Byrd, Get Noticed… what’s going on?
Okey, first of I shall say hi. That’s my first post on this platform, and I thought — why would I make a post saying I’m going to be posting, since I can post it at my first post… Aight, I think you got me now. This makes no sense. So I’ll simply say HI! I won’t say much about myself, you may look about me on linkedin or github. Or just continue reading my po… my stories. :)
What is Byrd, what is Get Noticed?
Byrd
The byrd is a free messaging app that lets you monitor and chat with visitors on your website. It’s a live support ticketing system. Sounds familiar? I believe so, you probably saw tawk.to’s widget all around the web. In fact, byrd’s functionality won’t differ at all (won’t because it’s not developed yet), the only difference between those two platform is the fact, the byrd will be an OpenSource project, built on top of MIT license, where everyone is welcome to contribute to or even start their own service.
Why would you even share with such time consuming project with other people, and why would you publish it on MIT license?
You see; I could try to sound like great OpenSource believer (which I am), but the truth is — I got no time for managing commercial projects on my own. I love developing new things, I love playing with new concepts, I love learning new technologies. But tell me, how could I potentially split my time between running projects on full-time, looking for job/working on full-time, and learning new technologies (relaxing)? This is something I can’t do. So, it’s going to be another project which I’m going to develop, learn something new with, publish it on github and (sadly) probably will never get back to. But, I might help someone out by giving him base ground for his start-up. Isn’t it cool?
PS. there’s something else. It’s my project for Get Notice, which has to be OpenSource. But shhh!
What technologies will you use for this project?
And that is tough question. At first, the plan was to get started with something new. Something exciting, and yet — relatively simple, so I can learn it quickly enough, to complete the project before Get Notice’s finals. I’m still not sure yet (so I’ll start with front-end first), but plan was to go with Java or Python. Two languages widely used on backend development, and two I know little of. But I might not have enough time, so I’ll most likely go with stack I already know:
- Node.js
- Express.js
- Redis & MongoDB
- JWT
- Socket.IO
- React.js/Redux
But, to get it a bit more challenging, I might do as well mobile version of the app (dashboard), build on top of React-Native, which I’m currently playing with. I also got no talent to UI/UX design on it’s own. You will be surprised how bad it can be, as for someone who refers to himself as JS Developer on daily basis.
Even though I’m familiar with listed techs and frameworks, it still will be quite challenging to complete it all before June. Definitely time consuming. But hey, that’s the cost you pay for starting at programming competition.
Get Noticed!
Alright, I’m speaking all the time about some kind of contest, but I still haven’t told you about it. What is it — you probably wonder. So Get Noticed!, or Daj Się Poznać! is a programming competition for… everyone! There’s no age, technology or experience restrictions. The only requirement is to be motivated and to think positive. And of course, to be (at least) interested in programming. The idea is to give people chance of building something awesome, and share it with others. Because c’mon, what’s the creator’s nightmare? I don’t know about you, but my scariest nightmare is not to be noticed by anyone, not to be seen a developer. Get Noticed! makes it easier to start and make friendships with people of similar interests.
But, as always — there’s one problem though; that’s the community, that decides which project should be the winning one. By voting. I’m really not happy about that, but I might get back to that some other time.
So the byrd is my project for Get Noticed! comp. But that wasn’t the case since beginning — believe me or not, but I made my final decision the very last moment, while I was submitting my application. At first my idea was to develop an AdServer; piece of software, for managing advertising campaigns. Simply because that’s industry I was somehow involved into, and I’ve already got have experience in building such platform. I though that was time to make it better this time, and OpenSource. Although, this kind of software would be strictly targeted to one group of audience, and most likely wouldn’t be anyhow interesting or majority of people. So since it wasn’t the best idea, I tried few different ideas (on paper). None of them worked. And then, the exact moment I crumpled the sheet of paper with all my concepts I’ve had — I received new email, tawk.to notification “someone wants talk to you”. That was it!
Links:
- Byrd’s Repo: https://github.com/patrykcieszkowski/Byrd
- Get Noticed! profile: http://uczestnicy.dajsiepoznac.pl/profil/patryk-cieszkowski
I’m going to be posting my progress and thoughts about byrd for at least next 10 weeks, as well as I’ll be posting on my general programming thoughts and experiences since now. If you’re interested — please follow. You’re always welcome to review the code, criticize me (please do) and share with your thoughts!
