See http://userguide.icu-project.org/dev/contributions

Decide what level of contribution you want to make and contact the ICU team. Once everything is agreed, the ICU team gives you an ICU server account for svn write access, and an ICU Trac account for ticket (bugs/features) management.

Alternatively, for occasional, limited changes, you could check out ICU code anonymously (use http:// rather than svn+ssh:// repository addresses), make the changes, and attach a patch file ("svn diff" in the root of the ICU source tree & redirect the output into a patch file) to an ICU Trac ticket.

We have several mailing lists. Contributors should at least subscribe to the icu-design mailing list, and we also have a team-internal list that you should get added to.

We meet once a week by phone. See the agenda & meeting minutes.

Subversion setup for ICU developers: http://site.icu-project.org/setup/subversion

Source code access: http://site.icu-project.org/repository

Tips for developers: http://site.icu-project.org/repository/tips

Eclipse and other setup: http://site.icu-project.org/setup

As a beginner, please work in branch for all but trivial changes, and get your changes reviewed before merging them onto the trunk.

We use Trac tickets to track bugs, feature requests and tasks. We review most new tickets in our weekly meeting. See https://sites.google.com/site/icusite/processes/ticket-lifecycle

Significant/disruptive changes should be discusses on the icu-design list or on the team-internal list.

API changes must be proposed on the icu-design list, see https://sites.google.com/site/icusite/processes/proposal-template

Proposed changes will be discussed at the ICU meeting that follows at least a week later. Proposals are frequently modified during email and in-meeting discussion. Please do not "jump the gun" unless you are very confident your proposal will go through as-is, or be prepared to revert your changes.

... and thanks for contributing!