Open thread: What's the coolest project you've heard about lately?

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Opensource.com

One of the best things about putting together opensource.com is finding out about all the interesting ways open source methods and technology are being applied to solving what have been intractable problems. 

From IntraHealth International we hear about a public health project with Hope Phones and FrontlineSMS:Medic to provide mobile phones to African health workers who offer important services to mothers and children. Equipped with FrontlineSMS, a free, open source large-scale text messaging platform, a ten-dollar mobile phone can make a big difference in the life of a healthcare worker and the people they care for.

Working the open source way or using open source tools, people are doing some amazing things. 

What have you heard about lately that re-inspired you?

 

 

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Colin Dodd
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Colin Dodd is a writer at Red Hat.
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Josh | March 12, 2010
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Probably a few of the cool projects I've heard about have been through this site, so I may not be telling you anything you don't already know. I'm a musician, and I've been trying to find resources related to open source and/or collaborative composition or song-writing projects. So far, one of the most interesting I've found is opsound.org. People can post songs they've started (or finished) and others can download and listen or remix them for free. Also, I hear Jamendo and Magnatune do some of the same thing, though I've not really checked them out much. Of course, I'm a little late to the open source music game, so these may not be news to anyone.

Also, Kickstarter.com is pretty awesome! I think it was mentioned around here recently, but it's way cool! Sorry if these aren't new, but I thought they were pretty great!

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Jason Hibbets | March 14, 2010
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I have been really interested in Pepsi's Refresh project: <a href="http://www.refresheverything.com/" target="blank">http://www.refresheverything.com/</a>

You might remember that John Adam's talked about this right before the Super Bowl, <a href="https://opensource.com/business/10/1/open-source-and-future-super-bowl-advertising">Open source and the future of Super Bowl advertising</a>.

The reason I really like this, is that like many projects based on open source principles, it's community-based, they've made it easy to participate and vote, and the end results will benefit many. The main purpose is to have positive change, which I think, is an unspoken result of doing things the open source way.

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Mahmoud Abduljawad | March 15, 2010
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in fact, maybe android is somehow old, but it's really the coolest project for the current time.
android created a new base of Gnu/Linux --the mobile base. & as it's rapidly developed, we are seeing a lot of cool features brought to it.

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Remy DeCausemaker | March 19, 2010
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I'm currently heading up a team of student developers mentored by SugarLabs and Redhat at RIT to produce an Open Video Chat activity for the XO. We've got our obligatory mailing lists, repos, and web presences up and running over the last week, and we even have weekly webisodes!
- http://foss.rit.edu/projects/ovc - RIT Campaign Site
- https://fedorahosted.org/OpenVideoChat - Developer Portal
- http://www.youtube.com/user/openInnovationRIT - Webisodes

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Colin Dodd | March 19, 2010
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makes the world go 'round.

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Matt W | March 23, 2010
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Ushahidi is an open source project started out of Kenya and has been implemented in crisis zones around the world including most recently in Haiti and Chile. It collects, stores and presents disaster related stories to help mobilize resources and track relief efforts.

www.ushahidi.com

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Jason Hibbets | March 23, 2010
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@Matt W - Ushahidi is a great project to talk about and exactly the kind of stuff we are looking for for this open thread.

Jason

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