If you need learn about new tecnologies and others stuff, and no have idea what make, read this:
- 1 - Select one tecnologie if you have some knowledge to do something interesting
- 2 - Use others tecnologies like NoSQL as Database. One nice thing to start to learn is the Firebase. Trust me, it's awesome!
- 3 - Use one PaaS platform to run your app, like Heroku, Openshift, AppFog, App Engine or Amazon (First Year its free) - Check the tecnologie support before.
- 4 - Use one version control based in Git. If you want, you can install GitLab in your own environment, but for I recommend use GitHub or Bitbucket because it's free for public projects and we love that.
- 5 - If you use GitHub or Bitbucket, you can Deploy your application using Wercker a simple tool to make deploy your applications if you want, or learning about Capistrano, it's really nice too.
More Important: have some fun.
Its a good opportunity to you learn about new tecnologies like NodeJS, AngularJS, MeteorJS, Backbone and others. I really recommend you learning some about that.
###First one:
Make a app using Firebase and some server side language to make routes, and other things.
If your not know Ajax Calls, read something about it, it's really nice make something dynamic with JavaScript.
If you not using some front-end framework like Backbone, Angular or Meteor, i recommend you start with one, or just jQuery / Pure JavaScript it's good too, but remember, the focus is learn new stuffs. Think about it.
###Bonus:
If you using firebase, I have a good news for you.
You can use Zapier to watch some collection or everything in your app and integrate with good tools like Twilio to send SMS, Mandrill, MailChimp, SendGrid and others to send mail, and others awesome integrations because Zapier it's awesome <3.
Take a look in Zapier Apps Directory.