I've learned a bunch lately wrestling with display managers, pam, ssh-agent, gnome-keyring-daemon, and X11 in my efforts to get them all to play nicely together.
I learned enough that I think I can constructively contribute to the ongoing discussions about emerging specifications, so I'm planning to join a mailing list hosted at freedesktop.org.
I had no idea they hosted so many mailing lists!! I'll start with the authentication list and see if I'm able to contribute anything.