

Offer HN: I'll build it, you design it - b9704

If you're a designer with an idea but haven't been able to team up with a developer I may be able to help you out.<p>I have some time on my hands so I'm offering 24 hours of rails development (spread over a week or so) to help build your mvp.  Post your idea here and I'll choose one to work on from the top 3 most voted ideas.<p>- you'll need a git repo I can commit to<p>- you'll retain full ownership over everything<p>- you'll have to do the design, I'm offering rails development only<p>No charge. No catch.  I just thought it would be fun to collaborate with someone and hopefully build something people will use.
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wittjeff
IT for the Blind. (non-profit) Basically like Kickstarter, but applicants will
be asking for (pooled) funding for always-too-expensive technology that helps
overcome vision problems. Check out Humanware.com for example of this kind of
gear.

The main problem with this kind of technology is that it remains very
expensive, even as tech in general keeps getting cheaper. A CCTV that would
help Grandma write checks and read Christmas cards may cost $1500 on the low
end. The market-dominant screen reader applications have been around $800
since I was an accessibility program manager in the 90s. The main problem is
that with such a small market they don't get good economies of scale. Some
have estimated that we may currently reach as little as 5% of the affected
population, and cost is a big factor.

Fundraising for Guide Dogs for the Blind, and their many clones, is
ridiculously easy. It's a pitch everyone can understand. Well, guide dogs get
many blind people outside their house, but technology lets them keep middle-
class jobs, interact with the world via the internet, etc. In terms of
fundraising, it's a fairly powerful pitch, but there is no equivalent central
non-profit that just focuses on IT. Most of the non-profits out there focus on
skills training or fighting the causes of blindness. IT for the Blind will
first determine whether applicants can get funding from schools and employers
(as required by law), then pass on the many requests that aren't addressed by
existing sources.

I've got board members / founders and a UI spec, but haven't been focusing on
this one because my consulting work has been keeping me busy. I'll be able to
work on it full time in the summer, and having a MVP would make initial donor
fundraising much easier.

By the way, you should assume that donated work would be tax deductible, if we
get 501(c)(3) status this year. :) Thanks!

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b9704
Great idea and a worthy cause. What do you think about (eventually) releasing
the code as open source?

I'm in the UK so US tax regulations aren't relevant.

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wittjeff
I'm definitely open to sharing code. I also have friends in the UK who have
deep experience in this area and can give advice on setting up a non-profit
over there.

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martinshen
If you have availability... probably more long term than short.. My buddy is
looking for a good dev to work with the music industry. He's building fan
sites with gaming elements. He has a few medium names signed up: Wale, Diggy
and others at Rock Nation. He's seed FFF funded and raising cash. I'd work but
I'm caught up with <http://UpOut.com>

Shoot me a PM martincshen [at] gmail.com if you're interested in it.

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systemtrigger
Wow, that's very kind of you. I'm just learning Rails so would appreciate the
help with my mvp.

I designed and prototyped a text-to-speech service - <http://audiothink.com>
\- and need help making it work.

It's on heroku. If you provide me your email address I will add you as a
collaborator to git@heroku.com:seirt.git

Otherwise here is the identical repo on github:
git@github.com:ryanm/audiothink.git

I was thinking of using Wufoo to handle payments. That may be out-of-scope for
an mvp, but if it isn't I can add you as a collaborator on Wufoo as well.

My email address is systemtrig@gmail.com if you want to discuss. To anyone
else reading this, I could sure use a co-founder with some Rails skills -
please reach out to me if you're interested in partnering.

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maxbrown
Simple, inexpensive, drop.io-style assignment management for educators. E-mail
me for more info if interested in the project - maxbrown at umich.edu.

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kingsidharth
Where do we contact you? Possible on email? I have the idea ready, how it's
gonna work out - ready.

I think I can learn rails enf to do the views and design part later - but core
is what I need help in.

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b9704
I'd prefer if people post their ideas here.

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kingsidharth
Idea: Take reading material from your Instapaper & Twitter (more services
later) and suggest you the best ones out of all to read.

I don't have time to read 1000 links that cross my way and most of them I miss
out. So just gives me the best and improves suggestions based on reading
habits.

I've the factors I decided to rank the articles. Can mail you the flow-chart
or something?

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wittjeff
Do you have an algorithm for this, or an app idea? Some folks at the MIT Media
Lab worked on this concept in the early 90s. See for example
[http://web.media.mit.edu/~lieber/Lieberary/Letizia/AIA/AIA.h...](http://web.media.mit.edu/~lieber/Lieberary/Letizia/AIA/AIA.html).
I mention it only because it might be relevant intellectual property; I don't
claim to be up to date in that area.

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kingsidharth
I have the parameters for it sorted out. So basically the concept for algo is
in place but not implemented yet.

I am not sure about IP, that ways somebody might have concept of commenting
IP'ed. =/

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systemtrigger
Which project did you choose?

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b9704
I haven't yet but I plan to tonight

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robflynn
Please keep us updated when you have time. I have been interested in doing
something similar to this, possibly in exchange for some design work on one of
my own projects.

Now I've just got to find the time.

