The Public Interest Technology Guide

Previously, we allowed people to self project management themselves on projects.

In 2020, we have project focus areas with a specific focus on Justice Discovery in Q3-Q4.

People are still allowed to work on whatever project, BUT the Code for South Florida staff has set priorities. If you would like to contribute feel free to open a pull request or github issue to discuss various line items if one does not exist already, when you do please a make pr on this readme and link to the issue discussion.

Goal

• Reduce frustrations for users and contributers
• Be inviting to new projects and leads
• Prioritise small tasks for "Quick wins."
• Remove @HiGregory as a bottle-neck to getting things done.

From the perspective of a user,
if a feature is not documented, it does not exist.
If a feature is documented incorrectly, then it is broken.
- WriteTheDocs

New Projects

Guides to creating projects at code for miami.

A checklist that covers all the steps to creating a new project which will essentially translate to a guide for every step.

1. Announce your project

   • Announce your starting your new project on the #projects channel.

2. Name your project

3. Create a Github Repo // Fork from Project Template

4. Configuring Your Repo

   A guide on recommended changes to repository settings in order to facilitate smooth collaboration and management.

   • Protect Your Master

     The what, why, how and caveats about squash only merge strategy for your master branch.

5. Update Readme with required information

6. Write The Docs

   • Lint your prose with [https://github.com/btford/write-good](Write Good)

Managing Contributiors and Contributions

How to Approach Code Reviews Topic Branch

Dead Project

• What is the definition of a dead project
• What to do when your project is dead

Other

Guides don't to fit into any particular point in the project cycle.

Start an Experiment

The experiment stage is all about exploring problems/ideas.

Open Austin uses Code for America's four project stages.

• Experiment
• Alpha
• Beta
• Official

Start an Experiment

The experiment stage is all about exploring problems/ideas. Open Austin should have plenty of projects at the experiment stage. Most projects will end at this stage, and that's okay.

1. Do something and tell us about it. Open an issue at https://github.com/open-austin/project-ideas/issues and tag it with experiment.
2. Tell us if you need any resources to get started (AWS hosting, Cartodb, mockup tools, etc.)
3. Come to an Open Austin event and work on share your project

Experiment to Alpha

The alpha stage is about making sure your project solves a person's/group's problem.

ℹ️ This is the point at which a project becomes an "approved" Open Austin project.

1. Identify a project's owner(s)
2. Get approval from an Open Austin coreteam member
3. Explain

• What problem the project tries to solve
• Who the users are

4. List the project on open-austin.org/projects link to how-to
5. Go through a code/architecture review

• What is the architecture of your project? We may ask you to make changes to the architecture.
• How do you deploy the project?

Alpha to Beta

The beta stage is about getting "more users" and "more feedback." The project should be looking for more users and recording more metrics.

1. You should look for government or community partners, if applicable
2. Start polishing the app
3. Have a sense of what metrics you'll be recording and using to measure impact
4. Plan some launch event

Beta to Official

A project becomes official when it's polished, well known, has a community partner, and the project leaders have a good sense of the impact of the project.

1. Have a launch event! Congratulations, you've done an awesome job, and now it's time to enjoy your work.
2. Have your metrics for usage and impact readily available.