Omeka

The Omeka Team plans to host another pre-THATCamp playdate at CHNM on May 21, 2010 from 10am – 3pm. As always, the playdates are free and the wisdom gained is priceless.

This playdate will focus on design and development. We are seeking participants who are already working with Omeka and are looking to improve their development and/or design skills. As usual, we will begin and end the day together as a big group, and will spend much of the time working in small groups.

For more information and registration, please see the May Playdate page on the codex. Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis.

We are trying something new this year and launching our first Omeka Plugin Rush. The Omeka Team needs help building plugins, so we decided to turn to our Omeka developer community for some assistance. Will you help us?

What, you might ask, will developers get in return for this work? In addition to the public praise the Omeka team will heap upon you, we will send along a mystery box of SWAG and a cash prize–each plugin pays a different amount depending on difficulty.

While we appreciate your ideas for plugins, we have a few in mind for the Rush. By May 1, 2010, we want working code for the following plugins:

• Flickr importer–grab images, metadata and imports into Omeka.($250)
• User tagging–allow anonymous users to tag items on public site. ($100)
• Autocomplete for metadata–make data entry easier by suggesting previously used terms for each field with a dropdown box.($100)
• Timeline Widget– allow users to add a SIMILE Timeline widget to their theme.($100)
• Feed Importer ($250)–import data from Atom and RSS feeds.
• Flash Wrapper ($100)–displays movie files with an embedded flash video player widget.

If you are interested in “rushing”, please do the following:

• Check out the specs for each plugin.
• Email our dev team(will at omeka dot org) stating which plugin you want to build and include a quick proposal or outline for approaching the code (Only one plugin per person or team).
• Wait for dev team response. They will review proposals, make suggestions, and contact applicants to assign plugins. Once a plugin is assigned, it will come off of the list.

This Plugin Rush will be managed and updated on the dev list, and then we will announce the developers on the blog once the code is available for download in the Omeka plugin directory.

This is a great opportunity to test your skills, help an open-source community, and get a box of random things from the Omeka Team.

Tell your friends!

Six more weeks of winter lie ahead, making the forthcoming frigid days perfect for starting or tweaking an Omeka project. The Omeka team will be working hard as well in February during the newly-designated “Omeka Outreach Month.”

We plan to write a few blog posts, seek assistance with plugin and theme development, and drop a new version at the end of the month featuring new themes and updated plugins. We also want to tweet new Omeka projects, so please share URLs:

• in an email: outreach at omeka dot org;
• on Twitter: @omeka;
• or by posting to the Showcase wiki.

To kick off the month, we set up a Designer-Developer Marketplace forum to serve as a virtual meeting space where anyone looking to showcase her/his Omeka design and development skills can connect with others in need of an experienced designer-developer.

If you want to help with Omeka outreach this month, contact us and we will send you some bookmarks to pass out at conferences or to impress your friends and co-workers.

Open-source projects need strong communities, and we want to extend our thanks to everyone for working together and sharing knowledge (and code) to build one around Omeka.

Are you going to the National Council on Public History meeting in Providence, RI? If you are interested in learning more about how Omeka can help with your public history projects, we are holding an informal workshop (aka “playdate”), on Thursday, April 2.

Visit the Omeka wiki to learn more and sign up for the NCPH workshop. Not going to NCPH? Look at the list of upcoming conference presentations–Omeka may be coming to your town soon.

We have scheduled 2 “playdates” for 20 interested users to come to CHNM and work with the Omeka team. In one room, 10 developers will work with the dev team to build plugins, hack themes, or add to the documentation. In the other room, 10 end users/content creators, will learn how to manage an Omeka archive and build exhibits.

If you’re interested, read the details and sign up on the Codex Wiki:

• February 20, 2009
• June 26, 2009.

We will also start posting dates of conference workshops/presentations in a new section of the Codex, Upcoming Workshops.

Stop in and see us sometime.