Here are seven reasons why you should download NewsCloud's Facebook application code and get involved in our open source efforts:
1) Facebook: Our code provides a great base platform for running a community or news-related Facebook application but it's not dependent on Facebook. Our code simultaneously provides a Web-based solution offering Facebook Connect for authentication (or password-based login) - other authentication schemes can be added.
2) Crowdsourcing: Our code essentially provides an open source crowdsourcing toolkit for engaging readers with each other. We have features for idea gathering, Q&A, event calendars, forums, blogging and directories. Our goal is to compliment news sites with unique features that add value for readers. Read our complete feature summary.
3) Ruby: Our code is based on Ruby on Rails - so it's MVC and leverages a bunch of open source technologies and plugins such as: Facebooker, il8n, Formtastic, VoteFu, Taggable, Restful Authentication, Routing Filter, Friendly_id, Rack, Will Paginate, Cucumber, rSpec, HopToad, NewRelic, Bootstrap, HAML, SASS, Compass, 960.gs et al.
4) Journalism: Our code is part of a Knight Foundation grant to support journalism organizations. We're working with publishers such as The Charlotte Observer, KPCC radio, The Boston Globe, the Detroit Free Press, WKYC TV, MinnPost and the State Press (covering Arizona State University) to help find new ways to engage their audience and strengthen their business models.
5) International: Our code supports i18n localization so that you can run your Facebook application in any language or several! We want journalism organizations worldwide to use this code!
6) Open Source: Our code is licensed via the flexible MIT Open Source License meaning that you can re-use it liberally for your own projects - even if you're a for profit corporation.
7) Funded: Our code will continue to improve and grow with the generous funding of the Knight Foundation through April 2011. That's when our grant ends! In the meantime - and hopefully beyond, you can get involved in a super cool fun engaging high-tech open source pro-democracy journalism project with other fun folks.
Here are a few more reasons to get involved now*:
- The next five people to install the code and configure a Facebook application or Connect Website will receive $25 iTunes Gift Cards.
- The developer who builds the most useful add-on feature by June 30th will receive a $150 Amazon gift card and $100 in iTunes gift cards.
- The developer who builds the best refinement of an existing feature by June 30th will receive $100 in iTunes gift cards.
- The three developers who post the best ideas for new features (here) by June 30th will receive $25 iTunes gift cards.
- The first person to track down our tallest developer (find him on Github) at Open Source Bridge 2010 in Portland and offer him a Coke or a coffee gets a $25 iTunes gift card.
* Contributions will be judged subjectively by the NewsCloud team. You must email jeff at newscloud dot com with details when you complete one of the above tasks. Gift cards will be mailed to you.
What are you waiting for?
- Share this post with your friends
- Grab a fork of the code
- Follow us on Twitter @newscloud
- Follow our blog at http://opensource.newscloud.com
- Visit our support site at http://support.newscloud.com and join the conversation about our project
Did we remember to thank the great folks at TenderApp.com and GitHub for freely supporting our open source project tools? and the Knight Foundation who pay for everything else? and our partners who are on a mission to sustain great journalism?
