OneBusAway Winter of Code 2009

OneBusAway is open-source software. One of the reasons that I went the open-source route was to give the community the opportunity to help improve OBA themselves. When we notice something annoying with the tools provided by our local transit agencies, there is often not much we can do to fix them, except send an email and wait. However, with open-source tools, we can pull up our sleeves and fix what bugs us directly.

And it works. I've accepted patches from fellow developers that have extended and improved the functionality of OneBusAway in interesting ways. However, as the OneBusAway code-base gets more complex, it can be a little intimidating for new developers to join in. Where should they start?

In order to address this issue and get more people involved in OneBusAway development, we're announcing the OneBusAway Winter of Code 2009. Similar to the Google Summer of Code, we've identified a number of tasks, both large and small, to get developers started with hacking on OneBusAway.

Here's a chance to put your code hacking skills to use for the good of the community: by helping improve the usability of public transit.

If you are interested, you can find more details here:

http://code.google.com/p/onebusaway/wiki/WinterOfCode2009

The sign-up deadline is Wednesday of next week, December 9th.

If you've ever been frustrated waiting for the bus, here's your chance to make a difference.