Please describe your proposed solution.
How we perceive the problem
There are barriers to entry in efficiently managing open source projects. This includes a lack of use of open source tools that are needed to assist in milestone reporting, contributor resource allocation and project management. A lack of these tools inhibits Open Source project development and growth.
Our solution
The Fund 11 Open Source Automation proposal will offer a solution by developing Open Source tooling including GitHub automation, a user interface and procedural documentation and guidance.
This will include -
1 - The specification, development and implementation of an automation solution on GitHub.
The first part of the project will set up and develop API calls needed to access GitHub issues and data from a project board. This will include the installation of a JavaScript framework, writing the code for API calls, and processing the returned data.
2 - A user Interface - dashboard
The second part of the project will build a user interface in the form of a dashboard that will present the processed data collected from the API calls. This will provide insight on a project’s monthly performance and assist with resource allocation.
3 - Procedural documentation and guidance.
The final part of the project will provide documentation and guidance on how the tool can be forked and implemented by other users. This implementation will be made quite simple. To supplement the tool, guidance will be provided on the use of GitHub project boards and issue tracking.
4 - A flexible code template.
The code is a template that can be tweaked to fit the way any project operates. Collaboration will be made easier as resource allocation will be more straightforward. A clear view of status and progression will help with project management and provide contributors with relevant information.
Reasons for our approach
Automation of routine tasks in open source projects enhances their functionality and broadens their utility to a wider audience. We intend to target the project management overhead tasks that are familiar to many Catalyst proposers and build tools to assist with milestone management and reporting. In addition our dashboard will assist with user accessibility and our documentation will advise on developer reuse.
Who we will engage
We will engage, support and provide resources to existing and new project teams and share our work widely with the community. Our focus will be on helping Open Source users in Catalyst with their projects. For example this project management solution will be used by the SingularityNet Archive workgroup, QADAO, Treasury Guild and Community Governance Oversight.
How we will demonstrate or prove our impact
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We will demonstrate and prove the impact of our proposal by tracking the use of this resource, incorporating feedback and documenting lessons learnt on our GitHub project board.
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Once the tool is completed, GitHub repositories will be created in our partner organizations.
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The use of the tool in these organizations will be tracked in the forked repositories.
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This will include how the tool assists with milestone planning and reporting.
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This tool will also make resource allocation much easier for open source collaborative projects.
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Seeing tasks on the project board be completed and resource allocation can also demonstrate impact.
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Write procedural documentation of how people can use GitHub Project Boards, training on GitHub commits and commit revisions and comments.