Philosophy
“Tagline”: Create meaningful software to solve real world issues, then give it away for free.
As far as I can tell there isn’t anything like this in Edmonton or anywhere else I checked (cursory Google search). Most “support” or “user” groups are very specific and focus on meeting up to talk about stuff, share knowledge, etc. This would be more practical, more hands on, but would cater to the same crowd(s) of social programmers. Organize a group of developers who just want to build cool things and share them with the developer/user community for free. The objectives of this team, or teams:
Names
- Gantt Collective
- YEG Collective
-
/etc/
- Build on existing skills, learn new things
- Network with other developers
- Make software that matters and get it into the hands of people who need it
I’ll be honest, I have a problem with people who identify issues within a market or industry and think the best way to solve them is to start up a new company to build a product which does that for a profit (aka dirty, stinkin’ capitalists). This is an inherently selfish way to look at the world and I think we can do better. Money makes the world go ‘round, I get that, but not everything has to be about money. I don’t want this group to morph into just another startup, or an incubator for ideas which then go on to become startups. I’m looking for like-minded individuals who are interested in coding because they genuinely enjoy it and don’t care if they get compensated for it.
This is why open source is important, it proves you don’t always have to be thinking about how much you’re going to make off of an idea to build something awesome. Money doesn’t have to be the motivator, it’s just a bonus or a pat on the back for doing a good job. This isn’t really important to the overall function of the group, the end result would still be open source software projects, but I think this philosophy will help guide member recruitment and project selection.
Skill level isn’t important. As far as I’m concerned, the more students the better as these people are the ones who need to network and improve their skills the most.
The general idea of this group is, basically, a “distributed hackathon”. You can pitch an idea to the group, they’ll vote on it, and if enough people want to help build it it becomes a project. Management, direction and scale of the project is up to the person who pitched it, or project members who want to take on a leadership role.
Tools
Requirements:
- Github.com account
- knowledge of git
- basic knowledge of working in a team environment
- knowledge in any computer language (programming languages, markup languages, etc)
- at least a couple hours a week to dedicate towards project contributions (this is part time, for fun, not a job)
Nice to have’s:
- decades of experience
- a ferrari
- experience in multiple languages
Membership
Membership is free, voluntary and can be revoked at any time for either of the following two reasons:
- You decide you want to leave
- You haven’t made any contributions recently and are asked to leave
Minimal participation is required of all members. At the very least, you should be making one meaningful pull request every few weeks.
Responsibilities
Super simple chain of command. All group members can vote on potential projects. If your idea gets selected you are the Lead.
- Lead
- Vets pull requests, sets goals (with feedback from the contributors)
- Contributor
- Implements goals set by the Lead
Who should join?
- Designers
- Developers
- Students
- Senior citizens
- Everyone else who has the basic qualifications
Ownership/Licensing
Projects will be licensed ASF 2.0 (or similar), ownership really only refers to who is running the project rather than who literally owns it. Anyone, including any member of the project team or the group, is allowed to fork any project even if you want to use it to make money. Again, the philosophy defined above only intends to provide high level guidance as far as choosing what projects members can vote on and who should join the group, it does not dictate how group projects are managed.
Group Launch Requirements
- Enough members to make this worthwhile; at least 3
- 1 starter project
- Forum or something for discussing new projects, voting, etc
If this sounds like something you’re interested in, email me