What impeccable timing! Iain picks up on something I said in a lecture last week about students undertaking OSS projects and lo and behold there's a Slashdot | Open Source as Programming Exp. for College Students? thread this week.

texatut asks: "With the computer industry in a slump, many college CS students nearing graduation are looking at pretty meek prospects. While 'formally' educated, few actually have concrete experience dealing with development of software. Many would like to have something concrete to put down on their resume or application to graduate school. However, starting their own project is a hard and time-consuming task. Obviously, the Open Source community is a perfect place for us to get our hands dirty. My question is, are there any resources that can help people with varying levels of experience connect with development teams in a way that would benefit both the project and the students?"

The responses make interesting reading.

Thanks for the link Iain.