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I'd like to be able to assign to an luser

Avoiding abuse is very important, obviously.

My idea was that this would just be a "match-making" service, with most of the traffic taking place out of the Monastery.

The section would be moderated, with the moderator eliminating requests that are clearly not from non-profits. This would be pretty easy to do in most cases.

It would then be up to individual monks from there to choose their projects and verify the status of the agency.

I think this is a great idea - I know many technically inclined people who might like to donate their time and skills but see no way to do so that wouldn't take up way more time than they have.

I would therefore suggest some way that people can get recognition for the hours they put into these community projects - perhaps a web page listing contributions. Mainly for those people who want to demonstrate their charitable time contribution (the self-employed, college applicants, etc.)

I was just going to post an almost identical idea. Mine was more of a "group projects" or "ideas" section. I tend to have ideas for scripts that are WAY over my head. I spend weeks trying to put them together, and sometimes they never see completion. Sometimes they get done, but they could be more efficient or better written.

I would like to work on different projects to improve my skills, and I'm a little ashamed to say, I code for fun quite a bit.

The only drawback of this section would be the preponderance of homework postings...

-OzzyOsbourne

Wouldn't SourceForge fit the "shared projects" profile?

I'm think strictly a "match up civic-minded monks with non-profits needing help" section, with a focus on projects of varying length. Quick hits to larger scope projects.

Probably browsing perlmonks.org :)

Please don't get me wrong, I am all for donating time, i work with several different forums that are a bit obscure. I am starting an on-line club for the high school near me to help some of the kids there get into computers. I work with the non-profit my sister works for to help them with computer needs. I follow a few mailing lists that are non-profits and read posts and send snippets that way- (kinda like PM). There are plenty of opportunites to be a do gooder in our own everday lives, I don't think we at PM should try to play project manager for non-profits. I don't and don't think most of us here need anymore meetings/conference calls/deadlines. I much prefer the small work that picking up a side job(donated) here or there offers.

Thanks for your personal thoughts and concerns on the idea. I think I need to clarify what I'm proposing.

Our system would just match-make, providing a forum for non-profits and monks to connect. A non-profit would post a proposal, a moderator would decide if it's truly from a non-profit, and it would go into a section of the site. During the request process, all sorts of disclaimers could be put out- a couple obvious ones are "We don't guarantee anyone will help you, PerlMonks isn't liable, the work and it's security, functionality, and useability isn't the responsibility of PerlMonks, etc."

Monks could then visit the section and browse through. If a monk is particularly interested in helping an environmental organization, they could look for that type of project. If they don't like the project, they don't have to do it. If a monk wants to help a pro-choice group, great. If they want to help a children's advocacy group, great. Again, it's up the individual monk what they want to get involved in.

Having worked for non-profits for the last six years, I can answer some of your questions:

1. Abuse: I think it's up to the individual monk to determine the validity of an organization and it's project.
2. Non-Profit integrity: I've always worked for the poor, "scrappy" non-profits, mostly environmental organizations. I can't comment on how the well funded ones operate. However, we ran our own telephone calling centers, didn't call anyone but our members, and only 20% of a telephone donation went to administrative costs. I was the DBA for the membership department, so I was intimately involved with the fundraising. It's actually rather economical to run a phone project.
   
   Regardless of the above, a monk could choose the organization they want to help, and not help those they don't agree with.
3. Who to help: This would be up to the monk. They could poke around 'til they found a project that interested them.
4. No-one helping: It would be articulated to the non-profit among the disclaimers that we can't guarantee that anyone is going to pick up their project.
5. Getting slammed for crappy code: This would be the monks fault. Again, the PerlMonks site would just match-make. The monk would handle everything, including responsibility, after making the initial connection.

Most of the concerns about this idea has been from people who wouldn't have the time to get involved, or folks who don't really seem to trust non-profits. That's fine, and all valid issues. Don't work on any of the projects. I still think having this opportunity available to the monastery would be a good one. Maybe even something a foundation would throw some money at.

One thing that's distressing me about this thread is that none of the higher-level monks have weighed in on this.

Is this an idiotic idea, or something that would build the monastery?

Doing volunteer scripts could even have an experience factor to it. Complete a project and get points.

The main reason that I never weighed in is that I only just read the node.

Personally I am at best lukewarm on it. I don't like people looking at the talent arrayed here and drooling over how it can be used. This section of the talent already is fully utilized. I work for a for profit company, sure. However I also view time and energy spent on Perlmonks as donated time. And I have other things that I like to do, both with and without a computer in front of me.

So I wouldn't be involved. I suspect many others would likewise be unavailable. And monks who are inclined to volunteer have no shortage of ways to do that already. Off of the top of my head, worthy projects include SEUL, The FSF, plus virtually any large volunteer organization has data infrastructure needs. Do as Larry Wall does, volunteer to help at your churches website!

In fact looking through the comments, I see a lot of people who can think of things they want resources thrown at. I don't see a lot of people saying that they cannot find places to put their energy. Until we get that, I have to wonder how well it would work.

(Sorry)

That's fine, I don't expect that every monk has the time to spare to do perl coding for free. However, It's not that easy to find "volunteer organizations with data infrastructure needs." Most non-profits are so far removed from technology (besides being consumers of it) that to even talk in those terms is to lose them. However, they often have some idea of what they want to do, but absolutely no way of knowing even where to start.

A couple of examples: I know a non-profit in Boston that contacted me about building a job board for homeless African-Americans. Involved project, sounds perfect for a college student, but way too time intensive for me. I could post this on a volunteer section, and someone would get involved, or wouldn't.

Another one: an environmental organization is running a boycott campaign and would like to set up a way for visitors to sign up for action alert lists and send emails to political targets. Far easier project, maybe a couple of simple scripts. A good weekend project for a monk.

Hopefully the projects would vary enough in time and intensity that a monk could find something to fit in with the time they have available.

I know this idea is warm-and-fuzzy. I think there's a need, and I really feel that if I do volunteer work now, I want to code. It's too valuable a skill to waste.