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Welcome to the Collaborative Labs Software Wiki
Collaborative Labs is all about developing software. This wiki is part of our SourceWiki Project.
Every computer user from large companies to your average student has software they'd like to see developed. Developers like me love to write software, but don't always know what needs to be done.
SourceWiki brings the two together. Here, anyone can start a project, and anyone can contribute to one. Sounds a lot like Free Software, and some of our projects are.
One big difference here is that our projects aren't as restrictive, many open source projects have core maintainers and developers, and without their approval, no one can contribute. SourceWiki's only purpose is to track contributions so that we can give credit where credit is due.
Projects can be commercial software, freeware, shareware, donation supported open source, just about anything.
Contributors can be software developers, artists, software designers, software architects, test engineers, support engineers, software maintainers, and even the more traditional project managers and marketers.
Most importantly, contributors are customers. People who find our software useful.
Projects
- SourceWiki - Software Development System
- Causatum - MMORPG (Private)
- Ansible - communication network
- Clipper - clipboard monitor
- Wincook - cookbook program
Development Resources for project development.
Contribute!
Start by Signing up or Logging In. That's optional, anonymous contributions are fine, but we can't credit you for your work unless you sign up. After that, create a project or contribute to one.
You can also Donate to the SourceWiki Project.
But I'm not a software developer/computer person!
That's OK, there are still a lot of ways you can contribute. Remember all the different types of contributors? Software isn't just about writing programs. Here are a few ways in which you can contribute:
- Project Management
Update/maintain the product pages. Vandalism is a problem for any wiki system, so review the recent changes and see if you can help out.
There are always typos and errors in anything, ways in which something unclear could be made better.
- Customer Requirements
All software could use some improvement, go visit a project's page and propose new features.
- Artwork, Creative Content
Most projects need artwork or other creative content. The Wincook project needs cookbook recipes, pictures for the recipes that already exist, all sorts of stuff.
- Testing
Virtually all software has bugs. By helping to test the software, and discovering bugs, you can help make it better. Bugs aren't always in the software either. Typos and errors can happen anywhere. Rotated pictures, misspelled menus, a photo of "cookies" that has a puppy in it.
I would love to contribute, but I just don't have time
Well, if you really don't, that's too bad. But consider the following. These projects aren't on a schedule, and helping out doesn't require any commitment. Much of what you can do to help can be done in just a few minutes.
Why Bother?
Three good reasons
- To create something
Here you have the freedom to invent, to participate, to contribute positively to the world through the creation of useful software, without getting stuck working for a Pointy-Haired Boss or on some inane light bulb counting busywork, and having someone else who did nothing profit from your work.
- To get good software
I bet this is the first time you've ever been in a position to participate in software development. Our projects come from people like you that use computers and software. Sometimes they're things that regular software companies just don't care about. Sometimes they create stuff that just doesn't do what it should. You can help make the software better.
- To get paid
Remember, SourceWiki pays contributors. Even for small contributions. Software is profitable and the SourceWiki System pays a percentage of sales directly related to the work you've contributed. You do the work, you get the reward.
People
Well, for starters, there's me, Chris Davenport. I started this software development cooperative because I knew that there are a lot of people that had that "Wouldn't it be cool if there were a program that did this?" notion in their mind. I also knew that software development takes time, and software engineers usually can't afford to join a development project instead of doing their day jobs.
That's what I am. A software developer with a day job, who would like to see people get the software they need.
Company Information
Collaborative Labs develops software that helps people work together. Started in November 2007 by Chris Davenport with the simple idea of using a wiki system to organize open software development, it now develops a wide variety of cooperative and collaborative software systems.
