IDEAS for OpenAstronomy

Please, if you have any issue with the following steps contact your org admin or ask in the multi-client real-time chat platform we have (Thanks @Cadair!). The steps are set up from the point of view of I have an idea, what do I need so it's online - so the hardest steps are towards the bottom, and you read only up to the point you feel confident.

TLDR - Are you an expert? Fork the repo and modify the template file according to your idea, save it under _projects/YYYY/sub-org/ with a meaningful filename and do a Pull-request.

What do I need to have an idea?

You are here, so that's the first step!

You need to have a description and a list of candidate mentors. Which requirements do you think are needed (e.g., knowing c++, expertise in OOP)? How difficult would you say it's the project? Is there already an issue related with that idea?

If you have all that then think in an attractive project title and a one line description. Then you put all in one file as explained below.

You can make your idea with very specific milestones or as open ended as you want. Either way is good. If it's very specific the students will know how to write an application as you wanted, but leave less freedom for different approaches.

Format needed

Cool, you've got already all the above?

All you need now is to put it in a plain text file following the template file (you may click in raw to see how it looks).

The file is composed in two parts (separated by a ---). Change the text in the template keeping special care of the structure of the yaml file and the headings on the markdown part (e.g., the top level starts with a 4 level title: ####).

What do I do so it appears online?

Are you familiar with git/github? If you are not contact us and send the above file, we will take care to put it in place. If, in the other hand, you are feel confident with github: go ahead, fork this repository, find the subdirectory for your sub-organisation and the year of the project (for example, if you are submitting an astropy project, go to /_projects/2017/astropy). If your organization does not exist, create it following the form of one of the other sub-organizations. Create a pull-request and that's it!