> I've had people tell me that setting up the SVN, moderating discussions in a mailing list, twittering project updates, and orchestrating the cultural/public facing side of the organization are the most productive early tasks.
If there's no code, what "project updates" are you twittering?
Note that all of those things are fairly low cost, so doing them isn't much of a contribution. They may add more value than the same amount of time spent implementing, but there will be far more implementation time.
I think there is news to report every step of the way. It would start with what needs to be done, and why the project is valuable, then move on to what is being done and what milestones are being hit.
All of these are definitely low value activities; the goal would simply be to reduce administrative overhead (time, not money). That way, contributors would spend more time doing the high value work and less time on BS. The goal would also be to foster a sense of community and make it easier for new members to join and get caught up on the big-picture goals of the project.
If there's no code, what "project updates" are you twittering?
Note that all of those things are fairly low cost, so doing them isn't much of a contribution. They may add more value than the same amount of time spent implementing, but there will be far more implementation time.