Our goal with solvers is complementary. We're very focussed on enabling hackers and other technically skilled people to solve problems. And once we've got the platform in shape, we want to build a community that actively seeks out people who could use their help. We hope to have subject-specific task forces that go looking for projects to solve.
So, it doesn't really bring anything to the table then. (that's not meant to be as rude as it sounds - text doesn't lend well to that type of statement).
Why not just work with catchafire to branch off your task force idea rather than weakening an already weak system of nation-wide volunteers?
seems like catchafire focuses on actual organizations and requires an interview with volunteers.
i'd really like a platform where i can just practice my skills and learn new things on someone's open source project, rather than committing myself as a volunteer of a nonprofit.
i have skills i'd like to improve on in a practical application with guidance. there are people who need, or dont want to do, that kind of work. we just can't find eachother.
Me and davedx have discussed this before and we came to this conclusion: it's a healthy thing to have multiple sites in the same space. In reality, a few people control the direction of each site. There can only be a single direction for each site. If we were to merge, it would greatly reduce our ability to experiment with new ideas, and ultimately we think it would reduce the number of problems being solved. We don't mind if it's us or them who leads to problems getting solved, we just want to help as many people as possible.
What we're very interested in is having a reciprocal agreement with other similar sites, so that we link to them and encourage our solvers to join all the communities. This way, whichever has the best ideas will help the most people. We already have an agreement with interdisciplinaryprogramming.com which hasn't launched yet, and we're in touch with openhatch.org. We'll talk to catchafire too, and we'd love to hear about anything else in this space.
