Ask HN: Looking for contributors?
There have been times in my life when I've wished that I had a fun side-project to work on, especially in a team, and especially something open-source. There have also been times when I've managed to create for myself a few side-projects which I have loads of plans for but struggle to find time to do all of.
I know there are folks out there who are in one of either of these camps right now, so with that in mind I invite you to 'advertise' your open-source projects in need of a bit of attention from some fellow interested hackers who might want to get involved. Personally, I have two at the moment that I'd like to get more done on.
Ideally, post projects with some open issues on GitHub/BitBucket/Whatever and a few details about the project (language, context, applications of the code). I'll put mine in the comments if it looks like this is useful to anybody.
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[ 10.4 ms ] story [ 1845 ms ] threadCurrently a Backbone/LESS/PHP(Zend) stack and needs some CSS consolidation, a decouple from PHP, (most of this is already done), a Gruntjs build system, security audit and general cleanup and also an Apps/plugin framework
oh and there's also Templar (http://mjpearson.github.io/templar/) which could be a whole lot more awesome :D
https://github.com/ChicagoBoss/ChicagoBoss
This is an effort to port science and math sims that were initially built as Java applets but now need to become web-based (HTML5 canvas, SVG, javascript..etc)
I posted a while back asking each developer to adopt a single sim and commit to doing a port on it.
For anyone interested I can get you in touch with folks working on the sims.
Do you know how many more sims there are to port?
It is indeed very cool, if they can all be ported to modern web, you can do a lot of cool things with them.
here's an example of some work I did a while back that uses those sims in a digital notebook type environment: http://schoolnotez.com/
https://github.com/artursapek/mondrian
It's a fun project to hack on for anyone interested in math, geometry, SVG, or web apps. You can try it live at http://mondrian.io.
My email is in my HN profile if there are any questions.
Most of our code is in Groovy, some stuff is Java. Future stuff might include anything from Clojure or Scala to R, or C++ or Julia.
Quoddy - an enterprise social network. To use an analogy "Facebook for the enterprise" - but so much more. https://github.com/fogbeam/Quoddy
Neddick - an information discovery platform. To use an analogy, think "Reddit for the enterprise". https://github.com/fogbeam/Neddick
Heceta - a search engine. Think Solr + ManifoldCF + (some other stuff for social search and semantic search). You could say the idea here is to bring the Linked Data approach inside the enterprise.
I can't promise anything definite, but as with any commercially backed open source project, the possibility is always open that if somebody contributes to the project and kicks ass, that we may be able to find (or create) a spot for that person at Fogbeam at some point.
All commercial notions aside, we are working on some wicked cool stuff, especially the semantic web stuff, and would welcome anybody who wants to get involved. At worst, we'll all learn some stuff and have some fun together.
Take a look at the issues for more detail on what would be helpful.
xBoard is a canvas based drawing tool like many others - except it can be recorded and played back like video. There are many iPad sketch recorders, but this one works right in your browser.
I originally wrote this in about a week for a college senior project, and haven't been able to give it much love since. I've poked into adding web audio recording with the goal of creating a full Khan-academy like tutorial recorder.
Contact me if you're interested!
Given the recent spat of insolvent Bitcoin sites, I whipped together a project that will allow any site that holds customer Crypto Currency funds to verify to all customers and the public that they're solvent.
It also allows anyone to host a third-party verification site (work in progress) that will let someone copy/paste some JSON and then explain to the end-user whether they should trust the site they're using and why.
There's a Python and JS implementation, and I'd like to add more languages. I also need to finish the web verification and make sure everything is explained clearly.
https://github.com/morganherlocker/turf
If you do not have expertise in computational geometry or geospatial analysis:
1) I would be happy to share whatever knowledge I have and tee up a few easier issues to work on
2) Feature requests, testing, design (hoping to get a dedicated site up and running), and help with docs are also extremely valuable.
Lots of work to be done. You can contribute with coding, design, ideas, feedback...
Sponsored by MaxCDN and CloudFlare
I personally work on Marketplace [1], the app store for open web apps [2]. Our properties run client-side apps (HTML/CSS/JavaScript) with a Python/Django API server. Many other options are available depending on your skills and interests:
- If you know C++, for instance, you can contribute to the core layers of Firefox, Firefox OS, and other Mozilla products.
- If you know JavaScript or HTML/CSS, you can contribute to the front-end of Firefox, or to Gaia, the application layer of Firefox OS.
- If you know Java, you can contribute to Firefox Mobile.
- If you know Python, you can contribute to our web services, including Firefox Sync or Persona.
- If you know Make, shell, Perl, or Python, you can contribute to our build system.
- If you know C, you can contribute to a number of low-level and third-party libraries that we use as part of the Mozilla codebase.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Introduction
http://whatcanidoformozilla.org
Feel free to reach out if you're interested (email in profile), and I'd be happy to either help you find something or put you in touch with somebody who can.
[1] https://marketplace.firefox.com/
[2] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Apps/Quickstart/Build/In...
Come drop in IRC and say hi :)
https://wiki.mozilla.org/DevTools/Hacking
https://wiki.mozilla.org/DevTools/GetInvolved
I develop natively for iOS and would definitely down to help out in any way possible there.
Edit: Here is a more thorough answer: http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/945460#answer-392...
Haha I'm kind of just spitballing ideas here - I think not having Chrome sync and Safari sync is a good feature of iOS web browsers in a lot of different use cases. Plus a slim, portable Firefox clone could be pretty interesting to duke it out with those two as well as Dolphin and some other web browsers for the platform.
https://air.mozilla.org/product-design-at-mozilla/
No paid staff are working on this (AFAIK), but this is a pretty good sketch of how this could work in this presentation.
This is, hands-down, the best and most useful Python wrapper around the UPS API. Use it to track packages, track the status, delivery dates, create shipping labels - everything you'd want to do!
Their API has a ton of features. I could use help with unit tests, documentation, and, of course, adding more useful UPS features to the library itself!
https://github.com/classicspecs/ClassicUPS
Pullup is the website you have to submit a pull request to join! We're a small fairly tight-knit community right now. It creates a pretty interesting feel, knowing that every member has an invested interest in how Pullup develops.
We're currently putting a lot of effort into making the onboarding process easier, which means there's a load of easy, yet high-impact, issues sitting in Github right now.
Join us on Gitter, if you want to chat! https://gitter.im/larvalabs/pullup
https://github.com/sourcegraph/jsg
It uses tern (http://ternjs.net/) to perform static analysis on JavaScript and then outputs it in a format that describes all of the definitions (functions, variables, modules, etc.) and links all names in the source code to the definitions they refer to.
We use it to produce JavaScript docs and examples at Sourcegraph (e.g., https://sourcegraph.com/github.com/joyent/node), but it can also be useful for automatic JavaScript doc generation, automatic bug detection, and other static analysis tasks to improve the quality of your JavaScript code.
http://tudat.tudelft.nl
This project has been my life for the last 4 years. Was fed up with the fact that no one was collaborating within my research group in terms of software, so decided to set this up at the beginning of my PhD. Learned a lot of C++ along the way (and a whole lot more still to learn!).
If you're interested in getting involved, feel free to sign up on the website. There's a stack of features that are still to be implemented, and some fantastic research projects that can be carried out. I've also been looking to implement a Python interface so that the code becomes more accessible (especially to undergrad students in the department).
Some example simulations that have been carried out with Tudat:
* Launcher ascent trajectories
* Interplanetary mission design
* Global trajectory optimization
* Low-thrust trajectory design
* Circumplanetary dust dynamics
* Space debris conjunction analysis
* etc., etc.
So if you want to get your hands dirty with some cool space simulations, we'd love to have you on-board. Feel free to drop me an email if you have any questions about the project: me [AT] kartikkumar [DOT] com.
A PHP-project I made some years ago, that has some followers. I don't have time for project management on this, but I think the project needs it.
https://github.com/pkhamre/wp-varnish
The stack is a walking cliché: Node.js, Redis, MongoDB, Coffeescript. Lots of open issues, with plenty that are tagged 'good for beginners' (to the project, not necessarily with the tech). We've also got a dev chat room where we're available to help you get started whenever we're online: http://www.hipchat.com/g1nJMcj7b
We have strong opinions about the correct way to write javascript/coffeescript to be unit testable, and how to write apps based on lots of small services which are robust and testable. We'd be delighted to have people contribute and either sway our opinions, or pick up some of our experience.
1. SkiFree.js, my JavaScript port of the Windows classic game SkiFree. Trying to remove the jQuery dependency and flesh out all the features from the original game including additional NPCs. I am actually doing some active work on it every couple of weeks but not as much as I want! https://github.com/basicallydan/skifree.js
2. Interfake, a tool for creating on-the-fly JSON APIs. Really handy for front-end devs, mobile devs and anybody writing automated test suites which need APIs to hit. I'd like to add a way to generate collections in responses (i.e., an array in a response) and semi-random data. https://github.com/basicallydan/interfake
All contributions would be super helpful :)
A reimplmentation of CouchDB in the browser based on indexedDB / webSQL, its designed as a library for web devs to build applications that work offline and sync data seamlessly when their users login to other devices.
Theres a contribution guide @ https://github.com/daleharvey/pouchdb/blob/master/CONTRIBUTI... and we try to tag good patches for beginners @ https://github.com/daleharvey/pouchdb/issues?labels=goodfirs...
As a project I spend a lot (pretty much all) my time on trying to make it easy to contribute (while at the same time producing a well built easy to use library), would love to hear back about how easy / insanely hard the process is.
Absolutely none, there have been quite a few contributors without prior experience in the related tech, I mean not all contributors are / need to be programmers, trying to make that easier too.
If you are interested then look around this issues, or get in touch on irc or email and certain to find something that you will be comfortable working on.
Works across retailers and internationally. As well as being a useful purchasing tool (in-house so to speak) could help spread OSHW designs and allow users to purchase a "kit" from their local retailer outlets without the designer (who might be on the other end of the world) having the tedious task of filling bags with components and shipping them.
Written in Coffeescript and for Chrome initially. Firefox port is planned.
https://github.com/kasbah/1clickBOM
We've actually build a site you can use to post your projects to attract contributors who can pick up a task for you, join your team, spread word, provide feedback, become beta users or advisors, etc. It works like a GitHub for non-hackers minus the code (since you can use github for the code). The site is used mostly by top universities, hackathons, and some YC and HN members. Here is the link if you think that could be useful to you or others: http://www.doerhub.com