We have just launched ClimateTriage.com. As this community knows a lot about open source and sustainability, I would love to hear your feedback on this platform. What do you like and what could be improved? What features do you miss? What would you like to see projects sorted by?
Here are some ideas of what we would like to add to the platform in the future:
Sorting projects by number of downloads.
Filtering projects that have a contribution guide.
Create a user label: Scientist, Engineer, Software Developer, privat User.
Listing of projects that have a donation option.
Creation of content for real newbies to programming and sustainability to teach them data science with python based on climate relevant usecases.
Sort the project by burn out / bus factor indicators. We found ways to estimate this for projects.
As we build on top of Ecosystem.ms created by @andrew , our meta data does not just include GitHub but all package managers and git platforms. We can use a wealth of metadata from the entire open source ecosystem. Please let me know what you think!
Looks like topical issue aggregator. In the best Open Source way it would be interesting to see the real-time metrics about the platform. It is surely expensive - collaboration between platforms/companies, but I am skeptical about the usage.
The main problem for me is the barrier to entry in these projects. First, most of them are hardcore maths that are impossible to grok without a lot of free weekend. Second, there are not many people to merge contributions. Quite often such software is developed in scientific institutions, and at least in US, the institutions don’t receive money to maintain software. I don’t have a reference, but even the https://foldingathome.org/ project during COVID had only single developer, paid from own pockets of people from the University. To be honest even Google with its Open Source culture don’t always care about its core projects.
So from sustainability standpoint I am really curious how much did it cost to create the project (money, people, days), how much does it cost to maintain it (hours, servers, services), and what is its operating budget (amount, structure).
Pros: Great design. Curated content.
Cons: No impact estimation. No money.
I’d use AI to estimate the impact of each issue, and build learning ecosystem around it.
For the money, as an individual with less than $200 of income, I have nothing to donate. I am more interested in bounties / paid Open Source work to direct my focus while I have the free time.
Thanks for the feedback! The main difference between us and other issue aggregators is the quality of our project curation. All the projects are of high quality and have been handpicked over the years, sorted by topic in the area of sustainability and climate change.
The main problem for me is the barrier to entry in these projects. First, most of them are hardcore maths that are impossible to grok without a lot of free weekend.
Our research has shown that simple projects for private end users get the most traction. That’s why I proposed the end user sorting feature.
Second, there are not many people to merge contributions. Quite often such software is developed in scientific institutions, and at least in US, the institutions don’t receive money to maintain software.
If they do not have the time to maintain issues, they will not create good First Issues Labels and the project will not be visible on this site. Most of the projects are quite old (4 years on average) and therefore have a running open source workflow and community.
No impact estimation → we do have now a sorting by download numbers.
