Katharine K Liu
Member
If you have an idea for a program or app, how do you find an engineer/programmer who can turn your idea into a workable solution?
Further, what are the current models for this type of working relationship? (Ex. A programmer could be a hired gun, a full creative partner, or something in between.) In your experience, have certain models tended to be more effective than others?
GeoffreyRockwell
MemberBest Answer
Replying to @Katharine K Liu's post:
For smaller projects I like to find a bright computer science or new media student who is interested in summer work. I will approach students who have shown promise in my classes or who have approached me for work. You can try asking a CS prof that you trust to recommend students or put up an ad. In some cases departments will have a 4th year project course where they solicit ideas.
As for working model it will depend on whether you are paying and the interests of the student. It is usually a good idea to have a frank discussion early on about issues like credit. I tend to put programmers who have contributed significantly down as co-authors even if they didn't do any writing.
Another way to go is to hire a firm that does development work. I'll say this is a far more expensive than finding a student who can do the work, but probably much faster to get the idea implemented in a way that (hopefully) adheres to standards. If they're really good, they can help you boil you idea in to a manageable 1.0 project and steering you clear of pitfalls that you may encounter with less-seasoned developers.
Ben Brumfield
MemberBest Answer
Another option for finding an experienced, small-scale development partner is to investigate the various programming language/web framework/database user groups and meetups in your location. These usually have an unusually large proportion of independent/contract developers among their members, as the groups serve as networking/support/mentoring resources for otherwise-isolated developers. The user groups often have job-specific mailing lists and are quite open to informal inquiry by people looking to hire. Based on personal observation, independent developers are often looking for interesting projects, and many find cultural/humanities work far more attractive than the typical bread-and-butter small business e-commerce job.
It's wise to explore the territory before pitching your project, though, as most of these groups have strict protocols about recruiting due to dot-com-era burn-out. For example, my local Ruby on Rails group begins every meeting by asking all the attendees who are looking for work to stand up, then asking all the attendees looking for programmers to stand up, so that they can meet each other later. It also has a jobs mailing list, and allows meeting sponsors (who generally provide a stack of pizzas for the attendees) to talk about their company/organization/project for a few minutes during the mid-meeting break. On the other hand, posting about jobs on the main list or pitching a job during the Q&A section of a talk is strongly discouraged.
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