Get Help
I’m a scientist, engineer, or charity organization.
I’m doing good for the world, but I need the help of a talented geek or designer to get my work done efficiently so I can make the world a better place.
Create a GitHub issue to start a project »How do I ask for help?
Step One: Be Sure
By asking for help on Giving.Code, you are opening everything you submit to the world. Any data or write-ups you share are visible to everybody in the world with an internet connection. Don't share personal or sensitive data. Also, any help you get will likely be made open source or creative commons, so others will be able to use it too.
Step Two: Write
Create a short write-up for your project. Describe the problem you are asking for help with completely and concisely. Try to stay under two or three paragraphs, but include any necessary data. Be sure to read your project brief a few times. Ask yourself, “Will somebody that doesn’t already know about me or my work be able to understand this?”
Step Three: Request
To ask for help, submit a GitHub issue to the giving.github.com repository. If you don't have a GitHub account, you’ll need to create one first. Once you have created your issue, your project will show up in the list of open projects for geeks and designers to see. Check back with your project's issue page often. If somebody replies, they likely want to help!
Step Four: Participate
Be informative when people ask questions, and kind when people make suggestions. Sometimes they’ll suggest you use existing software; sometimes they’ll offer to help you set stuff up; sometimes they’ll design or program something new for you. It may take an hour, or it may take a long time. Always remember, people are helping in their spare time for free.
Tips and Tricks
You can requset that helpers license their work under a certain OS or CC license, but they are under no obligation to do so.
If you have data to crunch, it is very helpful to attach a small set of test data so that programmers can make sure their software works.
You don’t need to know anything about git or much about GitHub to ask for help. It’s just a fantastic platform for us to run Giving.Code on.