Request for Proposals - Enhancements to the Social Actions API (Deadline: 9/1/2010 at 5pm ET)

[Peter Deitz]

Hello Social Actions Dev,

I'm writing with some very exciting news. 

Social Actions is preparing for a major upgrade to our open source database of opportunities to make a difference. 

For those of you who have been following the Social Actions story since the beginning, you'll see this development for what it is -> a major milestone in our collective efforts to make the web more philanthropic. Going back to the Change the Web Challenge, and even before that, we have been calling for an Internet that seamlessly connects people with meaningful opportunities to take action on the causes they care about. The API enhancements that we are now in a position to design and implement will go a long way to advancing this mission.

Over the next three months, we are planning to work with a development firm that has expertise in natural language processing and the semantic web with the goal of dramatically enhancing the querying capabilities of the Social Actions API. Please refer to the attached Request for Proposals for more information about this exciting upgrade, or click on the link below:

http://bit.ly/SAenhancements

Our time line is extremely tight. Proposals are due Wednesday, September 1st at 5pm ET and the first pass of the deliverables must be completed by the end of September. We encourage you to submit your own proposal for this project, and/or to forward this RFP to qualified developers you have worked with in the past. 

For some background on how this upgrade came about, please refer to Christine's post from late-July:

http://my.socialactions.com/profiles/blogs/opportunity-alert-four

We'll be using the SA Dev list as the primary means for soliciting your feedback and communicating news about this build-out. With this in mind, and as the summer winds down, please prepare yourselves for a very exciting and action-packed September.

Cheers,

Peter

PS - Many of you are also aware that we are in the process of transitioning ownership and responsibility for Social Actions to a well-resourced and mission-aligned organization (TBD). The API enhancements described in the RFP and their implementation are happening independently from the transition, and will most likely be completed before the transition is finalized.

--
Peter Deitz

http://socialactions.com

@peterdeitz

Tel: (415) 425-7482

[Peter Deitz]

Hello Social Actions Dev,

It's hard to believe that a full two months has passed since I posted news about the upcoming enhancements to the Social Actions API. We hit a few road blocks since my post, but I'm happy to report that we now have green lights from all directions and a very talented developer lined up. 

For the moment, I'll hold off on introducing him. I just wanted to share this update that the enhancements to the Social Actions API described in this thread will be underway shortly. Please note that the developer and I will be using this Google group as one of the primary means of communicating with one another. I hope that you'll take an interest in these API enhancements and will add encouraging words and links to useful resources as we proceed. 

This is an exciting moment for Social Actions. We are about to push the envelope on how the semantic web and open linked data can be leveraged for social change, and we'll be doing it open source through and through.

I'm looking forward to reporting on good news in the weeks ahead.

Cheers,

Peter