IBM Call for code
Tags: ibm, opensource, callforcode
Published: 2020-11-07 13:19:34

I am in search of open source projects to contribute. Firstly, I hope it can increase my job hunting chance. Secondly, I can learn more technologies and better coding styles. Thirdly, I can grow my connection circle.

While searching for a proper project to contribute, I encountered [IBM Call for Code](https://developer.ibm.com/callforcode/) via a twitter advertisement. As IBM was not familiar for me, like Microsoft, Google or even Oracle, it interested me more. Consequently, I started learning about it.

There were some featured projects in the main page. But, they rarely excited me mainly because of very different technologies. My primary platform is Microsoft .NET and C#. Then I prefer JavaScript, Node, Vue.js and partly React.js. Moreover, I have limited access to IBM cloud because of the political conflicts.

First project, [OpenEEW](https://github.com/openeew), an earthquake early-warning system, is developed mainly in Python and Java. Also a notable part of it is about device and hardware. So I gave up this. 2nd project is [Liquid Prep](https://github.com/Call-for-Code/Liquid-Prep), that helps small farmers optimize water usage. It is mainly about a Java/Android app which is required to be run in ever low priced devices. As I have no plan to practice Java/Android by now, I gave up this too. I prefer to use flutter or PWA for mobile applications. The *Liquid Prep* also is dependent on cloud. 3rd project which is introduced is [ClusterDuck Protocol](https://github.com/Call-for-Code/ClusterDuck-Protocol). It's a C/C++ project and, mainly is about communication protocols. In spite of the fact that I've some experiences with C++, It is not in my current focus list. By the way, the nature of the project is very tempting. [DroneAID](DroneAID), being the 4th project is the best one till now. It is an aerial scout for first responders, and is developed using JavaScript. The tempting part of it is the AI/ML techniques which is developed using [TensorFlow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TensorFlow). While *TensorFlow* is very fascinating, it is not in my current focus list. So I go for the 5th project, [Prometeo](https://github.com/Call-for-Code/Prometeo), firefighters health platform. I gave up this too, because of its dependency on the hardware and cloud. Its web server part is developed in Python rather than JavaScript.

I continued to my research, watched videos, read [medium.com](https://medium.com/callforcode) account, and participated in the [slack channel](http://callforcode.org/slack). I felt the atmosphere is a more student one. Also I found the slack channel's traffic does not seems very high. But, finally, I reached out to [main github page](https://github.com/Call-for-Code). Among the projects, I found [Project Lantern](https://github.com/lantern-works) in the [Call for Code Project Catalog](https://github.com/Call-for-Code/Project-Catalog). *Project Lantern*, which is about Long-Range Wireless Apps, is consisted of several projects. One of them is [lantern-serve](https://github.com/lantern-works/lantern-serve) which seems a traditional back-end server via express.js or similar technologies. Currently I am intended to investigate more on this project.