The user and programmer experience
Beaux Walton
Ok. Time to start building some momentum on this project. Our site stats say we're getting a steady flow of traffic and this is increasing daily. People are interested in this idea and I think it'd be great if we could start turning those visits into involvement.
Below I've given a brief description on Open Sourcity vs crowdfunding sites. We probably should be comparing ourselves to SourceForge and OpenHutch but because we're focusing more on the user submitted ideas, I think it'll have a similar "feel" to a crowdfunding site.
I have also included what sort of experience the user will have vs the experience the programmer will have. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to comment. This group is all about collaboration and everyone's idea is valid, no matter your background.
Open Sourcity will set itself apart from crowdfunding sites by instead focusing on crowdsourcing. Users come to our site to find programmers and designers to help them develop their app or software idea. Open Sourcity will also be focused on collaboration unlike crowdfunding sites. Once a user submits an idea, other users can contribute to how they'd like to see the idea implemented. It could be a suggestion regarding functionality, features, anything at all. For the programmers, they'll be collaborating on the source code. We aren't looking to start off with any sort of crowdfunding initially as this may confuse the whole open source message.
A user's interaction
A user, someone without coding experience, first gets to our site and is offered a choice to browse current projects or create a new project.
Current projects are presented much in the way Indiegogo presents their projects, with a title, picture, a catch phrase, and organised into categories. Anyone can click through to view a project's core idea and submit suggestions, whether it be a way to improve the core idea, or to clarify an aspect the user hasn't thought of. The core idea can only be changed by the user who submitted it so suggestions will be viewed like comments. Users can vote for projects based upon what they would like to see created, as well as voting for suggestions if this is a feature they would like to see, or an issue they believe should be addressed. Really, as long as a user has a clear idea, the whole feel and process should be similar to the submission process in Indiegogo.
The programmers/developers
The programmers will be the guys utilising Apache Allura. We're hoping that anyone who has used SourceForge will already be familiar with how that works. Programmers have all the same permissions as users as well as the ability to "join" a project. Once a programmer joins a project they're essentially starting to develop the code. Users can sign up for regular updates regarding at what stage the code is at. They can also receive invites from the programmers regarding beta testing. These invites can be closed to only a selected group, or open for everyone to try.
I hope I've given you a clear understanding of what I personally imagine the site will be like. Like I mentioned before, all input is welcome.
Cheers,
Beaux.