Developer forums / pet project / contributing to open source projects...

[malfunction]

Hi folks,

To cut a long story short (or at least shorter) I used to be a designer / developer / programmer but of late (past 4 or so years) I've been merely a consultant working with products that other people have designed and developed. Now it may sound sad - even to fellow geeks - but I miss the creative process and the challenge of actually creating software rather than implementing and customising software created by others. As such I'm wondering if there's a good way to keep my skills and interests alive - but the kicker is that due to the day job / real life it would be difficult for me to commit to a fixed level of effort. So the questions are:

Where would be a good place to go to discuss development - e.g. design and implementation of specific requirements? (I've contributed to the odd thread here but it's not exactly a busy part of hexus)

Does anyone have any experience with contributing to open source projects or other collaborative work outside of their day job?

My interests are pretty wide.

I started out programming (crap) graphical demos and (very crap) games on an Amiga during my early teens (20 or so years ago). Since then I've done various bits - largely back end code including workflow systems, SMS / MMS services (yup, text messaging), web servlets, web scripting, app server hosted 'business service' code, network management apps (fault and performance management), etc, through various jobs.

In terms of specific skills I've spent a couple of years doing COBOL, the odd bit of C/C++ over the past 10 or so years , the best part of 6 years doing Java, a fair bit of HTML, DHTML, CSS and JavaScript and a lot of SQL (including designing schema, not just queries)...

I guess the core of it is that I'm bored and would like a challenge and I'd also like to keep my skills fresh as while my current day job has some design and development aspects it's not that in-depth or low level; these days my job is more about getting new systems up and running, training people, writing white papers and tuning and tweaking existing systems.

[directhex]

Just find a project you use & like, check their bug tracker, and fix **** up - whether it's new features or bugs, it'll get you known to the app's developer community, and eventually lead to a more prominent role

[aidanjt]

Agreed with DirectHex, firing off the occasional patch to opensource projects is the best way to keep your skill set sharpened.

Before you get all managerial and serious on us.

[scaryjim]

Alternatively, think of an app / service that you'd like, start work on it, then advertise it and try to get more people involved.

If you've done plenty of Java then it might be worth looking at Android App development: probably a different set of challenges than you've faced before, and certainly plenty of opportunity for creativity.

I'm in a similar position myself having spent the last 7 - 8 months working on a single project that's been somewhat lacking in the planning and management phases (but don't tell my boss I said that ). On the other hand, I've been developing from scratch, so I've not been completely devoid of creative input - but 7 months solid looking at the same codebase can drive one slightly batty, I find...

[malfunction]

Originally Posted by scaryjim

Alternatively, think of an app / service that you'd like, start work on it, then advertise it and try to get more people involved.

Unfortunately I'm not great at staying motivated on my own pet projects - I tend to be in the "I never finish anyt..." category unless someone else is expecting me to deliver (I don't need monitoring or pushing as such but if the only person asking for the work is me I find it very easy to tell myself to take the day off )

Originally Posted by scaryjim

If you've done plenty of Java then it might be worth looking at Android App development: probably a different set of challenges than you've faced before, and certainly plenty of opportunity for creativity.

Interesting idea... Might look at that one.

Originally Posted by scaryjim

I'm in a similar position myself having spent the last 7 - 8 months working on a single project that's been somewhat lacking in the planning and management phases (but don't tell my boss I said that ). On the other hand, I've been developing from scratch, so I've not been completely devoid of creative input - but 7 months solid looking at the same codebase can drive one slightly batty, I find...

Very hard not to get side tracked if you're the only person working on an app - can be a mixed blessing really - nice to have the control but very easy to go off at a tangent.

[kalniel]

1) Check that your current employment allows you to do this. You're almost certainly fine, especially if you're not doing that sort of thing in the day job, and they'd probably have quite a struggle to stop you anyway, but you may have to declare this kind of thing to your employer.

2) I find games projects excellent for this sort of thing. Get into something like Dragon Age and there's a whole community being set up for people to contribute to projects using a wide range of skills. I think the current site is social.bioware.com

[scaryjim]

Originally Posted by malfunction

Unfortunately I'm not great at staying motivated on my own pet projects - I tend to be in the "In never finish anyt..." category ...

That sounds disturbingly familiar

Originally Posted by malfunction

Very hard not to get side tracked if you're the only person working on an app - can be a mixed blessing really - nice to have the control but very easy to go off at a tangent.

I find it more the case that I am very focussed for maybe 2 - 3 weeks at a time, then I either get project fatigue and try to find *anything* I can do instead, or (more often) I stumble on a particularly poorly specified aspect and lose all motivation to even try to find out what it's meant to mean. It doesn't help that this particular project is essentially my boss' pet project and we've so far had no end user input... when I actually stop and think about what I'm doing it makes me weep...

Do you have any developer friends living in your locality? You could always have a once a month meet up to discuss current projects / exchange ideas... that might help to provide additional motivation?

[Funkstar]

I think directhex's suggestion is the best one. I wish I had more time and the programming skills to contribute to a couple of different projects. Those being MediaPortal and Logitech's Squeezebox Server.

Even just writing a couple of plugins would be good.