Figure out which projects REG thinks we should contribute to

[mhauru]

I would like to understand which projects REG thinks we should prioritise helping. These might be projects that are undermaintained but important, projects that REGers think we rely on heavily and thus feel like we should give back to, or just cool projects we would like to support.

To this end, my current idea is to

1. Send out a call asking people to nominate projects. This would be linked to Hacktoberfest (see Figure out what to do for Hacktoberfest #1), but not exclusively about Hacktoberfest projects.
2. Filter the list of nominations. Depending on how many we get, maybe for instance only keep projects nominated by at least two people, and perhaps also filter based on if they are accepting external contributions.
3. Run a REG-wide poll of the nominated candidates, asking people to vote on which ones we should work on.

[mhauru]

We sent a request for proposals under the hacktoberfest banner, and got a very muted response: Three people proposed anything at all. If we want to do this in a broader scope, should think about how to best get people engaged. To learn from what didn't work, here's the email that didn't get the wave of responses we might have hoped for:

Hello REG,
The open source service area will organise a Hacktoberfest session to contribute to open source projects. You’ll all be invited, but first we need help in choosing which repos to contribute to.

Imagine you are given ~5 REGers for a day and you need to name an open source project outside of the Turing that they would work on. They would go look at open issues, known bugs, missing features, and do what they can. Which project(s) would you name? Please let us know by replying to this email.

Repos that have opted in to Hacktoberfest are listed here: https://github.com/topics/hacktoberfest However, feel free to propose projects outside of that list too. We can use the ideas beyond October, and who would say no to the awesome power of a roomful of REGers on their side, Hacktoberfest or not?

Things you may want to consider:

• We should aim to work on projects where we can have a significant impact in a short time. For instance, code bases that are easy to get into.
• We can have a larger impact on projects that are currently poorly maintained and lack resources.
• We may want to prioritise
  • Projects we feel indebted to because we depend on them
  • Projects that are fun or interesting to work on
  • Projects that are important for humanity

Kind regards,
Markus, Camila, Martin, Rosie, and the rest of OS SA