code.burningman.com – Open source at Burning man

code.burningman.com – Open source at Burning man

Recognizing open source software’s participative role at Burning Man, we wish to maintain a healthy relationship with the open source software development community. We do this by releasing code, providing vital infrastructure and by creating new open source software development opportunities.

To take gifting and collaboration beyond Black Rock City and into the digital realm, the software and APIs are available open-source under the Apache License. Explore the different ways we serve the open source community through these software and APIs on code.burningman.com.

Burning Man has been referenced as the ultimate embodiment of an Open Source Community. A blank canvas, some civic guidelines, and a smattering of infrastructure are provided. Building on that context, thousands of creative participants volunteer their time, donate their skills, gift performances, collectively build massively complex art projects and camps, and otherwise contribute to create a vibrant city for each other to enjoy.

None of it would be possible without a vast collection of technology systems and the people who support and build them. With thousands of friends and community members relying on so many of these tools, it takes great enthusiasm, passion and careful consideration to create and maintain technology worthy of such an inspiring community. Building great software is art.

Radical inclusion, Gifting, Decommodification, Radical Self-expression, and Communal Effort are a few of the Ten Principles of Burning Man, and when it comes to software development you can’t get more in line with these principles than Open Source. code.burningman.com is a place where you can learn about and participate in a variety of software projects that turn the chaos of Black Rock City into playa magic.

To start with, you can see the tool that helps build the What Where When event guide, explore cutting-edge interactive geo-mapping of Black Rock City, contribute to an exciting new playa directory, get a peak behind the door of Ranger HQ operations, showcase beautiful imagery and much more in our new Media Gallery tool, and learn how you can roll your own applications using the Burning Man API . We’ll be adding more projects over time and are interested in hearing about your ideas and projects too.

They’re currently looking for “volunteers for three projects, Burning Man Earth, which provides the Burning Man API ( http://earth.burningman.com/api/docs/ ), PlayaInfo’s new Directory, which feeds directly off and into the API, and the iBurn Burning Man iPhone app that also feeds off the API.”