Suggestions for someone new to bitcoin to get involved and contribute

[Insuremeplz]

Since learning about bitcoin I've become completely fascinated with the idea. I want to in some small way, make a difference. What can someone very new to the concept do to lend a hand? I'm looking for any and all ideas or suggestions that an average Joe (without a solid tech background) can jump in, and do something positive for the bitcoin movement. Anything from ways to spread awareness, to small financial gestures, or even sources of information to better educate myself to be able to productively contribute time.

Things I've come up with:

Share information via facebook to raise awareness
Donate a few coins to the faucet

What else?  

[N12]

1) Spread awareness by

- telling people about Bitcoin who might be interested for any reason (anonymity, lack of chargebacks, deflationary, decentralized, zero to very low transaction fees, open source, etc.) and explaining it to them without getting into technical details
- asking shops/organizations if they do/would accept Bitcoin
- promoting it with visual media or art
- writing articles or blogging

2) Participate in the economy by

- buying and selling Bitcoins
- accepting Bitcoin as payment for services/goods
- donate to organizations using Bitcoins
- buy goods/services with Bitcoins
- starting a project/venture

By the way, welcome.

[deadlizard]

Donate a few coins to the faucet

While the facuet is closed keep an eye out for noobs on the forum and flick them some change 

[trentzb]

If you wish to share information via FB/blogs or other outlets I would suggest reading through some of the posts of eMansipater to get a good feel for how to explain Bitcoin to someone who is an average Joe. Specifically his post New to bitcoin and followups are especially helpful.

Attempting to explain the technical aspects of Bitcoin to a new user or average Joe I have found to be less than exciting. eMansipater has a knack for patiently explaining things and as Cryptoman noted in the above post we could all learn something from him.

Some folks will just get it, others won't and still others will argue and debate to no end. But I believe that most people do have a brain and if presented with the basic information they can use that brain and some common sense to come to their own conclusions of whether they should use Bitcoin or not.

Of course you want to be educated yourself about how Bitcoin works so that you can accurately answer the onslaught of questions you will be asked. I am sure you have already hit the FAQ/Wiki but useful links are below:

Introduction
FAQ
Myths
Paper (PDF)

[MarcelloM]

Find a way to make bitcoins physical.... maybe a plastic card with a chip. Fin a way to make APPs for smartphones that keep the Wallet.dat file inside and can interact with other smartphones (thus exchanging cash) or with the main PC/Mac through bluetooth (so you keep the software on your machine but the wallet with you) etc...

[silvercardbank]

1) Spread awareness by

- telling people about Bitcoin who might be interested for any reason (anonymity, lack of chargebacks, deflationary, decentralized, zero to very low transaction fees, open source, etc.) and explaining it to them without getting into technical details
- asking shops/organizations if they do/would accept Bitcoin
- promoting it with visual media or art
- writing articles or blogging

2) Participate in the economy by

- buying and selling Bitcoins
- accepting Bitcoin as payment for services/goods
- donate to organizations using Bitcoins
- buy goods/services with Bitcoins
- starting a project/venture

By the way, welcome.

I am fascinated by this also, but so low tech i cant even get the mining program or wallet to work,but want in on this 100%. I would very much like to start a joint venture project. i have started adding  links to my website www.bear-river-dollar.com to raise more awareness about bitcoin.the project i would like to pursue would be to create a bitcoin bank and back it through the silver bug  community, who similar/same interests/concerns about our current fiat money system. The basic idea is SilverCard Bank.com it will be a vitual company completely unregulated buy government and i am looking for a team of members to join me in brainstorming it into existance.

[Insuremeplz]

Thanks for all the great ideas. This is probably posted somewhere around here already, but I found this easy to understand video which generated some discussion on my Facebook: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um63OQz3bjo&feature=player_embedded

Hopefully in the next day or so I'm going to buy my first few coins just to see how the process works. If anyone wants to sent me .01, I would definately appreciate the help in breaking my transfer virginity 12sbV1CiKG9qb9jvc8DGroEmhvTawgJ8sC

[Garrett Burgwardt]

Thanks for all the great ideas. This is probably posted somewhere around here already, but I found this easy to understand video which generated some discussion on my Facebook: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um63OQz3bjo&feature=player_embedded

Hopefully in the next day or so I'm going to buy my first few coins just to see how the process works. If anyone wants to sent me .01, I would definately appreciate the help in breaking my transfer virginity 12sbV1CiKG9qb9jvc8DGroEmhvTawgJ8sC

.05 sent

[Insuremeplz]

Thanks for all the great ideas. This is probably posted somewhere around here already, but I found this easy to understand video which generated some discussion on my Facebook: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um63OQz3bjo&feature=player_embedded

Hopefully in the next day or so I'm going to buy my first few coins just to see how the process works. If anyone wants to sent me .01, I would definately appreciate the help in breaking my transfer virginity 12sbV1CiKG9qb9jvc8DGroEmhvTawgJ8sC

.05 sent

tyvm!

[Distribution]

You can join Bitcoin Bonus and get .10 BTC for signing up, plus get BTC for making online purchases. Then do anything else those other guys said.

[Zerbie]

1. Create a meetup.com group in your area.
2. Create a sign indicating that you are selling BitCoins and sit in a public place (preferably near a college) with a computer at a particular time every week.
3. Make business cards with the BitCoin logo, a brief description, and the BitCoin home page.  Drop these at strategic locations around the city, pass them out to strangers, or give them to businesses that might be interested.
4. Make "I (heart) BitCoin" bumper stickers and sell them at your local flea market.
5. If you make charitable donations (if the donation is large enough), insist on paying via BitCoin.
6. If you make donations to web sites, send them BitCoins through http://www.bitcoinme.com/.  (Be sure to tell them the value of what you've sent them, and that the donation will expire in 15 days.)
7. If you are an independent contractor, offer to be paid in BitCoin at half the going rate. (If you hold the BitCoins for a year, you will probably recover the difference... and then some.)

[PLATO]

8. Look through the Bitcoin wiki, fix anything that needs fixing
9. Participate here
10. Participate on #bitcoin-* on Freenode

[Anonymous]

Got to http://free.witcoin.com and submit some content. If someone likes it they might send you an upvote or two.

You cant do that on hacker news.