If you've been a part of the WordPress community at all you'll know just how awesome it is: there's developers that spend hundreds or even thousands of hours writing free themes and plugins, there's a free support forum, and awesome Stack Exchange community for customizations, and plenty of advice at affordable WordCamps.
I know that I've been given so many awesome free things in this community that I want to give back. I've built a few plugins, and created a few tutorials, but I really want to give back in a bigger way. I want to give back to every WordPress user. I want to contribute to WordPress core.
A few months ago I made my first contribution and I got my very first credit for WordPress in the recent 3.7 update. I created several videos (all linked below) so you can follow the steps, create your own patch, and become a core contributor yourself. 🙂
Overview of Contributing
The first thing you'll have to do is know where to find information (video 1). You'll want to follow the http://make.wordpress.org/core/ blog as well as look through Trac for a ticket.
Finding a Ticket
Once you've discovered Trac you'll want to know which tickets you can work on (video 2). You'll want to create your own view showing the blessed tasks.
Creating a Ticket
You may have found a bug or have an idea for a suggestion in which case you should know exactly how to create a ticket in WordPress Trac (video 3).
Writing a Patch
Once you've found a ticket you want to work on you just have to write a patch. Follow along here as I show you how to use terminal & SVN to create a diff to attach to a ticket.
Patch Submitted!
I hope these videos are easy enough to follow so that you can find something to work on and become a core contributor!
Photo Credit: hugojcardoso via Compfight cc