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If you are reading this you likely do not need to be told about the importance and many benefits of free and open-source software. Much of the software that powers the Geminispace is FOSS and many Geminauts are themselves maintainers of, or contributors to, FOSS projects.
Those who support FOSS principles but may lack the technical skills (or simply the inclination) to contribute code to FOSS projects can still contribute by writing documentation, providing feedback or even donating money to development efforts. However, there are a number of projects out there that seek to apply similar principles (ie, the crowd-sourcing and free sharing of information) to fields other than software. In this post we will briefly discuss a few of these projects and how you can get involved.
One of the better known open data projects, you may have heard of OpenStreetMap, as it is sometimes used as an alternative to the dominant Google Maps. It contains an impressive amount of data already, but mapping the world is a job that never ends. Not only is the task very *broad* (the world is a big place), it is very *deep* (trying to map an area in detail, eg, with information about local amenities and businesses). Thankfully, OSM makes it quite easy to contribute using your web browser or one of a number of different apps. There is a quick tutorial which will give you everything you need to get started in the standard editor. Why not check out your area and see if you can't increase coverage?
There is another easy and fun way to contribute to OSM using the StreetComplete app for Android. This app asks you a number of basic questions about your local area, your answers to which are used to fill in gaps in the OSM data. The UI is very intuitive and there is a gamification aspect, with points and achievements awarded for completing these "quests", if you are into that.
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/How_to_contribute
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/StreetComplete
OpenFoodFacts is an open database of information about food and drink products. Available information includes ingredients, nutritional information and packaging information, as well as images and information about the manufacturer. It has the potential to be a really powerful tool for helping consumers make informed decisions about the food and drink they consume. For example, it could serve as an open, community-driven alternative to the databases of nutritional information maintained by proprietary fitness apps such as MyFitnessPal.
Contributing to OFF can be done through the website or the app. Products are primarily identified in OFF by their barcode, so getting started is as easy as scanning a barcode using the app or keying the barcode number into the website. Beware that there are some issues with barcodes referring to different products in different markets, so make sure that you do not inadvertently edit the wrong product.
https://world.openfoodfacts.org/
https://world.openfoodfacts.org/open-food-facts-mobile-app
Common Voice seeks to build an open dataset mapping snippets of text to audio clips of people reading them. In theory, this dataset could be used to train speech recognition and speech-to-text algorithms that would bring many benefits in terms of accessibility and assist the development of open, community-driven alternatives to Amazon Echo and Google Home. Of course, quite a large dataset would be required to allow such projects to really compete, and in my opinion CV does not get the recognition it deserves.
Contributing to CV couldn't be easier, and in fact you don't even need an account to do it, though there are certain benefits to getting one. You can contribute both by reading text that is presented to you and by reviewing and verifying the audio submitted by others. Many languages are supported, too.
https://commonvoice.mozilla.org
To understand what Distributed Proofreaders do, you should be familiar with Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg is an excellent website which makes available millions of out-of-copyright (in the United States) books as ebooks in different formats. Most of these books are transcribed from scans of physical copies. This process is partially automated using OCR software which produces a first draft of the text. That text may still contain errors, however, and benefits from being proofread by humans. That's where Distributed Proofreaders come in. Anyone can sign up and proofread text in their spare time, helping to improve the quality of the ebooks produced by Project Gutenberg and related projects.
Signing up is quick and easy; there is a quick tutorial to get you started and plenty of projects of various difficulties that you can contribute to (in the beginning you are restricted to simpler projects). Books are divided into pages, so you can proofread as much or as little as you like.
This one will take a bit more time to contribute to, and I must admit I haven't taken the plunge yet. Standard Ebooks is a volunteer-led community that takes selected out-of-copyright ebooks (mostly from Project Gutenberg) and performs extra formatting, typesetting, proofreading and correction, to a high standard. The result is a beautiful and polished ebook that works well on a wide range of of ereaders.
Anyone can volunteer to produce an ebook. The project maintains a list of "Wanted Ebooks", which contributors are encouraged to work on. Otherwise you can pick a book of your choice, but you should check on the mailing list whether it is a book they would accept for inclusion in their collection (Standard Ebooks has a number of policies around what types of book they do and don't accept).
As you would expect, in order to ensure the quality of the produced ebooks is high, there are fairly rigid procedures and style guides that must be adhered to. The project provides a number of software tools to aid the task of producing the ebook. It's definitely more of a commitment than contributing to some of the other projects listed here, but if you see it through to the end it will be very rewarding!
https://standardebooks.org/contribute
Another one that might take a bit more time to contribute to, LibriVox is a volunteer-led project that takes public domain books and makes audiobooks out of them. Anyone can read for LibriVox; no particular experience or skill is necessary. Reading projects can be solo or collaborative, and non-English language works are also accepted. Recording an audiobook may seem a daunting prospect but the LibriVox website and wiki contain many resources to help. It is also possible to volunteer as a "proof listener", who listens to audio recorded by others and corrects any errors.
Wikipedia is arguably the most successful "open content" website ever created. I am including it last in this list, not because it is the least important, but because it requires the least introduction. I scarcely need to say more about Wikipedia itself, but it is worth noting that it has a number of "sister" websites under the Wikimedia umbrella, including Wikimedia Commons (freely usable media files, such as images), Wikivoyage (travel guides), Wikiversity (learning resources), Wikidata (datasets) and more.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_projects
Hopefully you have learned about some new projects from this post and are excited to contribute! Some of these projects have a very low barrier to entry for contributing, and none of them require any particular skills or expensive software or hardware. Finally, it is worth noting that even if you do not have the time to contribute to any of these projects, many of them are frequently in need of donations to cover server costs and other expenses.
Open content that you can contribute to was published on 2022-08-22