Förderung Freier Informationen &
Software"> (in Germany),
the <url id="https://france.debian.net/" name="Debian France Association">
(in France),
and <url id="http://debian.ch/" name="debian.ch"> (Switzerland and the
Principality of Liechtenstein).
Additional affiliate organizations in other countries are listed in
<url id="https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Auditor/Organizations" name="Organizations"> page
in the Debian Wiki.


