Might be helpful advice for anyone looking to beef up a resume or portfolio.
aus writes “I’ve been doing web development for about 10 years now. It’s been very good to me, but I want to do more than write HTML, PHP, JavaScript and CSS. Since the job market isn’t all that great right now in the US, it would seem that volunteering some time on an open source project would give me the satisfaction I’m looking for. The problem is finding a project that wants/needs help that I would also be interested in. I’ve tried browsing around on Sourceforge and Freshmeat … is there a site somewhere that I’m not aware of that has classifieds where open source project maintainers post ‘job’ listings?”Read more of this story at Slashdot.
I didn’t read the article but I think i have some relevant input. I recently gradutated from the New Media program. I myself am not a person who can do code or wants to do code, I am more of a creative mind and I like to think of myself as an artist. In an economy on the rebound there isn’t much work out there for a recent grad with little field experience who refuses to build you a webpage. Yet I find myself urning to be creative and let my artistic nature be seen.
After moving (back) to Lewiston I familiarized myself with the artist scene developing in the city and quickly noticed that while attending various so called cultured events I repeatedly encountered the same crowd who were themselves untouched with the very diverse culture that makes up the city. And so I decided to take action.
Armed with only a small HD camera and some brass balls I took to the city asking it’s residences to recite an original Haiku for me. These video Haiku’s are then segregated from 5 syllable sentences and 7 syllable sentences then passed on to my collaborator a max/msp developer in the UK whom I contacted through the cycling74 website. (DAMN I LOVE THE NET) He is designing a program that will randomly select from a 5 syllable sentence then 7 then 5, forming a new, organic, and original Haiku composed of various sentences from the various people that make up the cities residence, I’m calling it community through poetry. This project is still in it’s early stages, i have about 20 or so Haiku’s recorded, the goal is to hit 100 so there will be literally thousands of possible Haiku’s.
The point is, my current occupation is not something that challenges me intellectually or artistically so I pursued the many resources available to further my creativity.
Alex, this project sounds amazing! It’s great to hear you found a creative niche so quickly–I hope you will add a blog post about the project as it matures.
will do. it’s starting to grow through word of mouth and general interest. I’ll post some updates as they come in, I’ve just been contacted by a writer for a Magazine highlighting things around the Lewiston Auburn area (where i currently live) who wants to do a spread about the project so that will hopefully generate more interest!
I can definitely attest to the benefits of working no open source projects to get gainful employment down the road. On a number of occasions, our lab has highered the author of an open source library or paper about a certain approach to implement into custom projects.