[Rubyforchange-talk] Let's Find a Project

[Jim Van Fleet]

I'll speak first about CISV USA.  To learn more about the
organization, visit http://www.cisv.org/about/.  To see how badly we
need the Mephisto site that I hope to have ready for our National
Board Meeting at the end of October, visit http://www.cisvusa.org/.

For myself, I'd say that there is no other route to lasting peace
aside from the sorts of programs that CISV offers, and that I consider
my involvement in CISV to be among my life's greatest blessings.

I have been the Electronic Communications Chair and webmaster there
since I was 18, and have a (small) budget that I control, in addition
to the ability to write grants to a larger resource pool.  Our most
recent successful grant spawned http://www.cisvuniversity.org/
(written in Rails) which has made an extremely positive impression
with our board.

Hence, I will continue with Chad's criteria below.

On 8/14/07, Chad Fowler <chad at chadfowler.com> wrote:
> Hello Friends!
>
> Here's what I think we need:
>
> * A 501(c)3 with a real application need which could have a
> significant impact (the level of significance, of course, to be
> determined)

CISV USA needs a great deal of organizational help.  Because it is a
grass-roots volunteer organization, essentially the wheel is
reinvented in every chapter every few years.  There is very little
institutional memory, and a lot of work is being duplicated.

I personally believe that what we do as web developers (and Internet
enthusiasts) can change all that.  I've been working to do it myself
for quite awhile.  Now it looks like there are many who might help, so
why not ask?  (Seems too good to be true...)

CISV USA is a 501(c)3 non-profit.

> * A person from that non-profit who can serve as the authoritative
> customer for what the application should do

I could easily offer myself as the point person, although there will
be others in the organization that I would consult with.

> * A commitment of consistent involvement from that customer to help
> drive feature requirements and provide feedback

CISV is not going anywhere in my life (although I personally may be
moving in the near-term to take a new job).  I don't have any plans on
leaving the role I've had there for 10 years or so now.

Further, I am as interested as can be in ensuring that the elements
that we construct are as extractable and framework-ready to aid other
projects as possible, a "feature" that I certainly hope would drive
both community involvement and results in the sense of actually
generating modules that could possibly be reused.

> * A (preferably same-city) "project lead" from this community to
> serve as the point of developer continuity, so we're not trying to
> piece together a cohesive application from too many random people's
> hour-scraps on the weekends without someone who understands the full
> context of the app.

Someone else would preferably serve this role.  I suspect that Skype
would be enough for the way I see things progressing were CISV USA to
be selected.

> * Hopefully a designer or two to help us make a decent UI.  Nobody
> wants to use a UI that, for example, I made.  Yuck.

Ditto.  I can offer to help in this area as well, as I do actually
have some skill writing Rails applications myself.

> My suggestion is that we propose projects here and come to a
> consensus (assuming that's possible) on what the final choice is.
> I'd like to suggest a self-imposed deadline for us, but we have to go
> out and locate customers so I'm not sure how long that might take.

Here's at least one volunteering!  I believe that if we were to put
together a small team and a timeline, we'd be extremely likely to get
a grant to cover costs of construction. (I believe what we propose to
construct would be a separate conversation.)

It would be up to the persons involved, of course, what to do with the
money, although I'm sure CISV USA would appreciate a reduced rate, as
it is a non-profit itself.

> That being said, getting the word out is a whole other deal.  I think
> we need a reasonable web presence and, hopefully at some point, a
> more automated system for connecting non-profits with developers.
> Let's save that for another thread.

I agree with both sentiments here.

As a final comment, I'll offer that both Bruce and Chad clearly had
ideas in our BoF session that came from different directions that
sounded good to me.  I just knew that CISV would come up given the
right opportunity and this looked like it to me.

Cheers,

Jim