The Problems

Small and growing charities have many operational and communications needs that would be well served with custom Django apps. At the same time there are many budding developers who are looking for real projects, not contrived tutorials to learn with. There are also a number of busy experienced developers who still have a bit a spare time and have a strong moral core.

A Possible solution

A site that connects worthy organizations with willing developers.

Charities/Groups put together proposals about what they need - clarity counts.

They must provide a contact/liason.

Developers can register, but their contact info is not shared with charities. This is developer centric.

Everything must be open source (is license type specified?)

Can stipulate that some form of credit banner for project be placed on final

result such a credit would list this project (the broker project) and hosting

co, and would link to a project page listing all contributors

Provide github organization repo page utilyze issue tracker and read-the-docs what other collaboration tools could be used? a donated basecamp? could leverage donated deployment options (with advertising credit)

Roles of people helping out:

• developer python/django
• front end designer
• mentor
• project manager

Can look at the GSOC mentor model

Could have developers and community members vote for most worthy

Could have sprints for charities

How to verify groups/501c3 (can search IRS pub 78)

Limit this to smaller groups initially, based on cashflows? # employees?

Initially limit this to US Domestic agencies (even if they have international projects)

The Challenges

Would there be anything approaching equilibrium in supply and demand - or would the demand swamp the process? Could filters/voting systems fix this?

How to ensure that organizations that CAN afford to hire developrs do, and not take advantage.

How to ensure that code quality is reasonable?

How to follow up with improvements, changes, and training?