4 ms·

Ask HN: Where to find a partner/developer for a micro project

11 points by jbrun 18y ago

I am looking for someone to help be program a micro project over the weekend to be launched as an iphone app. Need someone who can scrape data from a PDF, basic mysql input and iphone package delivery. Are there any forums that I can hit up to find an interested party?

tocomment 18y ago
Maybe tell us more?
wesley 18y ago
You made it, this is it. This is the place.
Dilpil 18y ago
www.rentacoder.com, whatever you do though, do NOT go with the lowest bidder.
andrewljohnson 18y ago
You should just do it yourself. This doesn't sound like a "micro-project," and you aren't going to be able to find a programmer who wants to do this for a "micro-payment." If it is a "micro-project" for a programmer, then that programmer is elite, and you can expect him to have a macro-hourly wage requirement. Why don't you go ahead and list what you expect to pay for this project, and then the readers of this forum can let you know if you're off base, and by how much. If it's a very good and fair payment, I'm sure someone will offer to do it. In fact, I know an excellent iPhone programmer who would be interested.
- jbrun 18y ago
  Basically, I am willing to give a significant % of the revenue of the app. If not, maybe spend about 1000 $. Like I said, micro project. I think this app could be built in one weekend.
  - teej 18y ago
    "Basically, I am willing to give a significant % of the revenue of the app." I hate to break it to you, but (freelance) developers hear this all the time, and it screams "I want you to work for free". Either you're paying for it, or you're not.
  - andrewljohnson 18y ago
    $1000 will get you about 13 hours of time from a competent iPhone developer, and maybe 10 from a great one. And every great programmer who wants a chance to make revenue from a product has a great idea already, but not the time to do it. No one is waiting for someone else's great idea to get working.
    - jbrun 18y ago
      point # 1 - true. point # 2 - perhaps, perhaps not. also trying to build a relationship with an iphone developer as I have other ideas and places to get money from. Just want to do this one quick and dirty.
      - lacker 18y ago
        Point #2 is definitely true. Even if a developer has no ideas themselves, there's no shortage of business people like you who are giving their ideas away for free in the hopes of getting a programmer to work on them. Perhaps you should be more clear about what you are bringing to the table yourself. E.g. marketing skills, access to an existing user base. $1000 is not enough unless you are aiming for an unskilled programmer.
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
epi0Bauqu 18y ago
Paid app? Splitting the revenue?
jbrun 18y ago
To be very precise, the following is what I want to do. Please don't steal my idea. I am not a programmer, but I do run the site www.nimonik.ca and can do the design/marketing/admin. 1. Automate a scraper to pull data from the PDF files found here: http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_pageid=65,2151455&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_pageid=65,2151455&#... 2. Have that data in a basic mysql db that can interact with the UI found here: http://www.pnika.com/hockey http://www.pnika.com/hockey 3. Package into an iphone app and submit to app store.
- jodrellblank 18y ago
  More seriously: 1. What about copyright / bandwidth / permission to scrape from that site? 2. Where is the mysql db? Do you have servers and hosting or do they need to be conjoured from somewhere, configured, installed, etc? You're talking of iPhone programming, which is currently popular and therefore costly, and also database skills and some kind of communication between the two, and scraping and unmentioned extras (particularly backend scalability if you want a lot of iPhone purchases, user accounts? database reports? some kind of admin controls)? A weekend sounds optimistic for a robust solution to me.
  - jbrun 18y ago
    I have a mysql db running on a bunch of sites we can use. As for copyright, i don't know for sure, but it is municipal government data so that is not a big worry. No user accounts. No admin. Weekend might be a tad optimistic, but I think it can be done with someone who has a some experience scraping data from pdfs and already has tools he can use.
- slig 18y ago
  While you don´t have the scrapper, which I don´t find that´ll be easy to do, you maybe can pay someone to do it using mechanical turk ( https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome ).

11 points by jbrun 18y ago

tocomment 18y ago

Maybe tell us more?

wesley 18y ago

You made it, this is it. This is the place.

Dilpil 18y ago

www.rentacoder.com, whatever you do though, do NOT go with the lowest bidder.

andrewljohnson 18y ago

You should just do it yourself. This doesn't sound like a "micro-project," and you aren't going to be able to find a programmer who wants to do this for a "micro-payment." If it is a "micro-project" for a programmer, then that programmer is elite, and you can expect him to have a macro-hourly wage requirement. Why don't you go ahead and list what you expect to pay for this project, and then the readers of this forum can let you know if you're off base, and by how much. If it's a very good and fair payment, I'm sure someone will offer to do it. In fact, I know an excellent iPhone programmer who would be interested.

jbrun 18y ago
Basically, I am willing to give a significant % of the revenue of the app. If not, maybe spend about 1000 $. Like I said, micro project. I think this app could be built in one weekend.
- teej 18y ago
  "Basically, I am willing to give a significant % of the revenue of the app." I hate to break it to you, but (freelance) developers hear this all the time, and it screams "I want you to work for free". Either you're paying for it, or you're not.
- andrewljohnson 18y ago
  $1000 will get you about 13 hours of time from a competent iPhone developer, and maybe 10 from a great one. And every great programmer who wants a chance to make revenue from a product has a great idea already, but not the time to do it. No one is waiting for someone else's great idea to get working.
  - jbrun 18y ago
    point # 1 - true. point # 2 - perhaps, perhaps not. also trying to build a relationship with an iphone developer as I have other ideas and places to get money from. Just want to do this one quick and dirty.
    - lacker 18y ago
      Point #2 is definitely true. Even if a developer has no ideas themselves, there's no shortage of business people like you who are giving their ideas away for free in the hopes of getting a programmer to work on them. Perhaps you should be more clear about what you are bringing to the table yourself. E.g. marketing skills, access to an existing user base. $1000 is not enough unless you are aiming for an unskilled programmer.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]

epi0Bauqu 18y ago

Paid app? Splitting the revenue?

jbrun 18y ago

To be very precise, the following is what I want to do. Please don't steal my idea. I am not a programmer, but I do run the site www.nimonik.ca and can do the design/marketing/admin. 1. Automate a scraper to pull data from the PDF files found here: http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_pageid=65,2151455&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_pageid=65,2151455&#... 2. Have that data in a basic mysql db that can interact with the UI found here: http://www.pnika.com/hockey http://www.pnika.com/hockey 3. Package into an iphone app and submit to app store.

jodrellblank 18y ago
More seriously: 1. What about copyright / bandwidth / permission to scrape from that site? 2. Where is the mysql db? Do you have servers and hosting or do they need to be conjoured from somewhere, configured, installed, etc? You're talking of iPhone programming, which is currently popular and therefore costly, and also database skills and some kind of communication between the two, and scraping and unmentioned extras (particularly backend scalability if you want a lot of iPhone purchases, user accounts? database reports? some kind of admin controls)? A weekend sounds optimistic for a robust solution to me.
- jbrun 18y ago
  I have a mysql db running on a bunch of sites we can use. As for copyright, i don't know for sure, but it is municipal government data so that is not a big worry. No user accounts. No admin. Weekend might be a tad optimistic, but I think it can be done with someone who has a some experience scraping data from pdfs and already has tools he can use.
slig 18y ago
While you don´t have the scrapper, which I don´t find that´ll be easy to do, you maybe can pay someone to do it using mechanical turk ( https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome ).