There are two levels of membership, as follows:

To post to our forums, you need to register as a Community Member. No registration is required to read forum content. This type of membership does not expire.

If you wish to distribute applications, you need to become a full member of the HP webOS Developer Program. This level includes Community Membership and lasts for one year. When you sign up for the Developer Program, there is a special option for open source developers which gives you the full benefits of the Developer Program and avoids the annual fees (though this is currently waived).