MeFi Projects

I chose to release my submarine novel for free under a Creative Commons license because I am committed to the open-source ideal. Unfortunately, it seems that no publisher would ever touch CC these days, and (more distressingly) lots of readers won't consider it because of our sad cultural heuristic of "free novel = awful". And then the book also doesn't fit nicely into any particular category. It's not really science fiction (the science is realistic). It's not really alternative-history (Hitler doesn't win the war). And it's not even a good fit for submarine novels (the submarines in it are cargo subs, not war subs — it also has strong female leads.) I fear I've doomed the thing to obscurity from the start. But I put years of work into it. I re-wrote it many times. I had it professionally copy-edited. People who do read it, love it. I love it. But this promotion stuff sucks. So if it sounds even vaguely appealing, save me by giving the book a shot! And then tell someone else about it… [more inside]
posted by kunstcleaver on Feb 18, 2024 - 4 comments

In 2004, Axe/Lynx (the deodorant brand) released an interactive advertisement that used then-new video features of the Flash platform. This was a year before YouTube, and the Internet went crazy about their new found ability to virtually tickle a woman lying on a bed. It fell off the Internet in 2009 and with the death of Flash you can't even (easily) see it on archive.org any more... so I recreated it for the modern web. [more inside]
posted by avapoet on Feb 2, 2021 - 1 comment

Originally conceived as a way to get a status report on someone or something, the Finger Protocol aka RFC-742, has been around since the late 70s. Even today, the capability to finger lies dormant in every major OS. [more inside]
posted by ph00dz on Jan 27, 2021 - 2 comments

GNU Autoconf is "a tool for producing configure scripts for building, installing and packaging software on computer systems". It's been around since 1991 and it's been neglected -- eight years since the last release. I've helped Zack Weinberg make a new beta release, 2.69b, on the way to a proper release of 2.70 in a few months. If you care about things like Makefiles, check this out and test it.
posted by brainwane on Jul 14, 2020 - 9 comments

I learned about Nomic games a few days ago, so made one to help new developers learn the basics of Github pull request workflows so they can contribute to open source projects. It's aimed particularly at the freeCodeCamp community, but all are welcome. Even if you are a seasoned Github contributor, you are welcome to play, too, because Nomic is an extremely fun game!
posted by man down under on Nov 11, 2018 - 2 comments

A Twitterbot that posts freely-licensed photographs of clocks. [more inside]
posted by Vesihiisi on Aug 17, 2018 - 1 comment

Shut Up, Donny is an open-source extension for Google Chrome that lets Twitter users auto-reply to Donald Trump with one message: delete your account. [more inside]
posted by ludwig_van on Jan 24, 2017 - 4 comments

LBRY (pronounced "Library") is an open-source protocol providing a decentralized marketplace. LBRY allows anyone to publish content and anyone to buy it from anyone else, but with an economic design to combat piracy and benefit artists. If you are an OSX or Linux user you can test LBRY yourself. You can also learn more about LBRY or join our list.
posted by christonabike on Dec 21, 2015 - 2 comments

Exobike is a silly little browser-based motorcycle racing game vaguely inspired by Excitebike as cloned on an early 80's educational computer by 14-year old me. You race along a straight track, avoiding obstacles and trying to minimize your time. [more inside]
posted by suetanvil on Jul 13, 2015 - 6 comments

Applying for visas is a pain in the ass - there's a lot of paperwork to deal with, and a ton of personal information to keep track of. So we've created a tracking app to help you manage all of that. [more inside]
posted by divabat on Apr 8, 2015 - 4 comments

Otto is an open source music jukebox app that disguises itself as an iTunes replacement without all the extra baggage, but is actually a web-first, fully streaming, anti-cloud, social music server that allows multiple people to listen to the same stream of music at the same time and DJ for each other. Kinda like a private turntable.fm. For Mac OSX and Linux. A limited demo loaded with some CC licensed music can be found here. [more inside]
posted by irontech on Nov 21, 2014 - 1 comment

One fun thing from the commons every day. Two rules: it has to be either openly licensed or public domain, and it has to have made us smile when we saw it.
posted by roll truck roll on Oct 3, 2014 - 2 comments

Known is a simple platform for publishing words, pictures, podcasts and more to a site that you control. Choose to syndicate it to social networks like Twitter and Facebook, or software you already use like Moodle or Sharepoint. With Known, you control your content and ideas. [more inside]
posted by bwerdmuller on Sep 12, 2014 - 3 comments

posted by xchmp on Sep 6, 2014 - 0 comments

This is a site proposal for a new open-source community network. Before I start developing this idea, I need to know if other people are excited about it. If you like giving, thinking about social networks, or the internet, I'd love your thoughts!
posted by The Ted on Jan 3, 2014 - 5 comments

ChipChange is a puzzle platforming game made for Github's Game-Off-2013 competition. Play Flash Version. According to the rules of the contest, the full source code and all assets are available under the CC-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license through github. The game was created using Unity 4.31, which can be downloaded for free here. The new 2D Tools (physics and sprite-animation) are used throughout the game.
posted by meta87 on Dec 2, 2013 - 0 comments

A collection of interviews with people who use Creative Commons licenses, with awesome illustrations by Luke Surl.
posted by roll truck roll on Nov 27, 2013 - 0 comments

Villanova Tech Trifecta Superfecta Team, Falvey Memorial Library at Villanova University is once again proud to announce a series of events, nicknamed the Tech Superfecta, taking place during the week of October 14th, 2013 in Villanova PA. [more inside]
posted by mfoight on Aug 30, 2013 - 0 comments

Interested in the Chicago zoning ordinance? No? Well then, how about Sim City 2000, the classic computer game cherished by millions? You love it? Well have we got an app for you! [more inside]
posted by kakarott999 on Jan 18, 2013 - 1 comment

Basically one part a way of finding interesting open source software projects on github, one part an experiment in discovery mechanisms. Like Wikipedia's Random Article feature, only less prone to giving you uninteresting things. [more inside]
posted by DRMacIver on Jul 21, 2012 - 7 comments

This web-based application will plot the Mandelbrot set, let you zoom in on different sections and link to them (e.g. here). It requires a recent HTML5-capable browser (Firefox and Chrome both work). Source code is here under an open-source license. The website is entirely static. All processing happens on the browser.
posted by suetanvil on Jun 15, 2012 - 2 comments

Textizen is an open-source platform for collecting citizen feedback via text message. Holding in-person meetings can be expensive, time-consuming, and often results in non-representative feedback. Working with the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, my team at Code for America decided to build a better way to connect citizens to their city. Now, all residents and community members need is a few spare moments and a cell phone that supports text messages (~92% of Philadelphia households). In a city where 43 percent of residents don’t have internet access at home, we see text messaging and other mobile technologies as critical doorways to digital citizen participation. Do you see a use for Textizen in your community? Get it in touch with us on Twitter, or at Textizen.com. Developers can join us on GitHub, where we’ll continue to develop the Textizen code. Textizen in one animated minute [more inside]
posted by yuletide on Jun 7, 2012 - 0 comments

ThinkUp is a powerful, free, open source PHP/MySQL app that you install on your web server to collect and store all of your activity on social networks like Twitter, Facebook and Google+. It can analyze your activity, lets you search for your data (even past Twitter's search limits!) and is constantly being extended with new features and capabilities by a very active, diverse developer community. [more inside]
posted by anildash on Nov 16, 2011 - 8 comments

One Click Orgs is a free, open-source online service that lets community groups get a legal structure set up, and helps with their day-to-day governance. [more inside]
posted by chrismear on Mar 23, 2011 - 0 comments

OpenEars is an open-source iOS library for implementing round-trip English language speech recognition and text-to-speech on the iPhone and iPad, which uses the CMU Pocketsphinx and CMU Flite libraries. [more inside]
posted by Halle on Jan 31, 2011 - 2 comments

WinnipegElection.ca is a citizen driven website we created for the upcoming October 2010 civic election in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The site lists all the candidates by ward along with their contact info, websites, social media details, and related news articles. [more inside]
posted by stungeye on Aug 12, 2010 - 0 comments