[ad_1] I was wondering, where should I go if I want to find a developer to work with on an idea? I have an idea for a product. I know the market well, I’m part of the target audience, and I just need someone else that would be passionate and interested in the idea just as much as myself to have to agree to work on an open-source project. Tinder for project partners? Derin If I am being honest, your question reminds me of my cousin. He is what I call an “ideas” guy. Every few weeks or so, he calls me up with several new rough concepts of things that could make some money. Most of these conversations end with him asking if I could build him a website or an app. “We can split the profits 50/50,” he would say. I then tell him that I would rather be paid upfront and show him my rates. He can reap 100% of the profits down the line. He moves on to the next thing. As I said, he has loads of ideas. His problem is with the follow-through. Anyone can dream up the perfect product or service. The stumbling blocks tend to be all the steps between concept and production. It will be hard to sell any legitimate developer on a dream alone. Feeding, sheltering, and clothing one’s family comes first. You must have a way to pay for those things in almost all scenarios. I have built projects on nothing but faith with others. Some have worked out. Most have not. Having cash on hand to pay for those months in development will provide a smidgeon of security for the programmer putting in the time to turn a dream into reality. One of those projects I completed for my cousin in my younger and less-financially-intelligent days was a hunting and fishing “magazine” website. It actually saw some early success. The accompanying Facebook group grew to about 1,500 members in the first year or so. The audience was there, but there was no business plan. There were no products or services. No advertising deals. No payday coming for Justin. I know 100s of developers who have been in the same boat at one point or another. Most of them wise up after the first project or two that goes nowhere. Most dream projects that folks build will be personal itches that they are scratching. If there is no guarantee of a paycheck, it is something they are already passionate about. It sounds like that is the sort of person you want to work with, so you will need to find someone likely already motivated about the same market as you. Without knowing your particular market, it is hard to say where your starting point might be. Let us assume your idea is the Next Big Thing. If you need someone on the development end, you should be prepared to take on the other roles to make the project successful. Do you have a business plan? What is your marketing approach? Do you have research that shows there is a market for the idea? Mockups of a potential UI? If you want to pitch someone on coming along for your journey, make sure you have done everything possible to show that it is something worthwhile. Where to find that elusive partner, though? It tends to be easier to find open doors when you are involved in the WordPress development community. It is about making connections. That can be through blogging or joining a business-friendly community like Post Status. The more involved you are, the more people you can meet who may share your passions or be able to point you to others who do. My usual advice would be to visit your local WordCamp to meet others in person. Of course, during this Covid-era, such conferences are virtual. There are tons of online-only events that can help you connect with people in the community. Those human-to-human connections are your foundation, even if they are just over the web. I do like the notion of a “Tinder” for WordPress project partners, or at least some type of networking place for folks. That could be a unique site and service you could build without a developer — just a domain, hosting plan, and a business model. It could even be the launchpad for finding the partner for your dream project. If all else fails, there is always the DIY route — I am guessing you are not a developer. Many plugin authors have been born from a dream and not a lick of coding knowledge. I started in this industry primarily because I needed my website to have specific functionality. With no money to pay for it, I just started learning. I even enjoyed the art of programming and built a semi-successful business that I ran for over a decade. It is not some magical skill that only a certain few possess. Anyone can pick up the trade with time and effort. If you do not have a developer in your corner, that may just need to be one of the hats you must wear as you kick-start your project. Once you start turning a profit, you can hire out that position. I have probably not adequately answered your question. The truth is that anything I have ever done with success has started by connecting with others in the WordPress community. So, I am going to kick this can down to our readers. How would you approach finding the right development partner for a great idea? Like this: Like Loading… [ad_2] Source link
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Edupack Is Tackling Higher Ed With WordPress, Looking for Development Partners – WP Tavern
[ad_1] “We’re basically building the Jetpack for Higher Ed,” said Blake Bertuccelli as he pitched me on the idea of Edupack, a project still in its early stages. He and his team are looking for more advisors to join the eighth round of their once-monthly braintrust events. It is a project they began in November 2020, now coming to fruition. Feedback is crucial to pushing such undertakings out of the gate, and the team needs more of it. Bertuccelli listed several focal points for the Edupack project: Onboarding: New campus users can set up a beautiful campus WordPress site with a few clicks. Archiving: Stale sites are automatically archived to save campus resources. Reporting: Accessibility, plagiarism, and resource usage can be accessed from the Edupack dashboard. Brand and Content Management: Approved Higher Ed content patterns and universal brand controls keep sites beautiful and consistent. Configuration Management: Cloud-controlled configuration settings means admins can control millions of sites from one place. Onboarding form with Tulane-branded elements. “Our onboarding form offers pre-built sites for users to start from,” said Bertuccelli. “So, if a scientist needs a new site for their lab, the scientist can select a pre-built lab site from our onboarding form then add in their unique content.” Bertuccelli is Edupack’s CEO. He called himself a “forever learner” and is currently reading A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell. “I paid for my Tulane education by coding WordPress themes,” said Bertuccelli. “After college, I founded one of New Orleans’ first WordPress dev shops (Decubing). A year ago, I presented on building a self-publishing platform with Multisite at WP Campus. The feedback was phenomenal, and two blokes from Birmingham offered to work on a plugin with me. A few months later, we launched Edupack’s MVP. Since then, folks from Harvard, Dartmouth, and about 17 other universities have been working with us to make WordPress an even better CMS for Higher Ed pros.” The “two blokes” he is referring to are his co-founders, Nathan Monk and Matt Lees. They run a WordPress shop called SMILE. Monk is serving as Edupack’s CTO. Lees is the Chief Creative Officer — Bertuccelli called him “Lord of the UX.” Altogether, the three co-founders have over 30 years of experience working with Higher Ed and WordPress. The Edupack team is making accessible content a priority, which is a primary issue for Higher Ed. The goal is to offer A11Y reports inside of the WordPress dashboard and tie them into publishing workflows. This would notify users of errors as they publish content. “Our accessibility reports tie into another feature we are launching this month: site archiving,” said Bertuccelli. “Campus users graduate and often forget about their sites. Edupack sends a notification to a user if the site hasn’t been accessed, then adds an “archived” meta value to the site that super administrators can take action from. Setting up automated archiving. “Devs often recode thousands of sites to add new Campus branding,” said Bertuccelli on the reasons behind Edupack. “Department budgets are drained on resources for stale sites. Institutions are sued over inaccessible content or misused branding. “Edupack intends to automate website management so that Higher Ed pros can focus on supporting education.” The following video is an introduction to Edupack: Join the Braintrust Session Every third Wednesday of each month, Edupack holds a “Braintrust” event. Bertuccelli says it is the best way to get involved. The session lasts for an hour over a Zoom video chat. The next event is scheduled for July 21, 10 am – 11 am (CDT). Each session focuses on a single question. Next week’s question: “How can we enhance WordPress blocks for Higher Ed?” “We’ll demo Edupack updates, brainstorm solutions for block enhancements, then wrap up with action steps for us to do by next month,” said Bertuccelli. “Folks who manage WordPress sites for global institutions and companies have attended our last seven braintrusts. Any Higher Ed pro is welcome!” Those interested can also keep track of progress via the Edupack blog. Pricing and the Future There is currently no publicly available pricing list. The project’s FAQs page says the team is still tuning the costs, and Bertuccelli remained quiet on any hard numbers. “Community colleges can’t afford tech used by bigger schools,” he said. “That’s not fair. Edupack will be priced so that every institution can afford the service. We haven’t thought about pricing beyond that.” Universities that wish to get check out the project should schedule a demo from the site’s homepage. Edupack has around 20 institutions serving as development partners and guiding the roadmap. The team invites new schools to join every few months. Currently, Tulane and the University of Gloucestershire are using Edupack. Harvard and Dartmouth should be next. The service is limited to universities and colleges at the moment. However, the team would eventually like to expand across the education sector. After that, we will have to see. “Edupack’s features can be applied to any industry where users run lots of sites,” said Bertuccelli. “I could see ad agencies using Edupack, hosting companies integrating our tools, and School Districts running their site network via Edupack and WordPress.” Like this: Like Loading… [ad_2] Source link
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