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So I started investigating the sites last week, and here's a summary:

• https://www.youvo.org -- Lists very specific projects and the help required (eg designing flyers, or redesigning a website), mainly focusing on social causes. 512 projects listed.

• https://www.gute-tat.de -- Focuses on local (not online) activities, such as helping children and seniors.

• https://vostel.de/de/ -- More local activities (helping refugees, people with limited vision, etc.), narrowed down by city. Over 10,000 volunteers have found projects there.

• https://letsact.de -- Focuses on an app, which puts people in touch with organisations and volunteers. Lots of local events (cooking, painting schools etc.). Claims to have 25,000+ users.

I would suggest trying the first site, youvo.org, as it already has various online opportunities for volunteering. We could post a few projects on there, and I can mentor volunteers (and/or get them on the German mailing lists if they need a lot of help).

Ilmari, any thoughts on ideal projects for newcomers? We'd like to redesign the website at some point, but that's a major job. Otherwise we could talk about:

• Organising local events / giving presentations at schools/universities etc. about LibreOffice

• Updating documentation (making German translations of missing stuff)

Mike Saunders wrote:

So I started investigating the sites last week, and here's a summary:

• https://www.youvo.org -- Lists very specific projects and the help required (eg designing flyers, or redesigning a website), mainly focusing on social causes. 512 projects listed.

Ilmari, any thoughts on ideal projects for newcomers? We'd like to redesign the website at some point, but that's a major job. Otherwise we could talk about:

• Organising local events / giving presentations at schools/universities etc. about LibreOffice

• Updating documentation (making German translations of missing stuff)

Ok, so apparently Youvo is like Um sem um tam in Czechia.

Presentations might make most sense, if existing users are found through the site. But if someone has no previous experience and wants to learn by preparing a presentation, why not :)

Translations are certainly straightforward for this sort of thing and that's why raal started with those on Um sem um tam. I guess the wiki might be a place to find relevant content to translate (the UI and help seem to be in a pretty good shape for German). Guide books might be too huge? Or separate them as chapter per challenge.

I also have a script, which allows me to pick groups of bugs that need re-testing. These could be offered as specific efforts. This is being piloted at Um sem um tam currently.

I'll bring up this topic at the DE community meeting in March. Some of the websites require larger, specific projects (rather than just "jump in and give us a hand"), but maybe we can do something with them.

There's also https://jugendhackt.org -- Thorsten may know something about this, so I've pinged him.

Re: Jugendhackt, Thorsten says:

Yeah we tried once IIRC with Bjoern to land a LibreOffice section there - we could revive that I guess, but it needs mentoring bandwidth and really cool ideas (it's a market of ideas - kids essentially pick their project). I guess the only really viable option is something with Python-Extensions.

I got some feedback via the German community, so I've updated our page on Vostel and blogged about it: https://de.blog.documentfoundation.org/2020/09/25/libreoffice-auf-vostel-de/ – Also posted on social media.

No volunteers from Vostel yet, but Ilmari and I have a call with the team at https://purpozed.org - a new volunteering platform in Germany - next week. So let's see what they offer.

A couple of updates:

• Ilmari and I just had a call with Simon Kohrs from Purpozed, a "digital engagements" platform focused on corporate volunteering, that's due to launch in January. They are seven people who decided to start a platform because of Corona, and already have some businesses on board. We discussed how this could be a good way to get volunteers in LibreOffice who want to build up specific skills. We explained some of the different tasks we have, and we'll have a follow-up call in December.

• Meanwhile, I've had contact via Vostel -- someone wants to help with translations. I'll start to onboard her and introduce her to the community.

We get messages every month or two via Vostel, from people who are interested in contributing. I follow up with offers to chat, but so far nobody has turned into a long-term contributor, sadly.