[Lingo] Re: "Contribute positively"

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Micheal Cooper writes:

 > It really does depend on contest. This is one of those set phrases
 > that you find in many kinds of docs, a phrase that the writer uses as
 > a single block, in spite of the fact that it might mean very different
 > things depending on the topic.

It also depends a lot on meue/meshita.  When used by meue about
himself, or by foreign service personnel, it often means you might get
a hearing if accompanied by a sufficiently large contribution to his
retirement fund or the geopolitical equivalent, else forget it.

But when used in the third person as in this case, I would say the
question reduces to what has already been suggested: is the topic
RMS's contribution to internal progress (eg, software development), in
which case "active (or postive) contribution" is a good literal
translation, or is it his external contribution to awareness and the
political/legal stuff, in which case "promotion" is probably more
idiomatic.