
Ask HN: Do you know any nice open-source projects in need of SE or design work? - Twixes
Personally I&#x27;d be happy to contribute to something useful (and where the barrier to entry is moderate – so the Linux kernel is out), also just curious what projects you&#x27;re involved with. Can be anything.
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zuern
The Riot chat app could really use some UI/UX improvements. It's a bit clunky
and complicated. Riot is the most popular client that implements matrix
protocol which allows people to chat/call and more regardless of the platform
they are on. Matrix is similar to how email works (e.g. Hotmail users can talk
to other users of hotmail, or users of a different provider), but with the
modern features of instant messaging, typing notifications, and message-read
indicators (and more). It also has the neat feature that you can create
"bridges" to enable platforms that don't support matrix to send/receive stuff
to people using matrix.

I think improving the Riot software would be really important because it helps
people to communicate freely without being locked into a walled garden. If the
UI/UX were improved more it would make it easier to encourage people to try it
out.

[https://about.riot.im/](https://about.riot.im/)

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maxharris
I'm working on a replacement for HTML and CSS, and I need help coming up with
tests and documentation for my system:
[https://github.com/maxharris9/layout](https://github.com/maxharris9/layout)

To see the existing test screenshots, visit
[https://github.com/maxharris9/layout/tree/master/test/screen...](https://github.com/maxharris9/layout/tree/master/test/screenshots)

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shekhardesigner
How about adding few nicer themes for Thunderbird Mail client.

The client seriously lacks good UX. Not just sleek UI but the interaction and
better usability.

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muzani
I love Framework7. It's a nice template/framework for mobile web.

Feature wise I like it more than Bootstrap or Ionic, but the design needs some
work.

[https://framework7.io/](https://framework7.io/)

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JaggerJo
[https://avaloniaui.net/](https://avaloniaui.net/) Cross platform UI OSS
toolkit.

I contributing designer would be great!

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quickthrower2
But surely you have language and platform preferences?

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timlangeman
THE PROBLEM I'M TRYING TO SOLVE:

Often when I read a quotation online and think to myself: "that's a great
quote, but I wonder what it says 2 sentences prior or 2 sentences after". In
other words, what's the context, and how do I know the quote isn't
cherrypicked?

MY APP: CiteIt.net: a higher standard of citation

My web citation app enables authors to demonstrate the context of their
citations. If writers link to a source URL in their blockquote "cite" tag, my
program will find the original quote, grab the context surrounding it, and
make a small JSON file that can then be used to supply context if the reader
clicks on the arrow above or below the quote.

DEMO: (3 min video introduction)

[https://www.CiteIt.net/](https://www.CiteIt.net/)

GOALS:

My goal is to allow journalists academics, and web authors to demonstrate the
context of their citations so they can help their readers quickly learn more
and to distinguish themselves from the less credible and the "fake news".

One of my additional goals is to expand into audio and video, allowing authors
to cite transcripts of audio and YouTube videos easily, and then display this
videos inline at the cited starting position if the reader chooses. This would
allow a journalist to quote a public figure in text, but to have the video
popup if a reader wished to see the full context. (See Issue #10 for a mockup
of YouTube Video version.)

ABOUT MY PROJECT:

My project features a python web service and jQuery plugin frontend, packaged
for WordPress authors as a (currently private) WordPress plugin and available
as a straight jQuery custom function for programmers to integrate into any
CMS.

All code is available on GitHub and MIT licensed:
[https://www.citeit.net/code/](https://www.citeit.net/code/)

My eventual goal is to work with the internet archive and make my project part
of their system, including an auto-archive feature that would archive a copy
of everything an author cites.

I've also talked with someone who has worked for the Wikimedia foundation. It
looks like the best way to make this available to them is to package the code
to run as a Docker image so that Wikipedia could self-host my service and use
it for their quotes. (He says he can write the plugin for MediaWiki. I just
need to provide the web service).

TOP ISSUES IN NEED OF HELP:

You can see the list of top issues in need of help on the volunteer page.

[https://www.CiteIt.net/volunteer/](https://www.CiteIt.net/volunteer/)

Here are a few highlights: (snip)

2) Create a standardized text version of every submitted web page, including a
text version of PDF and Word Docs. [https://github.com/CiteIt/citeit-
webservice/issues/2](https://github.com/CiteIt/citeit-webservice/issues/2)

3) Verify that the quote matches the original, even if the citing quote uses
[C]apitalization or .. ellipses

10) Create a streamlined process to download YouTube transcripts so that
authors can easily quote them and calculate the starting position. Preliminary
work: [https://github.com/CiteIt/transcript-to-time-
mapping](https://github.com/CiteIt/transcript-to-time-mapping)

11) Develop an interface to make it easy to crowdsource the cleanup of auto-
generated transcripts.

Right now, this is just a one-man project. You can email me for more info or
give me a call if you're interested.

\- Tim Langeman: Akron, PA (USA)
[https://openpolitics.com/tim](https://openpolitics.com/tim) (contact info)

P.S. Be sure to watch the video first:
[https://www.CiteIt.net/](https://www.CiteIt.net/) (3 min video introduction)

