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  •   over 2 years ago

Can I build a COSS product that can be used for OSS projects and maintainers?

The goal is to provide a free community version that anybody can self host at your heart's content.
And a paid version in the maintainers hosted version.

It will be hosted on GitLab.
And looking at the hashtag options, in the Additional Info step, I'd say the most appropriate is `#fun`!

  • 7 comments

  • Manager   •   over 2 years ago

    If you believe your project is a social impact value add to the GitLab Wider Community and you've reviewed the scoring criteria, you should be all good :)

    From the criteria: "Present proof of concept demos that expand the global CI/CD catalog with CI/CD component additions, conduct AI experiments with/on GitLab, contribute to the development of GitLab, create a social impact for the Wider GitLab Community or enhance the overall quality of GitLab."

  •   •   over 2 years ago

    Thanks for your reply Fatima.
    I just read again the rules, the requirements and the scoring criteria.

    TL'DR: I am not very optimistic it will pass "Stage One)" paragraph of section 6! [:-(]
    This just feels like Tech Interview for Sr Software Engineers... :-D

    BTW: if you read the longer version and want to chat a bit more, I am on GitLab Discord.

    **THE LONGER VERSION**
    The nuances and official interpretation of this wording is what is tricky for me.
    I do see value added to the GitLab Wider Community, but the official interpretation may disagree with me... which is totally ok.
    I also see a social impact to the industry itself, but again, this is my personal point of view and a lot of people in the world would not agree with it... again, totally ok! :-D

    This idea that I have will target OSS creators & maintainers (as an OSS dev I am the first user of what I am conceptualing...), people with multiple side projects, or multiple domains for whatever reason, is Open Core model (which is GitLab model), so anybody with access to GitLab can self-host in their own cloud service, or purchase it from the creators of the project, and a few other future use that might improve the GitLab ecosystem (not CI nor AI though...).

    My question **is NOT** about what I am planning to propose is useful or not.
    My question ***IS*** about whether it fits in the rules of the Hackathon or not.

    When I look at the tags, in the project requirements (here: https://gitlab.devpost.com/rules), maybe, maybe it goes into the #fun section.
    It is crystal clear that my project does not fit #cicdcatalog and #ai:
    3. #cicdcatalog: my project has nothing to do with this whatsoever. I will use GitLab CI though...
    5. #ai: my project has nothing to do with this whatsoever. And there won't have anything AI related to it...

    I can see that in a happy future where these 2 will benefit from (but I'd say the odds of the judging criteria agreeing with me are small):
    1. #socialimpact: the odds here is not in my favor (by a very good marging) that the official interpretation will agree it applies.
    2. #dx: the odds here is absolutely not my favor. Maybe in a distant happy future... but not for the context of this hackathon.

    And at last, #fun, seems the most open and generic, and welcome and inclusive enough, but again `ROFL` will differ amazingly amongst people in the internet, that I feel more discouraged than encouraged...
    If it there was only a #other, or #oss... :-D

    Anyway, as I write this long message I feel less encouraged that will properly fit the rules.
    I appreciate any feedback as I'd rather not submit if it doesn't fit the rules...
    I will be happy to use my time and energy just rooting for those who have ideas that fit the rules!
    And go to the drawing board trying to find other ideas for this hackathon.

  • Manager   •   over 2 years ago

    Hi Helio,

    I don't fully know what you're intending to build but know that creating something where the only link with GitLab is that you can log in with GitLab and it's hosted on GitLab might not be a sufficient value-add to the GitLab Wider Community. We can't, per the rules, give you personal guidance as that would be unfair. You can however try to be more specific what you are building and we can try to answer you here in public so that everyone in this competition can learn from those answers?

    If you're in doubt, I'd say go for it. Building something new is always an educational journey for yourselves so in the case you don't win any price, you will have won knowledge for sure!

  •   •   over 2 years ago

    Hi Nick,
    Thank you for your reply. I tried to answer earlier but I got side tracked.

    Both your reply and Fatima's help me organize my thoughts and realize what I was initially planning to submit doesn't fit the criterias of the Hackathon.

    In retrospect, going back to the rules, #tags, and the Judges & Criteria ("Stage One)"), as suggested by Fatima, really helped me answer my question whether what I want to build fits the hackathon or not.

    But everytime I come back here I come back to "add value to the wider GitLab community" as I have a strong belief that providing this thingy to OSS developers and maintainers means "adding value to the wider GitLab community", but still the it doesn't fit in neither one of the tags (#socialimpact, #dx, #cicdcatalog, #fun...).

  • Manager   •   over 2 years ago

    Why not go ahead, try and pitch it? Fear is never a good advisor. Go and build your dream.

  • Manager   •   about 2 years ago

    Appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts and review the judging criteria!

    I would agree with Nick, pitch your idea and see what happens! You might find that building out the submission video allows you to articulate the project and if not the competition, you may be able to share to get collaborators in the community for your project itself.

    The only other thing I can add after reading the longer explanation is that if you have an inkling that your project answers the "impact on wider community" criteria, I would recommend focusing your pitch on that and really reiterating it :)

  •   •   about 2 years ago

    Thank you both Nick and Fatima for the words of inspiration!
    I will build this thingy no matter what (even if it is only for the related conference talk that I am expecting to be accepted #ROFL), the GitLab Innocation Hackathon already got me started!

    The clock is ticking! :-D

    #hackathondrivendevelopment #conferencedrivendevelopment

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