[tor]

So with the latest startup not looking like ever making me rich I am disengaging and looking for my next project.

As a rule I try to alternate "get rich" working for free projects with "feel good" working for free projects.

I have picked out the charity that will subjected to my outlandish ideas and have a phone call with them tomorrow. They look in a pretty sorry state of affairs[1]. I might need a few skills I don't have for this one. I think they are basically a web site and internal database but don't know what the underlying platform is and, fair warning, they are scared to call mobiles because they have so little money

Anyone else with skills in stuff interested?

You will note I haven't said who they are as I have no formal engagement yet. I just figured be handy to know if anyone else had a burning desire to work for free and not be appreciated. It is in the animal welfare area.

Honestly you'd think there would be some kind of "work for a charity, tell me your skills and we'll show you places that need them" type of website by now. Maybe with a bit of project management stuff there to avoid the bad taste so many of the charity gigs end up giving me.

[1] Sounds like mostly open source stuff. When will they realise that the only people able to work for free have skills in paying software platforms?

[tom]

tor, on 07 November 2011 - 05:50 AM, said:

Honestly you'd think there would be some kind of "work for a charity, tell me your skills and we'll show you places that need them" type of website by now. Maybe with a bit of project management stuff there to avoid the bad taste so many of the charity gigs end up giving me.

maybe that could be your next get rich quick scheme?

I am also surprised there is no such website. I wonder if the government would pay for one. Australia does lean on people who give their time to charity so any way of making the process more efficient has to be good for the country?

[tor]

tom, on 07 November 2011 - 06:28 AM, said:

maybe that could be your next get rich quick scheme?

Nah I would get given such a beating for that, as it is I have gone way beyond my normal rules for my freebie work on the latest project and got into a bad mood about it. Time to just do some work for the sake of work with the background knowledge that it is completely free from any justifications about profit.

"Get rich" project people always have the justification that you will get rich, "feel good" project people tend to be devoted to what they are doing. Both of them have a habit of calling and expecting you to drop everything to work on their thing.

While I know that I also know how much fun they are in the beginnings when it seems doable - that's why I go back. But I also ensure that for both I can walk when it is time to walk. If I was the driver I wouldn't be able to walk.

tom, on 07 November 2011 - 06:28 AM, said:

I am also surprised there is no such website. I wonder if the government would pay for one. Australia does lean on people who give their time to charity so any way of making the process more efficient has to be good for the country?

I think you would quickly run up against the expectations problem. Quality skilled people want recognition for their work but very few hassles when they do it for free. Charity people don't tend to see this

You would need insanely good project managers and if we can't get many of them for the real world I can't see the government ever getting any.

[staringclown]

tor, on 07 November 2011 - 05:50 AM, said:

So with the latest startup not looking like ever making me rich I am disengaging and looking for my next project.

As a rule I try to alternate "get rich" working for free projects with "feel good" working for free projects.

I have picked out the charity that will subjected to my outlandish ideas and have a phone call with them tomorrow. They look in a pretty sorry state of affairs[1]. I might need a few skills I don't have for this one. I think they are basically a web site and internal database but don't know what the underlying platform is and, fair warning, they are scared to call mobiles because they have so little money

Anyone else with skills in stuff interested?

You will note I haven't said who they are as I have no formal engagement yet. I just figured be handy to know if anyone else had a burning desire to work for free and not be appreciated. It is in the animal welfare area.

Honestly you'd think there would be some kind of "work for a charity, tell me your skills and we'll show you places that need them" type of website by now. Maybe with a bit of project management stuff there to avoid the bad taste so many of the charity gigs end up giving me.

[1] Sounds like mostly open source stuff. When will they realise that the only people able to work for free have skills in paying software platforms?

As long as their not PETA I can probably help out. I have a bit of open source experience. Glassfish, Spring and BouncyCastle most recently. If there's a RDB at the back end I can try out hibernate. Let me know if these might be useful. I like spring. You get a lot of basic functions (Security and basic authentication) through config rather than code. The latest versions using annotations rather than XML config. It also enforces patterns which makes it easy and quicker to build. Even web services can be annotated. Less of that pesky XML. (Which I think you prefer)

There was a govt approved site where you could get piece work for open source projects. Very small pay. From memory you could be exempted from looking for work if you were working on a registered project. I think it was called communitycode.org. I checked and they're gone now. However I think you can still do it.

[tor]

staringclown, on 07 November 2011 - 08:53 AM, said:

As long as their not PETA I can probably help out. I have a bit of open source experience. Glassfish, Spring and BouncyCastle most recently. If there's a RDB at the back end I can try out hibernate. Let me know if these might be useful. I like spring. You get a lot of basic functions (Security and basic authentication) through config rather than code. The latest versions using annotations rather than XML config. It also enforces patterns which makes it easy and quicker to build. Even web services can be annotated. Less of that pesky XML. (Which I think you prefer)

Not PETA, not sure they would appreciate my sense of humour

Currently they have mySQL which probably means they are completely vulnerable to every injection attack out there.

Please don't use hibernate, ever, there is a reason we call them doormice they hibernate and you might get your results next spring

And yes, xml makes baby jesus cry

Thanks for the offer and, with any luck I welcome you to the world where, even if the pay is non existent and the conditions are crap, you get to vent your opinions

Reading back I think my posts were maybe a little harsh, keep in mind, I do keep doing this stuff, it is awesomely rewarding in some aspects.

staringclown, on 07 November 2011 - 08:53 AM, said:

There was a govt approved site where you could get piece work for open source projects. Very small pay. From memory you could be exempted from looking for work if you were working on a registered project. I think it was called communitycode.org. I checked and they're gone now. However I think you can still do it.

Yeah employ the unemployable to keep charities afloat

Man oh man that is so wrong.

A mentor system (free nasty burn out guy working with dole paid kiddie) wouldn't work but at least it would stand up to a little bit of critical thinking.

(Keep in mind I am the top of my cynical cycle just at the moment, in a few weeks I will be in love with something new)

[staringclown]

tor, on 07 November 2011 - 09:27 AM, said:

Not PETA, not sure they would appreciate my sense of humour

Currently they have mySQL which probably means they are completely vulnerable to every injection attack out there.

Please don't use hibernate, ever, there is a reason we call them doormice they hibernate and you might get your results next spring

And yes, xml makes baby jesus cry

Thanks for the offer and, with any luck I welcome you to the world where, even if the pay is non existent and the conditions are crap, you get to vent your opinions

JDBC calls to optimised stored procedures it is then! Linux on a couple of desktops eh?

Quote

Reading back I think my posts were maybe a little harsh, keep in mind, I do keep doing this stuff, it is awesomely rewarding in some aspects.

Yeah employ the unemployable to keep charities afloat

Man oh man that is so wrong.

A mentor system (free nasty burn out guy working with dole paid kiddie) wouldn't work but at least it would stand up to a little bit of critical thinking.

(Keep in mind I am the top of my cynical cycle just at the moment, in a few weeks I will be in love with something new)

You just described the public service graduate program.

[wim]

Are you able to provide more details? eg scope, language, client?

[Solomon]

tor, on 07 November 2011 - 05:50 AM, said:

Honestly you'd think there would be some kind of "work for a charity, tell me your skills and we'll show you places that need them" type of website by now. Maybe with a bit of project management stuff there to avoid the bad taste so many of the charity gigs end up giving me.

Hi tor,
This sounds like a brilliant idea.
Perhaps this is where your charity (another word for love) could be directed.
This would serve not just one charity, but a whole range of charities.
If people simply logged in their skills and advised of availability, I'm sure any number of charities would be grateful for their assistance.
A large difficulty in today's society is actually getting people to volunteer their skills.
I would encourage you to pursue the issue a little deeper.

I remember during the Brisbane floods that there was a website where you could register your skills and availability and you were contacted for a starting date and venue.

As I've mentioned before, I've done some work for not-for-profit institutions and they also rely heavily on voluntary labour to keep costs low.

I congratulate you on your willingness to offer yourself in this way.
It is always very satisifying work.

[tor]

wim, on 07 November 2011 - 09:58 AM, said:

Are you able to provide more details? eg scope, language, client?

Not yet, should have more details end of today.

[tor]

Okay so apparently a machine hosted at melb IT has their mySQL DB and some dreamweaver built website and all they want to do is change some of the wording on some of the pages.

Isn't that the whole point of dreamweaver? I thought it was one of those "websites for non coders" type of apps. I could be wrong.

Anyhow she is going to go off and get a bunch more detail, software versions, connectivity etc.

But any dreamweaver fiends can have some fun if they like. Not a lot I can do for this one I don't think.

[wim]

tor, on 08 November 2011 - 06:50 AM, said:

Okay so apparently a machine hosted at melb IT has their mySQL DB and some dreamweaver built website and all they want to do is change some of the wording on some of the pages.

Isn't that the whole point of dreamweaver? I thought it was one of those "websites for non coders" type of apps. I could be wrong.

Anyhow she is going to go off and get a bunch more detail, software versions, connectivity etc.

But any dreamweaver fiends can have some fun if they like. Not a lot I can do for this one I don't think.

Doesn't really sound like one for me. If you're doing the legwork though I might be interested in something new. Keep us updated with the search.

[staringclown]

tor, on 08 November 2011 - 06:50 AM, said:

Okay so apparently a machine hosted at melb IT has their mySQL DB and some dreamweaver built website and all they want to do is change some of the wording on some of the pages.

Isn't that the whole point of dreamweaver? I thought it was one of those "websites for non coders" type of apps. I could be wrong.

Anyhow she is going to go off and get a bunch more detail, software versions, connectivity etc.

But any dreamweaver fiends can have some fun if they like. Not a lot I can do for this one I don't think.

Alas, I know nothing about dreamweaver. Truth be told I'm not really a web guy.

As with wim if you come across any other charitable projects I'm more than happy to offer my services. Possibly I should go out and find my own if I'm keen.

[GenGen]

Hi all, I think there are websites like you mention out there but I'm not sure where to find them either. The government-sponsored ones, volunteer.vic.gov.au for example (Victoria only obviously) frustrate me because it's hard to narrow the criteria down enough and I end up trawling through dozens of listings I'm not interested in, so whatever benevolent energy spurred me into looking is expended before I actually get to DO anything. But if anyone finds out anything I'd be keen to know, particularly for projects that can be done out of hours and preferably involve some form of words, not programming code ;-)

[staringclown]

GenGen, on 17 November 2011 - 10:38 AM, said:

Hi all, I think there are websites like you mention out there but I'm not sure where to find them either. The government-sponsored ones, volunteer.vic.gov.au for example (Victoria only obviously) frustrate me because it's hard to narrow the criteria down enough and I end up trawling through dozens of listings I'm not interested in, so whatever benevolent energy spurred me into looking is expended before I actually get to DO anything. But if anyone finds out anything I'd be keen to know, particularly for projects that can be done out of hours and preferably involve some form of words, not programming code ;-)

Are you IT? Someone who likes doing doco would be handy. Lord knows I hate doing it. Welcome to the forum GG.

[tor]

staringclown, on 18 November 2011 - 11:15 AM, said:

Are you IT? Someone who likes doing doco would be handy. Lord knows I hate doing it. Welcome to the forum GG.

Stupid question. Cannot be IT and do doco. Does not compute.

[staringclown]

tor, on 18 November 2011 - 11:39 AM, said:

Stupid question. Cannot be IT and do doco. Does not compute.

If I had to draw a venn diagram...

[tor]

staringclown, on 18 November 2011 - 12:38 PM, said:

If I had to draw a venn diagram...

Would it be The Best Venn Diagram Ever?

[staringclown]

tor, on 18 November 2011 - 12:47 PM, said:

Would it be The Best Venn Diagram Ever?

It'd look quite similar.

[tor]

staringclown, on 18 November 2011 - 12:59 PM, said:

It'd look quite similar.

Today I didn't get out of my pajamas until about 2000 and that was to change to undies only. Well undies and a cigar.

Pure class I am!

[GenGen]

staringclown, on 18 November 2011 - 11:15 AM, said:

Are you IT? Someone who likes doing doco would be handy. Lord knows I hate doing it. Welcome to the forum GG.

Thanks, nice to be here! No, I'm not IT, assuming you mean ICT, not that creature from a Stephen King novel. Even then, the answer's no. I'm a social scientist where it's all about words. Sorry I didn't see this post either, was expecting notifications to alert me to a reply, but alas...