From chad at chadfowler.com  Sun Aug 12 11:35:55 2007
From: chad at chadfowler.com (Chad Fowler)
Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 11:35:55 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Test message
Message-ID: <c67184de0708120835m687c9623u982ecdb65307528a@mail.gmail.com>

Just testing the mailing list.  Ignore please.

From jeremymcanally at gmail.com  Mon Aug 13 11:30:18 2007
From: jeremymcanally at gmail.com (Jeremy McAnally)
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 11:30:18 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Ideas for charity events
Message-ID: <d878fe460708130830g670652a2x21b4c8126fdf6799@mail.gmail.com>

Hello everyone,
I was curious about whether or not they were planning a charity event
at RubyConf, and upon asking Chad told me they hadn't really planned
one yet but were open to new and interesting ideas.

I though I'd post here to get a discussion going about some of the
ideas I've had and see if anyone else has any excellent ideas.  Of
course, a workshop is a great idea but I'm sure there's a twist on it
that no one has tried yet...

One idea I had is a twist on the Ruby for Change idea, in that you
assemble teams of developers to do small projects for clients and then
donate the money to a charity.   Or, you could assemble people into
hack night groups at RubyConf or the Ruby Hoedown or whatever, and
over the course of the conf they hack together a marketable
product/website (e.g., ActiveReload's Warehouse) that will give its
proceeds to charity.

One idea I had and didn't get to implement at the Hoedown is a silent
auction of stuff like books, training, hosting, etc.  It could be
something as simple as "a copy of Beginning Ruby" to something like "a
pair programming session with Matz."  I've seen things similar to that
done that have yielded huge amounts of money.

Anyone else have any ideas?  I hope we can kick up some good ideas for
myself and other conference organizers to use.

Thanks a lot,
Jeremy

-- 
http://www.jeremymcanally.com/

My free Ruby e-book:
http://www.humblelittlerubybook.com/book/

My blogs:
http://www.mrneighborly.com/
http://www.rubyinpractice.com/

From tonydevlin at gmail.com  Mon Aug 13 11:41:21 2007
From: tonydevlin at gmail.com (Tony Devlin)
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 11:41:21 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Ideas for charity events
In-Reply-To: <d878fe460708130830g670652a2x21b4c8126fdf6799@mail.gmail.com>
References: <d878fe460708130830g670652a2x21b4c8126fdf6799@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <e09432d30708130841u73a677q423477d7c68907b1@mail.gmail.com>

I think something like a hack-night would be a great idea.  I have to let
this idea gel for a while before I can offer any competent opinions, but
just wanted to send a quick agreement shout.


Tony Devlin




On 8/13/07, Jeremy McAnally <jeremymcanally at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hello everyone,
> I was curious about whether or not they were planning a charity event
> at RubyConf, and upon asking Chad told me they hadn't really planned
> one yet but were open to new and interesting ideas.
>
> I though I'd post here to get a discussion going about some of the
> ideas I've had and see if anyone else has any excellent ideas.  Of
> course, a workshop is a great idea but I'm sure there's a twist on it
> that no one has tried yet...
>
> One idea I had is a twist on the Ruby for Change idea, in that you
> assemble teams of developers to do small projects for clients and then
> donate the money to a charity.   Or, you could assemble people into
> hack night groups at RubyConf or the Ruby Hoedown or whatever, and
> over the course of the conf they hack together a marketable
> product/website (e.g., ActiveReload's Warehouse) that will give its
> proceeds to charity.
>
> One idea I had and didn't get to implement at the Hoedown is a silent
> auction of stuff like books, training, hosting, etc.  It could be
> something as simple as "a copy of Beginning Ruby" to something like "a
> pair programming session with Matz."  I've seen things similar to that
> done that have yielded huge amounts of money.
>
> Anyone else have any ideas?  I hope we can kick up some good ideas for
> myself and other conference organizers to use.
>
> Thanks a lot,
> Jeremy
>
> --
> http://www.jeremymcanally.com/
>
> My free Ruby e-book:
> http://www.humblelittlerubybook.com/book/
>
> My blogs:
> http://www.mrneighborly.com/
> http://www.rubyinpractice.com/
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>
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From evan at tiggerpalace.com  Mon Aug 13 12:14:36 2007
From: evan at tiggerpalace.com (Evan David Light)
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 12:14:36 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Ideas for charity events
In-Reply-To: <e09432d30708130841u73a677q423477d7c68907b1@mail.gmail.com>
References: <d878fe460708130830g670652a2x21b4c8126fdf6799@mail.gmail.com>
	<e09432d30708130841u73a677q423477d7c68907b1@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <BD492EAB-CF77-4C74-BD6B-DEE23AB1720B@tiggerpalace.com>

I'm a little biased in terms of charities to attempt to support.   
Anything that supports eradicating Huntington's Disease gets my  
vote.  It hits extremely close to home.  But, then, I'm sure that we  
each have our preferred charities.

On Aug 13, 2007, at 11:41 AM, Tony Devlin wrote:

> I think something like a hack-night would be a great idea.  I have  
> to let this idea gel for a while before I can offer any competent  
> opinions, but just wanted to send a quick agreement shout.
>
>
> Tony Devlin
>
>
>
>
> On 8/13/07, Jeremy McAnally <jeremymcanally at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> I was curious about whether or not they were planning a charity event
> at RubyConf, and upon asking Chad told me they hadn't really planned
> one yet but were open to new and interesting ideas.
>
> I though I'd post here to get a discussion going about some of the
> ideas I've had and see if anyone else has any excellent ideas.  Of
> course, a workshop is a great idea but I'm sure there's a twist on it
> that no one has tried yet...
>
> One idea I had is a twist on the Ruby for Change idea, in that you
> assemble teams of developers to do small projects for clients and then
> donate the money to a charity.   Or, you could assemble people into
> hack night groups at RubyConf or the Ruby Hoedown or whatever, and
> over the course of the conf they hack together a marketable
> product/website (e.g., ActiveReload's Warehouse) that will give its
> proceeds to charity.
>
> One idea I had and didn't get to implement at the Hoedown is a silent
> auction of stuff like books, training, hosting, etc.  It could be
> something as simple as "a copy of Beginning Ruby" to something like "a
> pair programming session with Matz."  I've seen things similar to that
> done that have yielded huge amounts of money.
>
> Anyone else have any ideas?  I hope we can kick up some good ideas for
> myself and other conference organizers to use.
>
> Thanks a lot,
> Jeremy
>
> --
> http://www.jeremymcanally.com/
>
> My free Ruby e-book:
> http://www.humblelittlerubybook.com/book/
>
> My blogs:
> http://www.mrneighborly.com/
> http://www.rubyinpractice.com/
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk

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From bruce at codefluency.com  Mon Aug 13 14:11:29 2007
From: bruce at codefluency.com (Bruce Williams)
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 13:11:29 -0500
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Ideas for charity events
In-Reply-To: <BD492EAB-CF77-4C74-BD6B-DEE23AB1720B@tiggerpalace.com>
References: <d878fe460708130830g670652a2x21b4c8126fdf6799@mail.gmail.com>
	<e09432d30708130841u73a677q423477d7c68907b1@mail.gmail.com>
	<BD492EAB-CF77-4C74-BD6B-DEE23AB1720B@tiggerpalace.com>
Message-ID: <a2830e5b0708131111te7c9a27ref14a444f3c98909@mail.gmail.com>

On 8/13/07, Evan David Light <evan at tiggerpalace.com> wrote:
> I'm a little biased in terms of charities to attempt to support.  Anything
> that supports eradicating Huntington's Disease gets my vote.  It hits
> extremely close to home.  But, then, I'm sure that we each have our
> preferred charities.
>

Right, I agree.  I'm assuming we'll have a large funnel of possible
charities that we'll have to filter through using various criteria.
How charities are selected from the list and how they're contacted are
the big challenges I see.

Bruce

---
Bruce Williams
http://codefluency.com

From tj at stank.us  Mon Aug 13 14:59:56 2007
From: tj at stank.us (TJ Stankus)
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 14:59:56 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Ideas for charity events
In-Reply-To: <d878fe460708130830g670652a2x21b4c8126fdf6799@mail.gmail.com>
References: <d878fe460708130830g670652a2x21b4c8126fdf6799@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <f25a5bb60708131159s6865814aud0ec5ed4ba4e129f@mail.gmail.com>

> One idea I had and didn't get to implement at the Hoedown is a silent
> auction of stuff like books, training, hosting, etc.  It could be
> something as simple as "a copy of Beginning Ruby" to something like "a
> pair programming session with Matz."  I've seen things similar to that
> done that have yielded huge amounts of money.

+1. I think this is a great idea, Jeremy.

-TJ

From todd at topstorm.org  Mon Aug 13 21:46:53 2007
From: todd at topstorm.org (Todd Olivas)
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 21:46:53 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Ideas for charity events
In-Reply-To: <d878fe460708130830g670652a2x21b4c8126fdf6799@mail.gmail.com>
References: <d878fe460708130830g670652a2x21b4c8126fdf6799@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <46C1098D.1010603@topstorm.org>

I like the idea of doing small projects for clients and donating the 
money.  If the company knows up front that the money is going to 
charity, they may be willing to match some of the funds.  This way, the 
charity gets a bigger donation, and the company gets a tax break on the 
extra funds.  For this to work, we may have to limit ourselves to tax 
exempt charities.   I assume most charities have this, so it is probably 
not much of an issue.

Todd


Jeremy McAnally wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> I was curious about whether or not they were planning a charity event
> at RubyConf, and upon asking Chad told me they hadn't really planned
> one yet but were open to new and interesting ideas.
>
> I though I'd post here to get a discussion going about some of the
> ideas I've had and see if anyone else has any excellent ideas.  Of
> course, a workshop is a great idea but I'm sure there's a twist on it
> that no one has tried yet...
>
> One idea I had is a twist on the Ruby for Change idea, in that you
> assemble teams of developers to do small projects for clients and then
> donate the money to a charity.   Or, you could assemble people into
> hack night groups at RubyConf or the Ruby Hoedown or whatever, and
> over the course of the conf they hack together a marketable
> product/website (e.g., ActiveReload's Warehouse) that will give its
> proceeds to charity.
>
> One idea I had and didn't get to implement at the Hoedown is a silent
> auction of stuff like books, training, hosting, etc.  It could be
> something as simple as "a copy of Beginning Ruby" to something like "a
> pair programming session with Matz."  I've seen things similar to that
> done that have yielded huge amounts of money.
>
> Anyone else have any ideas?  I hope we can kick up some good ideas for
> myself and other conference organizers to use.
>
> Thanks a lot,
> Jeremy
>
>   


From helder at gmail.com  Mon Aug 13 22:10:49 2007
From: helder at gmail.com (Helder Ribeiro)
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 23:10:49 -0300
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Coding for change
Message-ID: <9bb72e130708131910k2180b45bu5766abdd4ab7e3c2@mail.gmail.com>

Hey, guys!

I'm really interested in joining this group of people who want to do
something for the world with their talents and it's really great to
see ideas coming up and people willing to do stuff.

And as much as I like the idea of Charity Driven Development (coding
normal stuff, getting paid and donating the money) - I might even help
out with that -, I'd also like to see free software projects that are
*themselves* going to directly benefit suffering people throughout the
world.

As an example, I've heard about this big complex health management
software that is geared towards developing countries and is in active
use in Africa. That's the sort of thing I'd like to work on, or
something educational, etc., and something that is already in active
use if I can help it (it's less than ideal coming up with an idea and
maybe not having the means to actually get people to use it).

Does anyone know what's the name of that medical software (can't find it!)?

Do you know of other projects that are in use in developing countries
and could use some help?

Do you have any ideas of projects that we could start ourselves and
that would have that kind of impact?

Thanks for listening, hope we can actually find something we can help
people with :-)

Cheers,

Helder

-- 
http://obvio171.wordpress.com

From evan at tiggerpalace.com  Mon Aug 13 22:16:29 2007
From: evan at tiggerpalace.com (Evan David Light)
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 22:16:29 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Coding for change
In-Reply-To: <9bb72e130708131910k2180b45bu5766abdd4ab7e3c2@mail.gmail.com>
References: <9bb72e130708131910k2180b45bu5766abdd4ab7e3c2@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <18280EC4-78D2-4599-95EA-F0A8AF0CF816@tiggerpalace.com>

Helder,

	I'm actually writing something along those lines, albeit slowly,  
right now that will initially be aimed at caregivers and the people  
that they are caring for.  However, if/when I finish it, it will be a  
largely free application that will, ideally, be ad funded.  The idea  
came out of my and my wife's need in taking care of her day to day  
needs in a consistent fashion.

Evan

On Aug 13, 2007, at 10:10 PM, Helder Ribeiro wrote:

> Hey, guys!
>
> I'm really interested in joining this group of people who want to do
> something for the world with their talents and it's really great to
> see ideas coming up and people willing to do stuff.
>
> And as much as I like the idea of Charity Driven Development (coding
> normal stuff, getting paid and donating the money) - I might even help
> out with that -, I'd also like to see free software projects that are
> *themselves* going to directly benefit suffering people throughout the
> world.
>
> As an example, I've heard about this big complex health management
> software that is geared towards developing countries and is in active
> use in Africa. That's the sort of thing I'd like to work on, or
> something educational, etc., and something that is already in active
> use if I can help it (it's less than ideal coming up with an idea and
> maybe not having the means to actually get people to use it).
>
> Does anyone know what's the name of that medical software (can't  
> find it!)?
>
> Do you know of other projects that are in use in developing countries
> and could use some help?
>
> Do you have any ideas of projects that we could start ourselves and
> that would have that kind of impact?
>
> Thanks for listening, hope we can actually find something we can help
> people with :-)
>
> Cheers,
>
> Helder
>
> -- 
> http://obvio171.wordpress.com
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk


From chad at chadfowler.com  Tue Aug 14 09:57:08 2007
From: chad at chadfowler.com (Chad Fowler)
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 09:57:08 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Ideas for charity events
In-Reply-To: <46C1098D.1010603@topstorm.org>
References: <d878fe460708130830g670652a2x21b4c8126fdf6799@mail.gmail.com>
	<46C1098D.1010603@topstorm.org>
Message-ID: <c67184de0708140657i64440ff3k2555308d94a328a6@mail.gmail.com>

On 8/13/07, Todd Olivas <todd at topstorm.org> wrote:
> I like the idea of doing small projects for clients and donating the
> money.  If the company knows up front that the money is going to
> charity, they may be willing to match some of the funds.  This way, the
> charity gets a bigger donation, and the company gets a tax break on the
> extra funds.  For this to work, we may have to limit ourselves to tax
> exempt charities.   I assume most charities have this, so it is probably
> not much of an issue.
>

Yea, we should only consider (at least in the US) 501(c)3 tax-exempt
organizations or the equivalent.  I'd say that's pretty much the first
line of filtering.

I like the idea of a hack night and of doing client work for charities
a bit, though I'm afraid the quality or follow-through client might
suffer if we're not careful.  Since we wouldn't be working directly
for the charity it might be harder to remain, well, charitable when
dealing with a commercial client.  I'm not sure charity-driven
software development is a sound way to run a commercial business.

I do like Jeremy's silent auction fund raising idea.  Anyone have
experience with something like this and might be interested in coming
up with ideas for an upcoming conference?  I want to avoid the plain
"give money at this URL' approach we took at RailsConf just so it
doesn't get tiresome.


Chad

> Todd
>
>
> Jeremy McAnally wrote:
> > Hello everyone,
> > I was curious about whether or not they were planning a charity event
> > at RubyConf, and upon asking Chad told me they hadn't really planned
> > one yet but were open to new and interesting ideas.
> >
> > I though I'd post here to get a discussion going about some of the
> > ideas I've had and see if anyone else has any excellent ideas.  Of
> > course, a workshop is a great idea but I'm sure there's a twist on it
> > that no one has tried yet...
> >
> > One idea I had is a twist on the Ruby for Change idea, in that you
> > assemble teams of developers to do small projects for clients and then
> > donate the money to a charity.   Or, you could assemble people into
> > hack night groups at RubyConf or the Ruby Hoedown or whatever, and
> > over the course of the conf they hack together a marketable
> > product/website (e.g., ActiveReload's Warehouse) that will give its
> > proceeds to charity.
> >
> > One idea I had and didn't get to implement at the Hoedown is a silent
> > auction of stuff like books, training, hosting, etc.  It could be
> > something as simple as "a copy of Beginning Ruby" to something like "a
> > pair programming session with Matz."  I've seen things similar to that
> > done that have yielded huge amounts of money.
> >
> > Anyone else have any ideas?  I hope we can kick up some good ideas for
> > myself and other conference organizers to use.
> >
> > Thanks a lot,
> > Jeremy
> >
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>

From jeremymcanally at gmail.com  Tue Aug 14 10:14:33 2007
From: jeremymcanally at gmail.com (Jeremy McAnally)
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 10:14:33 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Ideas for charity events
In-Reply-To: <c67184de0708140657i64440ff3k2555308d94a328a6@mail.gmail.com>
References: <d878fe460708130830g670652a2x21b4c8126fdf6799@mail.gmail.com>
	<46C1098D.1010603@topstorm.org>
	<c67184de0708140657i64440ff3k2555308d94a328a6@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <d878fe460708140714t6237e218p5d1ea6eac53afa9@mail.gmail.com>

I've help out with a few (primarily art) auctions like that at here at
school for various causes.  I'd be interested in being involved with
brainstorming. :)

--Jeremy

On 8/14/07, Chad Fowler <chad at chadfowler.com> wrote:
> On 8/13/07, Todd Olivas <todd at topstorm.org> wrote:
> > I like the idea of doing small projects for clients and donating the
> > money.  If the company knows up front that the money is going to
> > charity, they may be willing to match some of the funds.  This way, the
> > charity gets a bigger donation, and the company gets a tax break on the
> > extra funds.  For this to work, we may have to limit ourselves to tax
> > exempt charities.   I assume most charities have this, so it is probably
> > not much of an issue.
> >
>
> Yea, we should only consider (at least in the US) 501(c)3 tax-exempt
> organizations or the equivalent.  I'd say that's pretty much the first
> line of filtering.
>
> I like the idea of a hack night and of doing client work for charities
> a bit, though I'm afraid the quality or follow-through client might
> suffer if we're not careful.  Since we wouldn't be working directly
> for the charity it might be harder to remain, well, charitable when
> dealing with a commercial client.  I'm not sure charity-driven
> software development is a sound way to run a commercial business.
>
> I do like Jeremy's silent auction fund raising idea.  Anyone have
> experience with something like this and might be interested in coming
> up with ideas for an upcoming conference?  I want to avoid the plain
> "give money at this URL' approach we took at RailsConf just so it
> doesn't get tiresome.
>
>
> Chad
>
> > Todd
> >
> >
> > Jeremy McAnally wrote:
> > > Hello everyone,
> > > I was curious about whether or not they were planning a charity event
> > > at RubyConf, and upon asking Chad told me they hadn't really planned
> > > one yet but were open to new and interesting ideas.
> > >
> > > I though I'd post here to get a discussion going about some of the
> > > ideas I've had and see if anyone else has any excellent ideas.  Of
> > > course, a workshop is a great idea but I'm sure there's a twist on it
> > > that no one has tried yet...
> > >
> > > One idea I had is a twist on the Ruby for Change idea, in that you
> > > assemble teams of developers to do small projects for clients and then
> > > donate the money to a charity.   Or, you could assemble people into
> > > hack night groups at RubyConf or the Ruby Hoedown or whatever, and
> > > over the course of the conf they hack together a marketable
> > > product/website (e.g., ActiveReload's Warehouse) that will give its
> > > proceeds to charity.
> > >
> > > One idea I had and didn't get to implement at the Hoedown is a silent
> > > auction of stuff like books, training, hosting, etc.  It could be
> > > something as simple as "a copy of Beginning Ruby" to something like "a
> > > pair programming session with Matz."  I've seen things similar to that
> > > done that have yielded huge amounts of money.
> > >
> > > Anyone else have any ideas?  I hope we can kick up some good ideas for
> > > myself and other conference organizers to use.
> > >
> > > Thanks a lot,
> > > Jeremy
> > >
> > >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> > Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>


-- 
http://www.jeremymcanally.com/

My free Ruby e-book:
http://www.humblelittlerubybook.com/book/

My blogs:
http://www.mrneighborly.com/
http://www.rubyinpractice.com/

From mike.s.mckinney at gmail.com  Tue Aug 14 11:42:18 2007
From: mike.s.mckinney at gmail.com (Mike McKinney)
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:42:18 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Ideas for charity events
In-Reply-To: <c67184de0708140657i64440ff3k2555308d94a328a6@mail.gmail.com>
References: <d878fe460708130830g670652a2x21b4c8126fdf6799@mail.gmail.com>
	<46C1098D.1010603@topstorm.org>
	<c67184de0708140657i64440ff3k2555308d94a328a6@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <b342562c0708140842s5e9fc293qb3037984de5c8f65@mail.gmail.com>

Here are some examples of this idea being done elsewhere:
http://codeforgood.com/
http://www.topcoder.com/tc?module=CRPFStatic&d1=crpf&d2=crpf_rules_structure

(i'm sure there are more...)

I like the topcoder idea... maybe picking a "client" (charity org.) and
making an open call for participants.  low entry fee, teams allowed, prize
for winning could be something along the lines of the auction idea or the
simple gratification of being recognized (lots of small shops out there
might like to get their name in "lights")  could pick the winner and
spotlight them at a conference... etc. etc.

hack nights also seem very promising given the demographic of the
community...

just my $.02,
Mike

On 8/14/07, Chad Fowler <chad at chadfowler.com> wrote:
>
> On 8/13/07, Todd Olivas <todd at topstorm.org> wrote:
> > I like the idea of doing small projects for clients and donating the
> > money.  If the company knows up front that the money is going to
> > charity, they may be willing to match some of the funds.  This way, the
> > charity gets a bigger donation, and the company gets a tax break on the
> > extra funds.  For this to work, we may have to limit ourselves to tax
> > exempt charities.   I assume most charities have this, so it is probably
> > not much of an issue.
> >
>
> Yea, we should only consider (at least in the US) 501(c)3 tax-exempt
> organizations or the equivalent.  I'd say that's pretty much the first
> line of filtering.
>
> I like the idea of a hack night and of doing client work for charities
> a bit, though I'm afraid the quality or follow-through client might
> suffer if we're not careful.  Since we wouldn't be working directly
> for the charity it might be harder to remain, well, charitable when
> dealing with a commercial client.  I'm not sure charity-driven
> software development is a sound way to run a commercial business.
>
> I do like Jeremy's silent auction fund raising idea.  Anyone have
> experience with something like this and might be interested in coming
> up with ideas for an upcoming conference?  I want to avoid the plain
> "give money at this URL' approach we took at RailsConf just so it
> doesn't get tiresome.
>
>
> Chad
>
> > Todd
> >
> >
> > Jeremy McAnally wrote:
> > > Hello everyone,
> > > I was curious about whether or not they were planning a charity event
> > > at RubyConf, and upon asking Chad told me they hadn't really planned
> > > one yet but were open to new and interesting ideas.
> > >
> > > I though I'd post here to get a discussion going about some of the
> > > ideas I've had and see if anyone else has any excellent ideas.  Of
> > > course, a workshop is a great idea but I'm sure there's a twist on it
> > > that no one has tried yet...
> > >
> > > One idea I had is a twist on the Ruby for Change idea, in that you
> > > assemble teams of developers to do small projects for clients and then
> > > donate the money to a charity.   Or, you could assemble people into
> > > hack night groups at RubyConf or the Ruby Hoedown or whatever, and
> > > over the course of the conf they hack together a marketable
> > > product/website (e.g., ActiveReload's Warehouse) that will give its
> > > proceeds to charity.
> > >
> > > One idea I had and didn't get to implement at the Hoedown is a silent
> > > auction of stuff like books, training, hosting, etc.  It could be
> > > something as simple as "a copy of Beginning Ruby" to something like "a
> > > pair programming session with Matz."  I've seen things similar to that
> > > done that have yielded huge amounts of money.
> > >
> > > Anyone else have any ideas?  I hope we can kick up some good ideas for
> > > myself and other conference organizers to use.
> > >
> > > Thanks a lot,
> > > Jeremy
> > >
> > >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> > Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>
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From ivey at gweezlebur.com  Tue Aug 14 11:57:41 2007
From: ivey at gweezlebur.com (Michael D. Ivey)
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 10:57:41 -0500
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Ideas for charity events
In-Reply-To: <b342562c0708140842s5e9fc293qb3037984de5c8f65@mail.gmail.com>
References: <d878fe460708130830g670652a2x21b4c8126fdf6799@mail.gmail.com>
	<46C1098D.1010603@topstorm.org>
	<c67184de0708140657i64440ff3k2555308d94a328a6@mail.gmail.com>
	<b342562c0708140842s5e9fc293qb3037984de5c8f65@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <0F2DF226-1A29-4A7E-A214-B66F2FB38B5D@gweezlebur.com>

What about building some reusable components that would be useful for  
multiple non-profits?  A NPO/NGO plugin/gem collection, perhaps.

From gilesb at gmail.com  Tue Aug 14 12:44:39 2007
From: gilesb at gmail.com (Giles Bowkett)
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 09:44:39 -0700
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Fundraising effort @ OSCON / blog ads
Message-ID: <2d81dedb0708140944u195ec054j8926eb621b115921@mail.gmail.com>

Hi all - I got the OSCON organizers from O'Reilly into the idea of
doing some fundraising there this year. It wasn't like RailsConf, but
they were able to get behind the idea. We raised only a bit more than
$500. They responded to my e-mail literally the day the conference
began, so there was a last-minute flavor to the whole thing; I think
next year they'll be better organized. If anyone wants to help me work
with the OSCON peeps next year, I'd definitely appreciate it. They're
a big organization, after all.

Anyway, another thing - people have been telling me I should advertize
on my blog, and rather than go through the effort of setting up a
sponsor, I think I'm just going to put up some ads for nonprofits. It
would be pretty easy to organize that as a project of this group also.
I was thinking a landing page where you donate in the name of Rubyists
for Change, plus, for each nonprofit on the landing page, a graphic
for your blog's sidebar with the logo of the nonprofit, some smaller
simpler logo for Rubyists for Change - just a type treatment would be
enough - and a direct link to give to that particular nonprofit on the
landing page. This would make it very easy for anyone to set up any
number of similar donation ads on their blogs as well, and to choose
their favorite nonprofits.

-- 
Giles Bowkett

Blog: http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
Portfolio: http://www.gilesgoatboy.org

From chad at chadfowler.com  Tue Aug 14 14:07:13 2007
From: chad at chadfowler.com (Chad Fowler)
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:07:13 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Ideas for charity events
In-Reply-To: <0F2DF226-1A29-4A7E-A214-B66F2FB38B5D@gweezlebur.com>
References: <d878fe460708130830g670652a2x21b4c8126fdf6799@mail.gmail.com>
	<46C1098D.1010603@topstorm.org>
	<c67184de0708140657i64440ff3k2555308d94a328a6@mail.gmail.com>
	<b342562c0708140842s5e9fc293qb3037984de5c8f65@mail.gmail.com>
	<0F2DF226-1A29-4A7E-A214-B66F2FB38B5D@gweezlebur.com>
Message-ID: <c67184de0708141107g6a07b2a4m4b3b8023c57307b6@mail.gmail.com>

On 8/14/07, Michael D. Ivey <ivey at gweezlebur.com> wrote:
> What about building some reusable components that would be useful for
> multiple non-profits?  A NPO/NGO plugin/gem collection, perhaps.


I think this is a good idea, but I'd like to start on something more
concrete and less infrastrcturey at first.  Partially because I'd like
to extract such components (frameworks) from real application work.

That being said, one obvious application we could get started on would
be a hosted app/place for matching volunteers with projects and/or
their regions.  Perhaps a non-profit could come intot he site and look
for a local developer that could help lead an open-source
charity-based project as part of the Ruby For Change umbrella.  What
do you all think about that as something to start hacking?

Chad

From chad at chadfowler.com  Tue Aug 14 14:28:50 2007
From: chad at chadfowler.com (Chad Fowler)
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:28:50 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Coding for change
In-Reply-To: <9bb72e130708131910k2180b45bu5766abdd4ab7e3c2@mail.gmail.com>
References: <9bb72e130708131910k2180b45bu5766abdd4ab7e3c2@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <c67184de0708141128h2c449aax3d04af65f5dae905@mail.gmail.com>

On 8/13/07, Helder Ribeiro <helder at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey, guys!
>
> I'm really interested in joining this group of people who want to do
> something for the world with their talents and it's really great to
> see ideas coming up and people willing to do stuff.
>
> And as much as I like the idea of Charity Driven Development (coding
> normal stuff, getting paid and donating the money) - I might even help
> out with that -, I'd also like to see free software projects that are
> *themselves* going to directly benefit suffering people throughout the
> world.
>
> As an example, I've heard about this big complex health management
> software that is geared towards developing countries and is in active
> use in Africa. That's the sort of thing I'd like to work on, or
> something educational, etc., and something that is already in active
> use if I can help it (it's less than ideal coming up with an idea and
> maybe not having the means to actually get people to use it).
>
> Does anyone know what's the name of that medical software (can't find it!)?
>
> Do you know of other projects that are in use in developing countries
> and could use some help?
>
> Do you have any ideas of projects that we could start ourselves and
> that would have that kind of impact?
>
> Thanks for listening, hope we can actually find something we can help
> people with :-)
>

Helder, your sentiments here exactly mirror mine.  My primary goal for
my involvement in this group is to establish a sustainable process for
churning out impactful projects that solve real problems, as opposed
to focusing on fundraising.  Fundraising is also good, and I think we
can do both, but to me the real value in having smart programmers
involved in a cause like this is that we are smart, passionate people
applying our creative and analytical minds to real problems.  There's
a lot more value in that than the financial giving we can and should
also be doing.

Thanks!
Chad

From ryan.daigle at gmail.com  Tue Aug 14 14:34:37 2007
From: ryan.daigle at gmail.com (Ryan Daigle)
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:34:37 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Ideas for charity events
In-Reply-To: <c67184de0708141107g6a07b2a4m4b3b8023c57307b6@mail.gmail.com>
References: <d878fe460708130830g670652a2x21b4c8126fdf6799@mail.gmail.com>
	<46C1098D.1010603@topstorm.org>
	<c67184de0708140657i64440ff3k2555308d94a328a6@mail.gmail.com>
	<b342562c0708140842s5e9fc293qb3037984de5c8f65@mail.gmail.com>
	<0F2DF226-1A29-4A7E-A214-B66F2FB38B5D@gweezlebur.com>
	<c67184de0708141107g6a07b2a4m4b3b8023c57307b6@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <748ff3ff0708141134l22123545j8c63316e314990a@mail.gmail.com>

I think this is a great idea.

The biggest issue I see with any project is the management aspect.  Who is
the domain expert in this particular situation and who will drive the
development team, however remote they are?

-Ryan

On 8/14/07, Chad Fowler <chad at chadfowler.com> wrote:
>
> On 8/14/07, Michael D. Ivey <ivey at gweezlebur.com> wrote:
> > What about building some reusable components that would be useful for
> > multiple non-profits?  A NPO/NGO plugin/gem collection, perhaps.
>
>
> I think this is a good idea, but I'd like to start on something more
> concrete and less infrastrcturey at first.  Partially because I'd like
> to extract such components (frameworks) from real application work.
>
> That being said, one obvious application we could get started on would
> be a hosted app/place for matching volunteers with projects and/or
> their regions.  Perhaps a non-profit could come intot he site and look
> for a local developer that could help lead an open-source
> charity-based project as part of the Ruby For Change umbrella.  What
> do you all think about that as something to start hacking?
>
> Chad
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>
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From evan at tiggerpalace.com  Tue Aug 14 14:36:33 2007
From: evan at tiggerpalace.com (Evan David Light)
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:36:33 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Coding for change
In-Reply-To: <c67184de0708141128h2c449aax3d04af65f5dae905@mail.gmail.com>
References: <9bb72e130708131910k2180b45bu5766abdd4ab7e3c2@mail.gmail.com>
	<c67184de0708141128h2c449aax3d04af65f5dae905@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <7559E61D-480A-41BE-A89A-69D508BBCECA@tiggerpalace.com>

I'll second that.

Now who are we nominating for lynching?  Oh, right, we're not playing  
Werewolf. ;-)

I'll still second it.

On Aug 14, 2007, at 2:28 PM, Chad Fowler wrote:

> On 8/13/07, Helder Ribeiro <helder at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hey, guys!
>>
>> I'm really interested in joining this group of people who want to do
>> something for the world with their talents and it's really great to
>> see ideas coming up and people willing to do stuff.
>>
>> And as much as I like the idea of Charity Driven Development (coding
>> normal stuff, getting paid and donating the money) - I might even  
>> help
>> out with that -, I'd also like to see free software projects that are
>> *themselves* going to directly benefit suffering people throughout  
>> the
>> world.
>>
>> As an example, I've heard about this big complex health management
>> software that is geared towards developing countries and is in active
>> use in Africa. That's the sort of thing I'd like to work on, or
>> something educational, etc., and something that is already in active
>> use if I can help it (it's less than ideal coming up with an idea and
>> maybe not having the means to actually get people to use it).
>>
>> Does anyone know what's the name of that medical software (can't  
>> find it!)?
>>
>> Do you know of other projects that are in use in developing countries
>> and could use some help?
>>
>> Do you have any ideas of projects that we could start ourselves and
>> that would have that kind of impact?
>>
>> Thanks for listening, hope we can actually find something we can help
>> people with :-)
>>
>
> Helder, your sentiments here exactly mirror mine.  My primary goal for
> my involvement in this group is to establish a sustainable process for
> churning out impactful projects that solve real problems, as opposed
> to focusing on fundraising.  Fundraising is also good, and I think we
> can do both, but to me the real value in having smart programmers
> involved in a cause like this is that we are smart, passionate people
> applying our creative and analytical minds to real problems.  There's
> a lot more value in that than the financial giving we can and should
> also be doing.
>
> Thanks!
> Chad
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk


From tonydevlin at gmail.com  Tue Aug 14 14:38:34 2007
From: tonydevlin at gmail.com (Tony Devlin)
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:38:34 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Ideas for charity events
In-Reply-To: <c67184de0708141107g6a07b2a4m4b3b8023c57307b6@mail.gmail.com>
References: <d878fe460708130830g670652a2x21b4c8126fdf6799@mail.gmail.com>
	<46C1098D.1010603@topstorm.org>
	<c67184de0708140657i64440ff3k2555308d94a328a6@mail.gmail.com>
	<b342562c0708140842s5e9fc293qb3037984de5c8f65@mail.gmail.com>
	<0F2DF226-1A29-4A7E-A214-B66F2FB38B5D@gweezlebur.com>
	<c67184de0708141107g6a07b2a4m4b3b8023c57307b6@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <e09432d30708141138g66eb53c3r74433de7e42c0e94@mail.gmail.com>

This is a great idea for our first application.  It's something that is
usable right from the start.

We will need someone who will volunteer managing the progress, perhaps a
basecamp for this? or some other tools we have access too for collaboration
and project outlining.

Any ideas?  When do we start?



On 8/14/07, Chad Fowler <chad at chadfowler.com> wrote:
>
> On 8/14/07, Michael D. Ivey <ivey at gweezlebur.com> wrote:
> > What about building some reusable components that would be useful for
> > multiple non-profits?  A NPO/NGO plugin/gem collection, perhaps.
>
>
> I think this is a good idea, but I'd like to start on something more
> concrete and less infrastrcturey at first.  Partially because I'd like
> to extract such components (frameworks) from real application work.
>
> That being said, one obvious application we could get started on would
> be a hosted app/place for matching volunteers with projects and/or
> their regions.  Perhaps a non-profit could come intot he site and look
> for a local developer that could help lead an open-source
> charity-based project as part of the Ruby For Change umbrella.  What
> do you all think about that as something to start hacking?
>
> Chad
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>
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From tonydevlin at gmail.com  Tue Aug 14 14:41:00 2007
From: tonydevlin at gmail.com (Tony Devlin)
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:41:00 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Coding for change
In-Reply-To: <7559E61D-480A-41BE-A89A-69D508BBCECA@tiggerpalace.com>
References: <9bb72e130708131910k2180b45bu5766abdd4ab7e3c2@mail.gmail.com>
	<c67184de0708141128h2c449aax3d04af65f5dae905@mail.gmail.com>
	<7559E61D-480A-41BE-A89A-69D508BBCECA@tiggerpalace.com>
Message-ID: <e09432d30708141141n4fa856bau4f621ddab9be21d5@mail.gmail.com>

Likewise, many many people of various abilities or lack there of participate
in fundraising (which we all should, as Chad pointed out), but the real
difference here is that we are able to give in a way that a wide majority of
people can not.

This is the reason why I want to participate in this group, we look beyond
mere financial help and work on ways of improving the lives of these
nonprofit organizations.  It's a domino effect or a pay-it-forward type
effect.

Tony Devlin

On 8/14/07, Evan David Light <evan at tiggerpalace.com> wrote:
>
> I'll second that.
>
> Now who are we nominating for lynching?  Oh, right, we're not playing
> Werewolf. ;-)
>
> I'll still second it.
>
> On Aug 14, 2007, at 2:28 PM, Chad Fowler wrote:
>
> > On 8/13/07, Helder Ribeiro <helder at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Hey, guys!
> >>
> >> I'm really interested in joining this group of people who want to do
> >> something for the world with their talents and it's really great to
> >> see ideas coming up and people willing to do stuff.
> >>
> >> And as much as I like the idea of Charity Driven Development (coding
> >> normal stuff, getting paid and donating the money) - I might even
> >> help
> >> out with that -, I'd also like to see free software projects that are
> >> *themselves* going to directly benefit suffering people throughout
> >> the
> >> world.
> >>
> >> As an example, I've heard about this big complex health management
> >> software that is geared towards developing countries and is in active
> >> use in Africa. That's the sort of thing I'd like to work on, or
> >> something educational, etc., and something that is already in active
> >> use if I can help it (it's less than ideal coming up with an idea and
> >> maybe not having the means to actually get people to use it).
> >>
> >> Does anyone know what's the name of that medical software (can't
> >> find it!)?
> >>
> >> Do you know of other projects that are in use in developing countries
> >> and could use some help?
> >>
> >> Do you have any ideas of projects that we could start ourselves and
> >> that would have that kind of impact?
> >>
> >> Thanks for listening, hope we can actually find something we can help
> >> people with :-)
> >>
> >
> > Helder, your sentiments here exactly mirror mine.  My primary goal for
> > my involvement in this group is to establish a sustainable process for
> > churning out impactful projects that solve real problems, as opposed
> > to focusing on fundraising.  Fundraising is also good, and I think we
> > can do both, but to me the real value in having smart programmers
> > involved in a cause like this is that we are smart, passionate people
> > applying our creative and analytical minds to real problems.  There's
> > a lot more value in that than the financial giving we can and should
> > also be doing.
> >
> > Thanks!
> > Chad
> > _______________________________________________
> > Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> > Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>
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From evan at tiggerpalace.com  Tue Aug 14 14:41:07 2007
From: evan at tiggerpalace.com (Evan David Light)
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:41:07 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Ideas for charity events
In-Reply-To: <e09432d30708141138g66eb53c3r74433de7e42c0e94@mail.gmail.com>
References: <d878fe460708130830g670652a2x21b4c8126fdf6799@mail.gmail.com>
	<46C1098D.1010603@topstorm.org>
	<c67184de0708140657i64440ff3k2555308d94a328a6@mail.gmail.com>
	<b342562c0708140842s5e9fc293qb3037984de5c8f65@mail.gmail.com>
	<0F2DF226-1A29-4A7E-A214-B66F2FB38B5D@gweezlebur.com>
	<c67184de0708141107g6a07b2a4m4b3b8023c57307b6@mail.gmail.com>
	<e09432d30708141138g66eb53c3r74433de7e42c0e94@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <1C2D58C5-68BE-4448-B2E2-655D42D75F88@tiggerpalace.com>

Wouldn't we start by surveying the community?  For instance, there is  
already http://www.volunteermatch.org/.

On Aug 14, 2007, at 2:38 PM, Tony Devlin wrote:

> This is a great idea for our first application.  It's something  
> that is usable right from the start.
>
> We will need someone who will volunteer managing the progress,  
> perhaps a basecamp for this? or some other tools we have access too  
> for collaboration and project outlining.
>
> Any ideas?  When do we start?
>
>
>
> On 8/14/07, Chad Fowler <chad at chadfowler.com> wrote:
> On 8/14/07, Michael D. Ivey <ivey at gweezlebur.com > wrote:
> > What about building some reusable components that would be useful  
> for
> > multiple non-profits?  A NPO/NGO plugin/gem collection, perhaps.
>
>
> I think this is a good idea, but I'd like to start on something more
> concrete and less infrastrcturey at first.  Partially because I'd like
> to extract such components (frameworks) from real application work.
>
> That being said, one obvious application we could get started on would
> be a hosted app/place for matching volunteers with projects and/or
> their regions.  Perhaps a non-profit could come intot he site and look
> for a local developer that could help lead an open-source
> charity-based project as part of the Ruby For Change umbrella.  What
> do you all think about that as something to start hacking?
>
> Chad
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk

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From vince71 at gmail.com  Tue Aug 14 14:47:18 2007
From: vince71 at gmail.com (Vince Wadhwani)
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:47:18 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Ideas for charity events
In-Reply-To: <748ff3ff0708141134l22123545j8c63316e314990a@mail.gmail.com>
References: <d878fe460708130830g670652a2x21b4c8126fdf6799@mail.gmail.com>
	<46C1098D.1010603@topstorm.org>
	<c67184de0708140657i64440ff3k2555308d94a328a6@mail.gmail.com>
	<b342562c0708140842s5e9fc293qb3037984de5c8f65@mail.gmail.com>
	<0F2DF226-1A29-4A7E-A214-B66F2FB38B5D@gweezlebur.com>
	<c67184de0708141107g6a07b2a4m4b3b8023c57307b6@mail.gmail.com>
	<748ff3ff0708141134l22123545j8c63316e314990a@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <a205f2880708141147t1d5a0687tcf817bf7a57cffff@mail.gmail.com>

On 8/14/07, Ryan Daigle <ryan.daigle at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> The biggest issue I see with any project is the management aspect.  Who is
> the domain expert in this particular situation and who will drive the
> development team, however remote they are?
>

I led the Airport team at Apple with folks from CO, CA, MA, OH, and
overseas.. but it takes a dramatic amount of time and a clear goal, so
I'd definitely want all that established before I throw my hat in the
ring..

I'm probably one of the newer programmers on this list, so for me I'd
get to contribute some "expertise" while also learning a bunch from
all you more experienced folks.

Still, to make it clear, if anyone else wants to do it, I'm more than
happy to contribute some other way!

cheers,
Vince

-- 
support independent business -- http://www.buyindie.net/

From ivey at gweezlebur.com  Tue Aug 14 15:43:38 2007
From: ivey at gweezlebur.com (Michael D. Ivey)
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:43:38 -0500
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Coding for change
In-Reply-To: <7559E61D-480A-41BE-A89A-69D508BBCECA@tiggerpalace.com>
References: <9bb72e130708131910k2180b45bu5766abdd4ab7e3c2@mail.gmail.com>
	<c67184de0708141128h2c449aax3d04af65f5dae905@mail.gmail.com>
	<7559E61D-480A-41BE-A89A-69D508BBCECA@tiggerpalace.com>
Message-ID: <C1F1C3EC-3AA7-4AD1-930A-907FE56642D2@gweezlebur.com>

On Aug 14, 2007, at 1:36 PM, Evan David Light wrote:

> Now who are we nominating for lynching?  Oh, right, we're not playing
> Werewolf. ;-)

Clearly I won't pass up a chance to play Werewolf again.  I'm kicking  
myself for skipping it at the Hoedown.


From tonydevlin at gmail.com  Tue Aug 14 16:52:44 2007
From: tonydevlin at gmail.com (Tony Devlin)
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:52:44 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Coding for change
In-Reply-To: <C1F1C3EC-3AA7-4AD1-930A-907FE56642D2@gweezlebur.com>
References: <9bb72e130708131910k2180b45bu5766abdd4ab7e3c2@mail.gmail.com>
	<c67184de0708141128h2c449aax3d04af65f5dae905@mail.gmail.com>
	<7559E61D-480A-41BE-A89A-69D508BBCECA@tiggerpalace.com>
	<C1F1C3EC-3AA7-4AD1-930A-907FE56642D2@gweezlebur.com>
Message-ID: <e09432d30708141352g7bf8aeacv21f8e8b0557f78ba@mail.gmail.com>

Hello, My name is Tony and I am NOT the werewolf.



On 8/14/07, Michael D. Ivey <ivey at gweezlebur.com> wrote:
>
> On Aug 14, 2007, at 1:36 PM, Evan David Light wrote:
>
> > Now who are we nominating for lynching?  Oh, right, we're not playing
> > Werewolf. ;-)
>
> Clearly I won't pass up a chance to play Werewolf again.  I'm kicking
> myself for skipping it at the Hoedown.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>
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From evan at tiggerpalace.com  Tue Aug 14 16:54:24 2007
From: evan at tiggerpalace.com (Evan David Light)
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 16:54:24 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Coding for change
In-Reply-To: <e09432d30708141352g7bf8aeacv21f8e8b0557f78ba@mail.gmail.com>
References: <9bb72e130708131910k2180b45bu5766abdd4ab7e3c2@mail.gmail.com>
	<c67184de0708141128h2c449aax3d04af65f5dae905@mail.gmail.com>
	<7559E61D-480A-41BE-A89A-69D508BBCECA@tiggerpalace.com>
	<C1F1C3EC-3AA7-4AD1-930A-907FE56642D2@gweezlebur.com>
	<e09432d30708141352g7bf8aeacv21f8e8b0557f78ba@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <E0FC7659-5AA1-4CB8-B36A-22A207D67B7E@tiggerpalace.com>

Hello, my name is Evan, I am going to Ruby East, and I *WANT* to be a  
werewolf.

On Aug 14, 2007, at 4:52 PM, Tony Devlin wrote:

> Hello, My name is Tony and I am NOT the werewolf.
>
>
>
> On 8/14/07, Michael D. Ivey <ivey at gweezlebur.com> wrote:
> On Aug 14, 2007, at 1:36 PM, Evan David Light wrote:
>
> > Now who are we nominating for lynching?  Oh, right, we're not  
> playing
> > Werewolf. ;-)
>
> Clearly I won't pass up a chance to play Werewolf again.  I'm kicking
> myself for skipping it at the Hoedown.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk

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From gilesb at gmail.com  Wed Aug 15 00:52:25 2007
From: gilesb at gmail.com (Giles Bowkett)
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 21:52:25 -0700
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Fundraising effort @ OSCON / blog ads
In-Reply-To: <d878fe460708142103p5f536507ue3ef8d1dea0ec104@mail.gmail.com>
References: <2d81dedb0708140944u195ec054j8926eb621b115921@mail.gmail.com>
	<d878fe460708142103p5f536507ue3ef8d1dea0ec104@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <2d81dedb0708142152j7a49d829y8a809d7697be1465@mail.gmail.com>

> > Anyway, another thing - people have been telling me I should advertize
> > on my blog, and rather than go through the effort of setting up a
> > sponsor, I think I'm just going to put up some ads for nonprofits.
[donate buttons]

On 8/14/07, Jeremy McAnally <jeremymcanally at gmail.com> wrote:
> That would be cool; I can whip something up if we don't have any real
> desingers around. :)

It's cool by me. :-)

> And sorry to thread-jack, but upon first reading I thought you meant
> something different and it raised an idea in my head:  What if, for
> one day, all the "big" Ruby blogs donated their ad earnings to
> charity?

Well, to properly thread-jack, you need to cc: the list. :-)

fwiw I think It's a cool idea but I don't know if many big Ruby blogs
make a lot. RailsConf seems a better venue for the concerted giving
thing.

-- 
Giles Bowkett

Blog: http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
Portfolio: http://www.gilesgoatboy.org



>
> --Jeremy
>
> On 8/14/07, Giles Bowkett <gilesb at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi all - I got the OSCON organizers from O'Reilly into the idea of
> > doing some fundraising there this year. It wasn't like RailsConf, but
> > they were able to get behind the idea. We raised only a bit more than
> > $500. They responded to my e-mail literally the day the conference
> > began, so there was a last-minute flavor to the whole thing; I think
> > next year they'll be better organized. If anyone wants to help me work
> > with the OSCON peeps next year, I'd definitely appreciate it. They're
> > a big organization, after all.
> >
> > Anyway, another thing - people have been telling me I should advertize
> > on my blog, and rather than go through the effort of setting up a
> > sponsor, I think I'm just going to put up some ads for nonprofits. It
> > would be pretty easy to organize that as a project of this group also.
> > I was thinking a landing page where you donate in the name of Rubyists
> > for Change, plus, for each nonprofit on the landing page, a graphic
> > for your blog's sidebar with the logo of the nonprofit, some smaller
> > simpler logo for Rubyists for Change - just a type treatment would be
> > enough - and a direct link to give to that particular nonprofit on the
> > landing page. This would make it very easy for anyone to set up any
> > number of similar donation ads on their blogs as well, and to choose
> > their favorite nonprofits.
> >
> > --
> > Giles Bowkett
> >
> > Blog: http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
> > Portfolio: http://www.gilesgoatboy.org
> > _______________________________________________
> > Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> > Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
> >
>
>
> --
> http://www.jeremymcanally.com/
>
> My free Ruby e-book:
> http://www.humblelittlerubybook.com/book/
>
> My blogs:
> http://www.mrneighborly.com/
> http://www.rubyinpractice.com/
>

From gilesb at gmail.com  Wed Aug 15 01:17:28 2007
From: gilesb at gmail.com (Giles Bowkett)
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 22:17:28 -0700
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Ideas for charity events
In-Reply-To: <c67184de0708140657i64440ff3k2555308d94a328a6@mail.gmail.com>
References: <d878fe460708130830g670652a2x21b4c8126fdf6799@mail.gmail.com>
	<46C1098D.1010603@topstorm.org>
	<c67184de0708140657i64440ff3k2555308d94a328a6@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <2d81dedb0708142217y78cf1a33w5a3575be8ac7d749@mail.gmail.com>

> I do like Jeremy's silent auction fund raising idea.  Anyone have
> experience with something like this and might be interested in coming
> up with ideas for an upcoming conference?  I want to avoid the plain
> "give money at this URL' approach we took at RailsConf just so it
> doesn't get tiresome.

What about a hacking contest, where the winner chooses a charity to
receive a donation?

-- 
Giles Bowkett

Blog: http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
Portfolio: http://www.gilesgoatboy.org

From helder at gmail.com  Wed Aug 15 01:34:35 2007
From: helder at gmail.com (Helder Ribeiro)
Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 02:34:35 -0300
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Ideas for charity events
In-Reply-To: <1C2D58C5-68BE-4448-B2E2-655D42D75F88@tiggerpalace.com>
References: <d878fe460708130830g670652a2x21b4c8126fdf6799@mail.gmail.com>
	<46C1098D.1010603@topstorm.org>
	<c67184de0708140657i64440ff3k2555308d94a328a6@mail.gmail.com>
	<b342562c0708140842s5e9fc293qb3037984de5c8f65@mail.gmail.com>
	<0F2DF226-1A29-4A7E-A214-B66F2FB38B5D@gweezlebur.com>
	<c67184de0708141107g6a07b2a4m4b3b8023c57307b6@mail.gmail.com>
	<e09432d30708141138g66eb53c3r74433de7e42c0e94@mail.gmail.com>
	<1C2D58C5-68BE-4448-B2E2-655D42D75F88@tiggerpalace.com>
Message-ID: <9bb72e130708142234t2502a8e0lf7f989f02d70cecc@mail.gmail.com>

2007/8/14, Evan David Light <evan at tiggerpalace.com>:
> Wouldn't we start by surveying the community?  For instance, there is
> already http://www.volunteermatch.org/.

Yeah, the idea is great, but it's nice to know it's applicability and
if there's an actual need for it. As I said, I'm affraid of us
developing something that's gonna be left aside and not actually have
any impact. The ideal would be to work on something that's *already*
being used and already helps people somehow.

Maybe we could talk to volunteermatch and help them out (i don't know
if they're open source or what)? Or maybe we can build something
specifically focused on getting geeks hooked up with volunteering
organizations, which would be a twist worth the apparent redundancy
(if there is actually a need for it). Or maybe we could go up to the
NGOs and ask them what is it that they need the most. Does anyone have
that kind of connection?

Actually, perhaps we could even try and find something worth working
on that is already being asked for at volunteermatch. If we start
getting the tech requests done, it might drive more NGOs to post tech
requests at volunteermatch and we'll have a strong channel through
which we can find truly relevant and asked-for stuff to do.

What do you guys think?


Cheers,

Helder

>
>
> On Aug 14, 2007, at 2:38 PM, Tony Devlin wrote:
> This is a great idea for our first application.  It's something that is
> usable right from the start.
>
> We will need someone who will volunteer managing the progress, perhaps a
> basecamp for this? or some other tools we have access too for collaboration
> and project outlining.
>
> Any ideas?  When do we start?
>
>
>
> On 8/14/07, Chad Fowler <chad at chadfowler.com> wrote:
> > On 8/14/07, Michael D. Ivey <ivey at gweezlebur.com > wrote:
> > > What about building some reusable components that would be useful for
> > > multiple non-profits?  A NPO/NGO plugin/gem collection, perhaps.
> >
> >
> > I think this is a good idea, but I'd like to start on something more
> > concrete and less infrastrcturey at first.  Partially because I'd like
> > to extract such components (frameworks) from real application work.
> >
> > That being said, one obvious application we could get started on would
> > be a hosted app/place for matching volunteers with projects and/or
> > their regions.  Perhaps a non-profit could come intot he site and look
> > for a local developer that could help lead an open-source
> > charity-based project as part of the Ruby For Change umbrella.  What
> > do you all think about that as something to start hacking?
> >
> > Chad
> > _______________________________________________
> > Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> > Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>
>


-- 
Elucubraci?nes Vertiginosas: http://helder.wordpress.com
Fotos: http://flickr.com/photos/obvio171

From jeremymcanally at gmail.com  Wed Aug 15 01:34:42 2007
From: jeremymcanally at gmail.com (Jeremy McAnally)
Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 01:34:42 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Ideas for charity events
In-Reply-To: <2d81dedb0708142217y78cf1a33w5a3575be8ac7d749@mail.gmail.com>
References: <d878fe460708130830g670652a2x21b4c8126fdf6799@mail.gmail.com>
	<46C1098D.1010603@topstorm.org>
	<c67184de0708140657i64440ff3k2555308d94a328a6@mail.gmail.com>
	<2d81dedb0708142217y78cf1a33w5a3575be8ac7d749@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <d878fe460708142234j2c5c52b0lb5416220569fb395@mail.gmail.com>

We did something like that at the Ruby Hoedown (called the Ruby
Showdown), except the people won the prizes themselves.  We had quick
hack-themed games (30 second code golf, fill in the blank code, and so
on...better ones could be created I'm sure) and eliminated people
based on performance.

It would be cool to take that model, blow it up, and either do an all
charity deal or a prize match (i.e., people and charities win).

--Jeremy

(Sorry you get this twice Giles...)

On 8/15/07, Giles Bowkett <gilesb at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I do like Jeremy's silent auction fund raising idea.  Anyone have
> > experience with something like this and might be interested in coming
> > up with ideas for an upcoming conference?  I want to avoid the plain
> > "give money at this URL' approach we took at RailsConf just so it
> > doesn't get tiresome.
>
> What about a hacking contest, where the winner chooses a charity to
> receive a donation?
>
> --
> Giles Bowkett
>
> Blog: http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
> Portfolio: http://www.gilesgoatboy.org
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>


-- 
http://www.jeremymcanally.com/

My free Ruby e-book:
http://www.humblelittlerubybook.com/book/

My blogs:
http://www.mrneighborly.com/
http://www.rubyinpractice.com/

From chad at chadfowler.com  Tue Aug 14 20:33:55 2007
From: chad at chadfowler.com (Chad Fowler)
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 20:33:55 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Let's Find a Project
Message-ID: <95243884-BA52-4F28-B275-4A7ADC2B6E86@chadfowler.com>

Hello Friends!

Now that we're a few days old here on the mailing list, I believe our  
first order of non-logistical business is to find a first project.  I  
don't know what the project is, nor do I have any great suggestions,  
but I'm hoping someone on the list will have some ideas or some  
friends who have ideas or some friends of friends....and so on.

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)
* A person from that non-profit who can serve as the authoritative  
customer for what the application should do
* A commitment of consistent involvement from that customer to help  
drive feature requirements and provide feedback
* 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.
* Hopefully a designer or two to help us make a decent UI.  Nobody  
wants to use a UI that, for example, I made.  Yuck.

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.

If we're in agreement, then the obvious first step is to start  
scouring for non-profits in need.  Ask your friends to ask your  
friends for ideas.  DEFINITELY post on your weblog about it.  Let's  
get the word out that help is out there for the right project that  
needs it.

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.

Thanks!
Chad

From chad at chadfowler.com  Wed Aug 15 10:50:47 2007
From: chad at chadfowler.com (Chad Fowler)
Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 10:50:47 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Fundraising effort @ OSCON / blog ads
In-Reply-To: <2d81dedb0708142152j7a49d829y8a809d7697be1465@mail.gmail.com>
References: <2d81dedb0708140944u195ec054j8926eb621b115921@mail.gmail.com>
	<d878fe460708142103p5f536507ue3ef8d1dea0ec104@mail.gmail.com>
	<2d81dedb0708142152j7a49d829y8a809d7697be1465@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <c67184de0708150750y5b1118ednec6bfaf6447fce6f@mail.gmail.com>

On 8/15/07, Giles Bowkett <gilesb at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Anyway, another thing - people have been telling me I should advertize
> > > on my blog, and rather than go through the effort of setting up a
> > > sponsor, I think I'm just going to put up some ads for nonprofits.
> [donate buttons]
>
> On 8/14/07, Jeremy McAnally <jeremymcanally at gmail.com> wrote:
> > That would be cool; I can whip something up if we don't have any real
> > desingers around. :)
>

Bruce Williams started working on some logo ideas.  Bruce do you want to share?

From jim at jimvanfleet.com  Thu Aug 16 01:50:11 2007
From: jim at jimvanfleet.com (Jim Van Fleet)
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 01:50:11 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Let's Find a Project
In-Reply-To: <95243884-BA52-4F28-B275-4A7ADC2B6E86@chadfowler.com>
References: <95243884-BA52-4F28-B275-4A7ADC2B6E86@chadfowler.com>
Message-ID: <c537ee140708152250reb72626xc33261297d985f75@mail.gmail.com>

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

From helder at gmail.com  Thu Aug 16 02:31:47 2007
From: helder at gmail.com (Helder Ribeiro)
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 03:31:47 -0300
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Let's Find a Project
In-Reply-To: <95243884-BA52-4F28-B275-4A7ADC2B6E86@chadfowler.com>
References: <95243884-BA52-4F28-B275-4A7ADC2B6E86@chadfowler.com>
Message-ID: <9bb72e130708152331i7a194d84y930d781421eb981f@mail.gmail.com>

Just a small question: are we talking about free software here?

I mean, that sounds like an obvious "yes" to me, but I don't know
people's backgrounds on this list or how strongly they feel one way or
the other.

2007/8/14, Chad Fowler <chad at chadfowler.com>:
> Hello Friends!
>
> Now that we're a few days old here on the mailing list, I believe our
> first order of non-logistical business is to find a first project.  I
> don't know what the project is, nor do I have any great suggestions,
> but I'm hoping someone on the list will have some ideas or some
> friends who have ideas or some friends of friends....and so on.
>
> 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)
> * A person from that non-profit who can serve as the authoritative
> customer for what the application should do
> * A commitment of consistent involvement from that customer to help
> drive feature requirements and provide feedback
> * 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.
> * Hopefully a designer or two to help us make a decent UI.  Nobody
> wants to use a UI that, for example, I made.  Yuck.
>
> 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.
>
> If we're in agreement, then the obvious first step is to start
> scouring for non-profits in need.  Ask your friends to ask your
> friends for ideas.  DEFINITELY post on your weblog about it.  Let's
> get the word out that help is out there for the right project that
> needs it.
>
> 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.
>
> Thanks!
> Chad
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>

From chad at chadfowler.com  Thu Aug 16 11:38:36 2007
From: chad at chadfowler.com (Chad Fowler)
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 09:38:36 -0600
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Let's Find a Project
In-Reply-To: <9bb72e130708152331i7a194d84y930d781421eb981f@mail.gmail.com>
References: <95243884-BA52-4F28-B275-4A7ADC2B6E86@chadfowler.com>
	<9bb72e130708152331i7a194d84y930d781421eb981f@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <c67184de0708160838m57d207eej123c74c9ec19ea16@mail.gmail.com>

On 8/16/07, Helder Ribeiro <helder at gmail.com> wrote:
> Just a small question: are we talking about free software here?
>
> I mean, that sounds like an obvious "yes" to me, but I don't know
> people's backgrounds on this list or how strongly they feel one way or
> the other.
>

My vote would be for software to be licensed under an extremely
permissive Open Source license.

Chad

From evan at tiggerpalace.com  Thu Aug 16 11:42:14 2007
From: evan at tiggerpalace.com (Evan David Light)
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:42:14 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Let's Find a Project
In-Reply-To: <c67184de0708160838m57d207eej123c74c9ec19ea16@mail.gmail.com>
References: <95243884-BA52-4F28-B275-4A7ADC2B6E86@chadfowler.com>
	<9bb72e130708152331i7a194d84y930d781421eb981f@mail.gmail.com>
	<c67184de0708160838m57d207eej123c74c9ec19ea16@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <91FD8216-B7DE-429F-A941-F8DB596D7112@tiggerpalace.com>

That would be my going in position as well.  This allows us to  
potentially benefit other organizations long term other than the one  
that we target for assistance.

On Aug 16, 2007, at 11:38 AM, Chad Fowler wrote:

> On 8/16/07, Helder Ribeiro <helder at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Just a small question: are we talking about free software here?
>>
>> I mean, that sounds like an obvious "yes" to me, but I don't know
>> people's backgrounds on this list or how strongly they feel one  
>> way or
>> the other.
>>
>
> My vote would be for software to be licensed under an extremely
> permissive Open Source license.
>
> Chad
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk


From tonydevlin at gmail.com  Thu Aug 16 14:14:17 2007
From: tonydevlin at gmail.com (Tony Devlin)
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:14:17 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Let's Find a Project
In-Reply-To: <91FD8216-B7DE-429F-A941-F8DB596D7112@tiggerpalace.com>
References: <95243884-BA52-4F28-B275-4A7ADC2B6E86@chadfowler.com>
	<9bb72e130708152331i7a194d84y930d781421eb981f@mail.gmail.com>
	<c67184de0708160838m57d207eej123c74c9ec19ea16@mail.gmail.com>
	<91FD8216-B7DE-429F-A941-F8DB596D7112@tiggerpalace.com>
Message-ID: <e09432d30708161114t791385bah6a835029ad19d514@mail.gmail.com>

I agree with Chad and Evan, an extremely permissive Open Source license
would be my deal clincher.

With that being said, I am not sure what Open Source license out there would
be better suited for us.



On 8/16/07, Evan David Light <evan at tiggerpalace.com> wrote:
>
> That would be my going in position as well.  This allows us to
> potentially benefit other organizations long term other than the one
> that we target for assistance.
>
> On Aug 16, 2007, at 11:38 AM, Chad Fowler wrote:
>
> > On 8/16/07, Helder Ribeiro <helder at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Just a small question: are we talking about free software here?
> >>
> >> I mean, that sounds like an obvious "yes" to me, but I don't know
> >> people's backgrounds on this list or how strongly they feel one
> >> way or
> >> the other.
> >>
> >
> > My vote would be for software to be licensed under an extremely
> > permissive Open Source license.
> >
> > Chad
> > _______________________________________________
> > Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> > Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>
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From helder at gmail.com  Thu Aug 16 14:33:52 2007
From: helder at gmail.com (Helder Ribeiro)
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:33:52 -0300
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Let's Find a Project
In-Reply-To: <e09432d30708161114t791385bah6a835029ad19d514@mail.gmail.com>
References: <95243884-BA52-4F28-B275-4A7ADC2B6E86@chadfowler.com>
	<9bb72e130708152331i7a194d84y930d781421eb981f@mail.gmail.com>
	<c67184de0708160838m57d207eej123c74c9ec19ea16@mail.gmail.com>
	<91FD8216-B7DE-429F-A941-F8DB596D7112@tiggerpalace.com>
	<e09432d30708161114t791385bah6a835029ad19d514@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <9bb72e130708161133t7ca2a6ceq6700fb2882e23759@mail.gmail.com>

2007/8/16, Tony Devlin <tonydevlin at gmail.com>:
> I agree with Chad and Evan, an extremely permissive Open Source license
> would be my deal clincher.
>
> With that being said, I am not sure what Open Source license out there would
> be better suited for us.

Well, since we seem to be going for the more permissive license
spectrum and we are part of the Ruby community, which seems to have
adopted the MIT License as a sort of standard, I guess we could also
use that one, both for permissiveness and compatibility.

>
>
>
>
>
> On 8/16/07, Evan David Light <evan at tiggerpalace.com> wrote:
> > That would be my going in position as well.  This allows us to
> > potentially benefit other organizations long term other than the one
> > that we target for assistance.
> >
> > On Aug 16, 2007, at 11:38 AM, Chad Fowler wrote:
> >
> > > On 8/16/07, Helder Ribeiro <helder at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >> Just a small question: are we talking about free software here?
> > >>
> > >> I mean, that sounds like an obvious "yes" to me, but I don't know
> > >> people's backgrounds on this list or how strongly they feel one
> > >> way or
> > >> the other.
> > >>
> > >
> > > My vote would be for software to be licensed under an extremely
> > > permissive Open Source license.
> > >
> > > Chad
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> > > Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> > >
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> > Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
> >
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>
>


-- 
http://obvio171.wordpress.com

From tonydevlin at gmail.com  Thu Aug 16 14:48:25 2007
From: tonydevlin at gmail.com (Tony Devlin)
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:48:25 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Let's Find a Project
In-Reply-To: <9bb72e130708161133t7ca2a6ceq6700fb2882e23759@mail.gmail.com>
References: <95243884-BA52-4F28-B275-4A7ADC2B6E86@chadfowler.com>
	<9bb72e130708152331i7a194d84y930d781421eb981f@mail.gmail.com>
	<c67184de0708160838m57d207eej123c74c9ec19ea16@mail.gmail.com>
	<91FD8216-B7DE-429F-A941-F8DB596D7112@tiggerpalace.com>
	<e09432d30708161114t791385bah6a835029ad19d514@mail.gmail.com>
	<9bb72e130708161133t7ca2a6ceq6700fb2882e23759@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <e09432d30708161148k1b144849l7d579f9180f398f7@mail.gmail.com>

That's what Chad said as well, he set it to only me (by accident, I'm sure).



On 8/16/07, Helder Ribeiro <helder at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 2007/8/16, Tony Devlin <tonydevlin at gmail.com>:
> > I agree with Chad and Evan, an extremely permissive Open Source license
> > would be my deal clincher.
> >
> > With that being said, I am not sure what Open Source license out there
> would
> > be better suited for us.
>
> Well, since we seem to be going for the more permissive license
> spectrum and we are part of the Ruby community, which seems to have
> adopted the MIT License as a sort of standard, I guess we could also
> use that one, both for permissiveness and compatibility.
>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On 8/16/07, Evan David Light <evan at tiggerpalace.com> wrote:
> > > That would be my going in position as well.  This allows us to
> > > potentially benefit other organizations long term other than the one
> > > that we target for assistance.
> > >
> > > On Aug 16, 2007, at 11:38 AM, Chad Fowler wrote:
> > >
> > > > On 8/16/07, Helder Ribeiro <helder at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > >> Just a small question: are we talking about free software here?
> > > >>
> > > >> I mean, that sounds like an obvious "yes" to me, but I don't know
> > > >> people's backgrounds on this list or how strongly they feel one
> > > >> way or
> > > >> the other.
> > > >>
> > > >
> > > > My vote would be for software to be licensed under an extremely
> > > > permissive Open Source license.
> > > >
> > > > Chad
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> > > > Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> > > >
> > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> > > Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> > > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
> > >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> > Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> http://obvio171.wordpress.com
>
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From dw.mackie at gmail.com  Thu Aug 16 18:44:10 2007
From: dw.mackie at gmail.com (Dave Mackie)
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:44:10 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Hi...
Message-ID: <f4f9a3040708161544k66adc22dy47a052c032395fe4@mail.gmail.com>

Hi all.
I just subscribed to the list after seeing a mention on Chad Fowler's blog
in the write up on the Ruby Hoedown, and wanted to introduce myself.
My name's Dave Mackie, I'm in Cary, NC, and while I'm a newcomer to Ruby
(just in the last couple of months), I've been working in the industry for
the past 10 years.
I'm excited for the opportunity to do something positive for "the community"
while at the same time developing my Ruby skills, and I look forward to
helping out in any way I can.

Dave
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From evan at tiggerpalace.com  Thu Aug 16 19:46:53 2007
From: evan at tiggerpalace.com (Evan David Light)
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:46:53 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Hi...
In-Reply-To: <f4f9a3040708161544k66adc22dy47a052c032395fe4@mail.gmail.com>
References: <f4f9a3040708161544k66adc22dy47a052c032395fe4@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <8EB36F54-CADA-4652-8ADA-C2985FBE31D6@tiggerpalace.com>

Welcome aboard, Dave!

At the moment, we're still proposing charities that we could build  
web applications for.  Chad made a good post  while back that,  
frankly, should probably be added to the home page for the RubyForge  
project.  I'll repost it below.  About the only thing that we seem to  
have reached consensus on thus far is that we should probably MIT  
license whatever we write.

Repost follows below:
----
Hello Friends!

Now that we're a few days old here on the mailing list, I believe our
first order of non-logistical business is to find a first project.  I
don't know what the project is, nor do I have any great suggestions,
but I'm hoping someone on the list will have some ideas or some
friends who have ideas or some friends of friends....and so on.

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)
* A person from that non-profit who can serve as the authoritative
customer for what the application should do
* A commitment of consistent involvement from that customer to help
drive feature requirements and provide feedback
* 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.
* Hopefully a designer or two to help us make a decent UI.  Nobody
wants to use a UI that, for example, I made.  Yuck.

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.

If we're in agreement, then the obvious first step is to start
scouring for non-profits in need.  Ask your friends to ask your
friends for ideas.  DEFINITELY post on your weblog about it.  Let's
get the word out that help is out there for the right project that
needs it.

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.

Thanks!
Chad

----

On Aug 16, 2007, at 6:44 PM, Dave Mackie wrote:

> Hi all.
> I just subscribed to the list after seeing a mention on Chad  
> Fowler's blog in the write up on the Ruby Hoedown, and wanted to  
> introduce myself.
> My name's Dave Mackie, I'm in Cary, NC, and while I'm a newcomer to  
> Ruby (just in the last couple of months), I've been working in the  
> industry for the past 10 years.
> I'm excited for the opportunity to do something positive for "the  
> community" while at the same time developing my Ruby skills, and I  
> look forward to helping out in any way I can.
>
> Dave
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk


From madcowley at gmail.com  Fri Aug 17 13:16:15 2007
From: madcowley at gmail.com (Matthew Cowley)
Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 13:16:15 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] introduction
Message-ID: <46C5D7DF.4010909@gmail.com>

Hi folks,

I missed the ruby hoedown, but just found out about this group.  Most of 
my work these days is for non-profits, so I'm very interested in what we 
could do.

I sent a note about a project idea to Chad; he pointed me here, so here 
it is in group form:

Here's one idea for a group project:  a kind of centralized volunteer
> sign-up site.  The community radio station I work for (like many
> nonprofits) runs mostly on volunteer power, and at the moment scheduling
> is pretty much phone calls and paper sheets.  There are a couple of
> online apps out there, but none of them are really great, and some are
> expensive.   They're also specific to the organization; if you're
> signing up to help with one group, you wouldn't know about needs that
> another group has.
>
> What I'm thinking is a site where lots of non-profits could register,
> with some description and location info etc, and post calls for
> volunteers.  Potential volunteers could scan the listings by location
> and date, and filter by either area of interest or even specific groups
> (so if you're only interested in working with group X theirs are the
> only listings you see), and sign up to help -- which would notify the
> coordinator at the nonprofit.
>
> Kind of sketchy and rambling I know, but if it sounds interesting I
> could flesh out the ideas a bit.

thanks,
matt

From helder at gmail.com  Fri Aug 17 19:56:18 2007
From: helder at gmail.com (Helder Ribeiro)
Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 20:56:18 -0300
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Coding for change
In-Reply-To: <86ec40c10708171140m35ab561bp42e732cce756be1@mail.gmail.com>
References: <86ec40c10708171140m35ab561bp42e732cce756be1@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <9bb72e130708171656k122f0ea4q51ca0096dc23ac79@mail.gmail.com>

2007/8/17, evan <evan at protest.net>:
> > As an example, I've heard about this big complex health management
> > software that is geared towards developing countries and is in active
> > use in Africa. That's the sort of thing I'd like to work on, or
> > something educational, etc., and something that is already in active
> > use if I can help it (it's less than ideal coming up with an idea and
> > maybe not having the means to actually get people to use it).
>
> I know of one project which is doing a rails app for use on touch
> screen computers in AIDS clinics in Africa. The project is lead from
> Malawi, but there are contributors from outside africa who contribute
> a lot.
>
> http://www.baobabhealth.org/

Wow, this sounds awesome! I took a quick look at their website and it
all seemed very interesting, but I could find no information
concerning the specifics of the software they make, the license they
use and their policy regarding outside contributors. Maybe I just
didn't look hard enough. Do you know anything about this? I've sent
them an email asking, anyway.

>
> They're great folks,
> rabble
>


-- 
http://obvio171.wordpress.com

From rubyforchange at turrean.com  Fri Aug 17 20:00:31 2007
From: rubyforchange at turrean.com (Ben Scofield)
Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 20:00:31 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Potential source for projects
Message-ID: <b545ec4e0708171700r7ee94552kbc2a1e2cedd7295c@mail.gmail.com>

Hi all,

One of our PMs at Viget is heavily involved in the non-profit community, so
I asked her what she might suggest. Here's what she replied:


-----
Check out this list of projects that were submitted for Netsquared grants a
couple of months ago:

http://www.netsquared.org/projects/n2y2-featured
-projects<http://www.netsquared.org/projects/n2y2-featured-projects>

Essentially, a bunch of non-profs wrote up proposals and people voted on
which ones deserved funding. The top 3 projects got decent grants
($10-25,000), but the others got around $3,000 each. There's a section where
they describe what help they still need. The full list of proposals is here:

http://www.netsquared.org/projects/proposals

As far as the projects go, I know Ivan Boothe at the Genocide Intervention
Network would be a great person to work with (
http://www.netsquared.org/projects/proposals/anti
-genocide-community-building
-political-will-end-genocide<http://www.netsquared.org/projects/proposals/anti-genocide-community-building-political-will-end-genocide>).
Mickey Panayiotakis, who works with Grassroots.org , would be a good contact
for this one:  http://www.netsquared.org/projects/proposals/grassroots
-org-toolbox<http://www.netsquared.org/projects/proposals/grassroots-org-toolbox>
 .

If you don't see anything there, I can ask my listserv to pitch projects.

-----

She's actually coming down here (to Durham) this weekend, and we're planning
on talking about this in greater depth, so if anyone has anything they'd
like me to bring up with her feel free to drop me an email.


Ben
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From helder at gmail.com  Fri Aug 17 20:50:31 2007
From: helder at gmail.com (Helder Ribeiro)
Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 21:50:31 -0300
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Coding for change
In-Reply-To: <86ec40c10708171711n40bbbb5dpfbb88b73ab28fa5@mail.gmail.com>
References: <86ec40c10708171140m35ab561bp42e732cce756be1@mail.gmail.com>
	<9bb72e130708171656k122f0ea4q51ca0096dc23ac79@mail.gmail.com>
	<86ec40c10708171711n40bbbb5dpfbb88b73ab28fa5@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <9bb72e130708171750u1b1636e1y1a671c4a4c713b78@mail.gmail.com>

2007/8/17, evan <evan at protest.net>:
> I met a couple of their developers two years ago at a conference on
> open source in africa, (http://www.tacticaltech.org/africasource2) and
> have been following them since. At the time i told them they should
> rewrite their windows / VB system with rails, which they did and got
> really in to it on their own.
>
> I managed to get of their developers come out to San Francisco for a
> couple conferences in Feb and we hung out.
>
> I don't know what their license is for the software. If you want to
> get involved send them an email, or you could pop over to
> irc.freenode.net, they use the #baobab channel to coordinate things.

Wow, googled for OpenMRS after seeing it in the channel's topic and
got really impressed: they have a website geared towards developers
(and a clear "contribute" section with a big TODO list). It's the
first time I see that in a "social-outreach-software" (SOS?)
initiative. And the website's pretty :)

The topic says "OpenMRS and Ruby on Rails", which made it all the more
interesting. OpenMRS seems to be a sort of Java webapp though, so I
don't know what exactly they mean by that.

I don't know about you guys, but for me this sounds like the perfect
starting point:

- it has good developer information (well, at least OpenMRS);
- it relates to ruby/rails;
- it has a clear contribution channel;
- it is actually being used in production in Africa (which appeases my
big fear of putting a lot of effort into something no one will find
out about or use and will actually have zero social impact);
- it's not too well polished (there's a lot we can do).
- we skip the overhead of building something from scratch, making
requirements lists, etc., etc.

Of course this is just the first impression I got from a quick glance,
maybe I'm just hyped up, but what do you guys think? Worth at least
looking deeper into it?

Cheers,

Helder

>
> -rabble
>
> On 8/17/07, Helder Ribeiro <helder at gmail.com> wrote:
> > 2007/8/17, evan <evan at protest.net>:
> > > > As an example, I've heard about this big complex health management
> > > > software that is geared towards developing countries and is in active
> > > > use in Africa. That's the sort of thing I'd like to work on, or
> > > > something educational, etc., and something that is already in active
> > > > use if I can help it (it's less than ideal coming up with an idea and
> > > > maybe not having the means to actually get people to use it).
> > >
> > > I know of one project which is doing a rails app for use on touch
> > > screen computers in AIDS clinics in Africa. The project is lead from
> > > Malawi, but there are contributors from outside africa who contribute
> > > a lot.
> > >
> > > http://www.baobabhealth.org/
> >
> > Wow, this sounds awesome! I took a quick look at their website and it
> > all seemed very interesting, but I could find no information
> > concerning the specifics of the software they make, the license they
> > use and their policy regarding outside contributors. Maybe I just
> > didn't look hard enough. Do you know anything about this? I've sent
> > them an email asking, anyway.
> >
> > >
> > > They're great folks,
> > > rabble
> > >
> >
> >
> > --
> > http://obvio171.wordpress.com
> >
>


-- 
http://obvio171.wordpress.com

From evan at tiggerpalace.com  Sat Aug 18 09:41:53 2007
From: evan at tiggerpalace.com (Evan David Light)
Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2007 09:41:53 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Coding for change
In-Reply-To: <9bb72e130708171750u1b1636e1y1a671c4a4c713b78@mail.gmail.com>
References: <86ec40c10708171140m35ab561bp42e732cce756be1@mail.gmail.com>
	<9bb72e130708171656k122f0ea4q51ca0096dc23ac79@mail.gmail.com>
	<86ec40c10708171711n40bbbb5dpfbb88b73ab28fa5@mail.gmail.com>
	<9bb72e130708171750u1b1636e1y1a671c4a4c713b78@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <5FE8FE9C-EDE8-4D0D-B171-5338A9674121@tiggerpalace.com>

I'm not sure that I scraped the surface much further but this project  
appears to have a bit of everything.  Looking at their Summe of Code  
page, they even had some data warehousing work proposed.   
ActiveWarehouse anyone?

Recommend further exploration.

I wonder that if we rallied enough troops behind this whether we could  
take the medical community at large by storm.  That would be a hell of  
a thing.

Evan Light
M: (703)615-0710
http://evan.tiggerpalace.com

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 17, 2007, at 8:50 PM, "Helder Ribeiro" <helder at gmail.com> wrote:

> 2007/8/17, evan <evan at protest.net>:
>> I met a couple of their developers two years ago at a conference on
>> open source in africa, (http://www.tacticaltech.org/africasource2)  
>> and
>> have been following them since. At the time i told them they should
>> rewrite their windows / VB system with rails, which they did and got
>> really in to it on their own.
>>
>> I managed to get of their developers come out to San Francisco for a
>> couple conferences in Feb and we hung out.
>>
>> I don't know what their license is for the software. If you want to
>> get involved send them an email, or you could pop over to
>> irc.freenode.net, they use the #baobab channel to coordinate things.
>
> Wow, googled for OpenMRS after seeing it in the channel's topic and
> got really impressed: they have a website geared towards developers
> (and a clear "contribute" section with a big TODO list). It's the
> first time I see that in a "social-outreach-software" (SOS?)
> initiative. And the website's pretty :)
>
> The topic says "OpenMRS and Ruby on Rails", which made it all the more
> interesting. OpenMRS seems to be a sort of Java webapp though, so I
> don't know what exactly they mean by that.
>
> I don't know about you guys, but for me this sounds like the perfect
> starting point:
>
> - it has good developer information (well, at least OpenMRS);
> - it relates to ruby/rails;
> - it has a clear contribution channel;
> - it is actually being used in production in Africa (which appeases my
> big fear of putting a lot of effort into something no one will find
> out about or use and will actually have zero social impact);
> - it's not too well polished (there's a lot we can do).
> - we skip the overhead of building something from scratch, making
> requirements lists, etc., etc.
>
> Of course this is just the first impression I got from a quick glance,
> maybe I'm just hyped up, but what do you guys think? Worth at least
> looking deeper into it?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Helder
>
>>
>> -rabble
>>
>> On 8/17/07, Helder Ribeiro <helder at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 2007/8/17, evan <evan at protest.net>:
>>>>> As an example, I've heard about this big complex health management
>>>>> software that is geared towards developing countries and is in  
>>>>> active
>>>>> use in Africa. That's the sort of thing I'd like to work on, or
>>>>> something educational, etc., and something that is already in  
>>>>> active
>>>>> use if I can help it (it's less than ideal coming up with an  
>>>>> idea and
>>>>> maybe not having the means to actually get people to use it).
>>>>
>>>> I know of one project which is doing a rails app for use on touch
>>>> screen computers in AIDS clinics in Africa. The project is lead  
>>>> from
>>>> Malawi, but there are contributors from outside africa who  
>>>> contribute
>>>> a lot.
>>>>
>>>> http://www.baobabhealth.org/
>>>
>>> Wow, this sounds awesome! I took a quick look at their website and  
>>> it
>>> all seemed very interesting, but I could find no information
>>> concerning the specifics of the software they make, the license they
>>> use and their policy regarding outside contributors. Maybe I just
>>> didn't look hard enough. Do you know anything about this? I've sent
>>> them an email asking, anyway.
>>>
>>>>
>>>> They're great folks,
>>>> rabble
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> http://obvio171.wordpress.com
>>>
>>
>
>
> -- 
> http://obvio171.wordpress.com
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk

From helder at gmail.com  Sat Aug 18 19:38:58 2007
From: helder at gmail.com (Helder Ribeiro)
Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2007 20:38:58 -0300
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Fwd: Baobab software development
In-Reply-To: <46C6B155.1070005@baobabhealth.org>
References: <9bb72e130708171330w5c1b5117h5d1d6ef99f0e307c@mail.gmail.com>
	<46C6B155.1070005@baobabhealth.org>
Message-ID: <9bb72e130708181638i3896511aua00b3b4910f1e2a7@mail.gmail.com>

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Gerry Douglas <gdouglas at baobabhealth.org>
Date: 18.08.2007 05:44
Subject: Re: Baobab software development
To: Helder Ribeiro <helder at gmail.com>


Hi Helder,

Yes, our software is free and open source.  We do accept volunteers
provided they can work somewhat independently once we have given them an
orientation, and that they can stay for long enough to make a
contribution (usually 6 weeks is a minimum, but the longer the better!).

Where are you currently living?  Do you have any experience in working
With Ruby on Rails?  It wold be helpful if you could send some details
of your previous education and work experience.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Regards,
Gerry Douglas.

Helder Ribeiro wrote:
> Hi! I'd like to know if the software you develop is Free Software and
> if you accept volunteers from other places. Thanks a lot!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Helder
>
>



-- 
http://obvio171.wordpress.com

From helder at gmail.com  Sat Aug 18 19:37:44 2007
From: helder at gmail.com (Helder Ribeiro)
Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2007 20:37:44 -0300
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Coding for change
In-Reply-To: <5FE8FE9C-EDE8-4D0D-B171-5338A9674121@tiggerpalace.com>
References: <86ec40c10708171140m35ab561bp42e732cce756be1@mail.gmail.com>
	<9bb72e130708171656k122f0ea4q51ca0096dc23ac79@mail.gmail.com>
	<86ec40c10708171711n40bbbb5dpfbb88b73ab28fa5@mail.gmail.com>
	<9bb72e130708171750u1b1636e1y1a671c4a4c713b78@mail.gmail.com>
	<5FE8FE9C-EDE8-4D0D-B171-5338A9674121@tiggerpalace.com>
Message-ID: <9bb72e130708181637y1ce67301p13e40c617246fcf5@mail.gmail.com>

2007/8/18, Evan David Light <evan at tiggerpalace.com>:
> I'm not sure that I scraped the surface much further but this project
> appears to have a bit of everything.  Looking at their Summe of Code
> page, they even had some data warehousing work proposed.

Yeah, they are actually a lot bigger than what I thought at first. The
fact that they even got accepted as a mentoring organization is very
nice, and they got over 130 applications!

> ActiveWarehouse anyone?

Well, OpenRMS itself is a Java application, so I don't know if we can
go in that direction. But Baobab has lots ot Rails stuff that would be
interesting to play around with.

In fact, Baobab is like the poor cousin of the two, so they don't have
a big pretty website with clear contribution channels and stuff, but
they already have a big impact and opening up their development
process seems to be an important priority (they are going to speak at
(Rails|Ruby) Conf Europe, in September, so having the "come and
contribute!" parafernalia ready by then is going to make a big
difference).

Until then, though, they have the IRC channel (#baobab) and I talked
to one guy there who was really responsive and told me a lot about the
project. I emailed this other guy who told me they're open for
contributions and seems really interested. I'll forward it in a sec.

>
> Recommend further exploration.
>
> I wonder that if we rallied enough troops behind this whether we could
> take the medical community at large by storm.  That would be a hell of
> a thing.

That would be amazing! It would be spectacular seeing the Ruby world
mass-embrace this and really commit to making a big difference. And
since we're a pretty vocal community, it'd likely draw even more
people into it :-) Oh, the excitement! :-)

>
> Evan Light
> M: (703)615-0710
> http://evan.tiggerpalace.com
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Aug 17, 2007, at 8:50 PM, "Helder Ribeiro" <helder at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > 2007/8/17, evan <evan at protest.net>:
> >> I met a couple of their developers two years ago at a conference on
> >> open source in africa, (http://www.tacticaltech.org/africasource2)
> >> and
> >> have been following them since. At the time i told them they should
> >> rewrite their windows / VB system with rails, which they did and got
> >> really in to it on their own.
> >>
> >> I managed to get of their developers come out to San Francisco for a
> >> couple conferences in Feb and we hung out.
> >>
> >> I don't know what their license is for the software. If you want to
> >> get involved send them an email, or you could pop over to
> >> irc.freenode.net, they use the #baobab channel to coordinate things.
> >
> > Wow, googled for OpenMRS after seeing it in the channel's topic and
> > got really impressed: they have a website geared towards developers
> > (and a clear "contribute" section with a big TODO list). It's the
> > first time I see that in a "social-outreach-software" (SOS?)
> > initiative. And the website's pretty :)
> >
> > The topic says "OpenMRS and Ruby on Rails", which made it all the more
> > interesting. OpenMRS seems to be a sort of Java webapp though, so I
> > don't know what exactly they mean by that.
> >
> > I don't know about you guys, but for me this sounds like the perfect
> > starting point:
> >
> > - it has good developer information (well, at least OpenMRS);
> > - it relates to ruby/rails;
> > - it has a clear contribution channel;
> > - it is actually being used in production in Africa (which appeases my
> > big fear of putting a lot of effort into something no one will find
> > out about or use and will actually have zero social impact);
> > - it's not too well polished (there's a lot we can do).
> > - we skip the overhead of building something from scratch, making
> > requirements lists, etc., etc.
> >
> > Of course this is just the first impression I got from a quick glance,
> > maybe I'm just hyped up, but what do you guys think? Worth at least
> > looking deeper into it?
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Helder
> >
> >>
> >> -rabble
> >>
> >> On 8/17/07, Helder Ribeiro <helder at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> 2007/8/17, evan <evan at protest.net>:
> >>>>> As an example, I've heard about this big complex health management
> >>>>> software that is geared towards developing countries and is in
> >>>>> active
> >>>>> use in Africa. That's the sort of thing I'd like to work on, or
> >>>>> something educational, etc., and something that is already in
> >>>>> active
> >>>>> use if I can help it (it's less than ideal coming up with an
> >>>>> idea and
> >>>>> maybe not having the means to actually get people to use it).
> >>>>
> >>>> I know of one project which is doing a rails app for use on touch
> >>>> screen computers in AIDS clinics in Africa. The project is lead
> >>>> from
> >>>> Malawi, but there are contributors from outside africa who
> >>>> contribute
> >>>> a lot.
> >>>>
> >>>> http://www.baobabhealth.org/
> >>>
> >>> Wow, this sounds awesome! I took a quick look at their website and
> >>> it
> >>> all seemed very interesting, but I could find no information
> >>> concerning the specifics of the software they make, the license they
> >>> use and their policy regarding outside contributors. Maybe I just
> >>> didn't look hard enough. Do you know anything about this? I've sent
> >>> them an email asking, anyway.
> >>>
> >>>>
> >>>> They're great folks,
> >>>> rabble
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> http://obvio171.wordpress.com
> >>>
> >>
> >
> >
> > --
> > http://obvio171.wordpress.com
> > _______________________________________________
> > Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> > Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>


-- 
http://obvio171.wordpress.com

From evan at tiggerpalace.com  Sun Aug 19 23:35:11 2007
From: evan at tiggerpalace.com (Evan David Light)
Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 23:35:11 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] introduction
In-Reply-To: <46C5D7DF.4010909@gmail.com>
References: <46C5D7DF.4010909@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <EC84A3D6-813C-4B15-807C-56EA417647C7@tiggerpalace.com>

Matt (a.k.a Madcowley ;-) ), welcome!

Someone posited a similar notion.  Is it essentially the same as  
volunteermatch.org?  We don't want to reinvent the wheel, right?

On Aug 17, 2007, at 1:16 PM, Matthew Cowley wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> I missed the ruby hoedown, but just found out about this group.   
> Most of
> my work these days is for non-profits, so I'm very interested in  
> what we
> could do.
>
> I sent a note about a project idea to Chad; he pointed me here, so  
> here
> it is in group form:
>
> Here's one idea for a group project:  a kind of centralized volunteer
>> sign-up site.  The community radio station I work for (like many
>> nonprofits) runs mostly on volunteer power, and at the moment  
>> scheduling
>> is pretty much phone calls and paper sheets.  There are a couple of
>> online apps out there, but none of them are really great, and some  
>> are
>> expensive.   They're also specific to the organization; if you're
>> signing up to help with one group, you wouldn't know about needs that
>> another group has.
>>
>> What I'm thinking is a site where lots of non-profits could register,
>> with some description and location info etc, and post calls for
>> volunteers.  Potential volunteers could scan the listings by location
>> and date, and filter by either area of interest or even specific  
>> groups
>> (so if you're only interested in working with group X theirs are the
>> only listings you see), and sign up to help -- which would notify the
>> coordinator at the nonprofit.
>>
>> Kind of sketchy and rambling I know, but if it sounds interesting I
>> could flesh out the ideas a bit.
>
> thanks,
> matt
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk


From madcowley at gmail.com  Mon Aug 20 21:26:53 2007
From: madcowley at gmail.com (Matthew Cowley)
Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 21:26:53 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] introduction
In-Reply-To: <EC84A3D6-813C-4B15-807C-56EA417647C7@tiggerpalace.com>
References: <46C5D7DF.4010909@gmail.com>
	<EC84A3D6-813C-4B15-807C-56EA417647C7@tiggerpalace.com>
Message-ID: <46CA3F5D.3010508@gmail.com>

Evan David Light wrote:
> Matt (a.k.a Madcowley ;-) ), welcome!
>   
Thanks!  Hi Evan.  Good to see you here.
> Someone posited a similar notion.  Is it essentially the same as  
> volunteermatch.org?  We don't want to reinvent the wheel, right?
>   
Hmm....that's not at all what I meant.  My site would be blue, with a 
different font.

Ok, actually that's pretty much what I had in mind. 

The sites I was thinking of that aren't quite right and/or expensive are 
airset and shiftboard..they're more geared to a single group and a 
closed set of participants, with an interactive calendar.   I'll take a 
closer look at volunteermatch and see if I come up with any brilliant 
alternative ideas for it..



> On Aug 17, 2007, at 1:16 PM, Matthew Cowley wrote:
>
>   
>> Hi folks,
>>
>> I missed the ruby hoedown, but just found out about this group.   
>> Most of
>> my work these days is for non-profits, so I'm very interested in  
>> what we
>> could do.
>>
>> I sent a note about a project idea to Chad; he pointed me here, so  
>> here
>> it is in group form:
>>
>> Here's one idea for a group project:  a kind of centralized volunteer
>>     
>>> sign-up site.  The community radio station I work for (like many
>>> nonprofits) runs mostly on volunteer power, and at the moment  
>>> scheduling
>>> is pretty much phone calls and paper sheets.  There are a couple of
>>> online apps out there, but none of them are really great, and some  
>>> are
>>> expensive.   They're also specific to the organization; if you're
>>> signing up to help with one group, you wouldn't know about needs that
>>> another group has.
>>>
>>> What I'm thinking is a site where lots of non-profits could register,
>>> with some description and location info etc, and post calls for
>>> volunteers.  Potential volunteers could scan the listings by location
>>> and date, and filter by either area of interest or even specific  
>>> groups
>>> (so if you're only interested in working with group X theirs are the
>>> only listings you see), and sign up to help -- which would notify the
>>> coordinator at the nonprofit.
>>>
>>> Kind of sketchy and rambling I know, but if it sounds interesting I
>>> could flesh out the ideas a bit.
>>>       
>> thanks,
>> matt
>> _______________________________________________
>> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
>> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
>> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>>     
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>
>   


From Micah at 8thLight.com  Tue Aug 21 09:52:10 2007
From: Micah at 8thLight.com (Micah Martin)
Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 08:52:10 -0500
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Fwd: [Fwd:  Let's Find a Project]
References: <46C95051.3080901@NASA.gov>
Message-ID: <0A2F2039-41EE-459A-9FC4-49D10F1DFA97@8thLight.com>

Hello Everyone,

Last week at the Agile2007 conference, we worked on a website for a  
group called Mano-a-Mano.  Perhaps it was already mentioned on this  
group,  It's a NPO helping impoverished people in Bolivia.  The  
president of the organization has a vivid vision for a website that  
will inform and interact with users in new and innovative ways. It's  
a fun project and we only finished a small portion of it during the  
conference.  Perhaps it's a good candidate for this group.

Micah

>
> From: Chad Fowler <chad at chadfowler.com>
> Date: August 14, 2007 7:33:55 PM CDT
> To: Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Let's Find a Project
>
>
> Hello Friends!
>
> Now that we're a few days old here on the mailing list, I believe our
> first order of non-logistical business is to find a first project.  I
> don't know what the project is, nor do I have any great suggestions,
> but I'm hoping someone on the list will have some ideas or some
> friends who have ideas or some friends of friends....and so on.
>
> 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)
> * A person from that non-profit who can serve as the authoritative
> customer for what the application should do
> * A commitment of consistent involvement from that customer to help
> drive feature requirements and provide feedback
> * 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.
> * Hopefully a designer or two to help us make a decent UI.  Nobody
> wants to use a UI that, for example, I made.  Yuck.
>
> 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.
>
> If we're in agreement, then the obvious first step is to start
> scouring for non-profits in need.  Ask your friends to ask your
> friends for ideas.  DEFINITELY post on your weblog about it.  Let's
> get the word out that help is out there for the right project that
> needs it.
>
> 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.
>
> Thanks!
> Chad
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>
>
>
>

-------------- next part --------------
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From chad at chadfowler.com  Tue Aug 21 11:25:09 2007
From: chad at chadfowler.com (Chad Fowler)
Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 09:25:09 -0600
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Fwd: [Fwd: Let's Find a Project]
In-Reply-To: <0A2F2039-41EE-459A-9FC4-49D10F1DFA97@8thLight.com>
References: <46C95051.3080901@NASA.gov>
	<0A2F2039-41EE-459A-9FC4-49D10F1DFA97@8thLight.com>
Message-ID: <c67184de0708210825t213ff854h69fde9999b53981e@mail.gmail.com>

Cool, Micah.  Can you give more specifics about the kind of stuff he
wants to do with it?  Who would it interact with, for example?

Thanks,
Chad

On 8/21/07, Micah Martin <Micah at 8thlight.com> wrote:
>
> Hello Everyone,
>
> Last week at the Agile2007 conference, we worked on a website for a group
> called Mano-a-Mano.  Perhaps it was already mentioned on this group,  It's a
> NPO helping impoverished people in Bolivia.  The president of the
> organization has a vivid vision for a website that will inform and interact
> with users in new and innovative ways. It's a fun project and we only
> finished a small portion of it during the conference.  Perhaps it's a good
> candidate for this group.
>
> Micah
>
>
> From: Chad Fowler <chad at chadfowler.com>
> Date: August 14, 2007 7:33:55 PM CDT
> To: Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Let's Find a Project
>
>
> Hello Friends!
>
> Now that we're a few days old here on the mailing list, I believe our
> first order of non-logistical business is to find a first project.  I
> don't know what the project is, nor do I have any great suggestions,
> but I'm hoping someone on the list will have some ideas or some
> friends who have ideas or some friends of friends....and so on.
>
> 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)
> * A person from that non-profit who can serve as the authoritative
> customer for what the application should do
> * A commitment of consistent involvement from that customer to help
> drive feature requirements and provide feedback
> * 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.
> * Hopefully a designer or two to help us make a decent UI.  Nobody
> wants to use a UI that, for example, I made.  Yuck.
>
> 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.
>
> If we're in agreement, then the obvious first step is to start
> scouring for non-profits in need.  Ask your friends to ask your
> friends for ideas.  DEFINITELY post on your weblog about it.  Let's
> get the word out that help is out there for the right project that
> needs it.
>
> 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.
>
> Thanks!
> Chad
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>
>

From micah at 8thlight.com  Tue Aug 21 12:12:18 2007
From: micah at 8thlight.com (Micah Martin)
Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 11:12:18 -0500
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Fwd: [Fwd: Let's Find a Project]
In-Reply-To: <c67184de0708210825t213ff854h69fde9999b53981e@mail.gmail.com>
References: <46C95051.3080901@NASA.gov>
	<0A2F2039-41EE-459A-9FC4-49D10F1DFA97@8thLight.com>
	<c67184de0708210825t213ff854h69fde9999b53981e@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <C9C6FE46-C16C-4641-8383-E9D764B00C19@8thlight.com>

Sure!  First, here's the URL for their current site:
http://www.manoamano.org/

Here are the priorities that Seguno (the president of Mano-a-Mano)  
expressed to me during the conference.

1. Awareness.  Toward this goal, the site should allow people to  
learn about all the projects under construction.  This involves  
updating the site on a regular basis with text and data, but that's  
the boring part.  Videos will be posted on YouTube and integrated  
into the sire.  Pictures uploaded to Flickr and integrated.  Further  
more, it's important to Segunda that people know exactly where the  
projects are taking place. so we also integrated Google Earth.

2. Donations.  Of course people have the option to make general  
donations on the site.  However, Segundo would like the site to be  
more interactive.  So for each projects they will define a bill of  
materials, along with prices, required to complete the projects.   
Donors can browse the materials and choose to buy a box of nails,  
bags of concrete, or any combination of materials.  Segundo also has  
a vision for animating an image of the project such that donors can  
see the impact of their donations.  For example, if the project were  
to build a school, when you purchase a box of nails, you'd see nails  
flying into the school walls and when you purchase roof tiles, you'd  
see the tiles line up and form a roof.

3. Micro-Lending.  This gets complicated but it's something that Mano- 
a-Mano would very much like to offer.  What is it?  My understanding  
is that it's a way to let donors lend money to communities.   
Understand than many of the projects completed by Mano-a-Mano enrich  
the infrastructure of the Bolivian communities and allow them to  
double their crops, transport goods faster, produce more goods, and  
generally increase their income.  These communities would happily pay  
back the donations given to them.  This micro-lending structure would  
allow Mano-a-Mano to offer much more help and Segundo wants their  
website to support this type of donation.

That's the gist of it.  I imagine Segundo has many more wishes for  
their site.  I'll be happy to provide more info, or get the group in  
contact with Segundo.  He lives in Minneapolis.

Micah


On Aug 21, 2007, at 10:25 AM, Chad Fowler wrote:

> Cool, Micah.  Can you give more specifics about the kind of stuff he
> wants to do with it?  Who would it interact with, for example?
>
> Thanks,
> Chad
>
> On 8/21/07, Micah Martin <Micah at 8thlight.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hello Everyone,
>>
>> Last week at the Agile2007 conference, we worked on a website for  
>> a group
>> called Mano-a-Mano.  Perhaps it was already mentioned on this  
>> group,  It's a
>> NPO helping impoverished people in Bolivia.  The president of the
>> organization has a vivid vision for a website that will inform and  
>> interact
>> with users in new and innovative ways. It's a fun project and we only
>> finished a small portion of it during the conference.  Perhaps  
>> it's a good
>> candidate for this group.
>>
>> Micah
>>
>>
>> From: Chad Fowler <chad at chadfowler.com>
>> Date: August 14, 2007 7:33:55 PM CDT
>> To: Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
>> Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Let's Find a Project
>>
>>
>> Hello Friends!
>>
>> Now that we're a few days old here on the mailing list, I believe our
>> first order of non-logistical business is to find a first project.  I
>> don't know what the project is, nor do I have any great suggestions,
>> but I'm hoping someone on the list will have some ideas or some
>> friends who have ideas or some friends of friends....and so on.
>>
>> 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)
>> * A person from that non-profit who can serve as the authoritative
>> customer for what the application should do
>> * A commitment of consistent involvement from that customer to help
>> drive feature requirements and provide feedback
>> * 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.
>> * Hopefully a designer or two to help us make a decent UI.  Nobody
>> wants to use a UI that, for example, I made.  Yuck.
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> If we're in agreement, then the obvious first step is to start
>> scouring for non-profits in need.  Ask your friends to ask your
>> friends for ideas.  DEFINITELY post on your weblog about it.  Let's
>> get the word out that help is out there for the right project that
>> needs it.
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> Thanks!
>> Chad
>> _______________________________________________
>> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
>> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
>> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
>> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
>> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk
>>
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Rubyforchange-talk mailing list
> Rubyforchange-talk at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rubyforchange-talk


From tj at stank.us  Tue Aug 21 15:02:16 2007
From: tj at stank.us (TJ Stankus)
Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:02:16 -0400
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] Geeks4Good
Message-ID: <f25a5bb60708211202k81ecb0agb184f8929412421b@mail.gmail.com>

I was just pointed to this effort:

http://www.barcamp.org/geeks4good

which came out of the Raleigh BarCamp a couple weeks ago. There
resources listed there may be of some value to this group. The
http://aspirationtech.org/ is especially worth a look.

-TJ

From gilesb at gmail.com  Tue Aug 21 15:17:37 2007
From: gilesb at gmail.com (Giles Bowkett)
Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 12:17:37 -0700
Subject: [Rubyforchange-talk] what is a successful geek nonprofit project?
Message-ID: <2d81dedb0708211217t14162504t91ec4f4956dca014@mail.gmail.com>

I have some hesitation about things like volunteermatch.org precisely
because the person who posted about creating a site like
volunteermatch had never heard of it. that's not a technology problem;
that's a marketing problem.

I'm also very much not surprised that volunteermatch has a marketing
problem. for several years I dated a woman who ran a nonprofit
foundation. they used Internet Explorer and crappy PCs. they had great
funding, but they spent it other ways. they didn't have any tech
support people, and if I had built them a Web app, I don't think they
would have ever remembered how to use it. there are plenty of highly
intelligent people who can't make heads or tails of new technology.

I'm wondering, what are the geek social change projects that have been
the most successful?

This is going to sound weird, but the best examples I can think of are
the Chicago street crime map from Adrian Holovaty (of Django) and the
Los Angeles homelessness heat map. Neither one really *changes*
anything, but both leverage tech innovatively, and both are very
useful. anybody who is working on improving either street safety in
Chicago or homelessness in Los Angeles can get a lot of benefit from
these tools.

What these projects have in common are local focus, and user interface
to existing public data. This I think is a HUGE area of opportunity
for social change. There is a LOT of very valuable public data which
most people cannot access usefully. Nonprofit people who have never
heard of Firefox will never even think to leverage machine learning or
statistical AI, and yet if they did they could have very powerful
tools of analysis which would make them very much more effective at
what they do.

I think the best tools we could possibly build would leverage machine
learning, RSS, public data, and Web APIs, in such a way as to create
free public Web tools which make nonprofit organizations more
effective. I'm unsure what specifically that would look like but I
definitely think that's our area of greatest opportunity, i.e., the
zone where we'll find a project that gives us the greatest amount of
impact for our efforts.

-- 
Giles Bowkett

Blog: http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
Portfolio: http://www.gilesgoatboy.org
Tumblelog: http://giles.tumblr.com/