Hi mbed-ers!

We've been getting a few inquiries recently from people looking to pay to get code/libraries written for a particular project they are working on, and wondering how to find someone.

We were therefore interested to hear from anyone who has successfully used "coders for hire"-type websites (either to get or submit jobs), and could recommend any of them for embedded development? Or any other suggestions/ideas?

Also, I'd be interested to know if there is much interest in this sort of thing? Are there any of you who would be interested to pay to get some work done? Or do jobs for other people?

Simon

Hi Simon,

I have used a couple coder for hire websites to pick up some extra work in my free time. I would recommend www.vworker.com, although I don't know if there is much for embedded development. You can post any work that you are looking to get done and anyone with experience could bid for it. There may not be as many jobs on that site as some of the others, but it sure is alot easier to get paid and not have to worry about being ripped off. I have never used any of these sites to post work, so I don't know how easy it will be to find coders for embedded work, but I'm sure there out there.

I'm now pretty confident now with ARM development and I would be interested in helping with projects. I haven't had alot of time to post on this forum due to my regular day job being very demanding but I do spend most of my nights tinkering with my mbed. I hope more people can volunteer time to do this, as I think it's a great idea and would be very helpful for others like myself to continue learning and maybe earning some cash on the side. Money is motivating!

Good luck!

You could use the model used by some FOSS systems like Drupal where they have a dedicated forums for people to find potential "paid services". This would mean you add a new forum to mbed.org (with the usual disclaimers) so people can advertise bounties etc.

I should have added that, yes, I'd be interested in doing paid for work and doing jobs for other people. I've used the previously mentioned Drupal Paid Services forum for years to do odd jobs and such.

Hi Jamie, Andy,

Thanks for the pointers. I hadn't looked at Drupal for a while and wasn't aware of the "paid services" forum, so that is certainly worth a look at to see if works; as you say, adding a forum to mbed for pitching/finding work might be interesting.

I looked at vworker too. I was expecting it to be mostly web/os level programmers, but it does seem to have quite a few developers already listed under embedded/hardware, so that may be worth a try too. Certainly interested if anyone else has used it successfully.

Anyone else looking to get work done? If there is a bit of interest, we'll set something up.

Simon

Hi all,

To actually test the idea, i've just posted a real job up on vWorker. You can see it at:

• USB MIDI code example for mbed LPC1768 Microcontoller

The process of posting it was really good, and it is obviously a mature system. The project should now get posted out to relevant developers, and then people can start applying for the work. Obviously, anyone here can apply too (and may be in a good position to!) and I expect the process of doing that is equally slick, so go ahead! If you do decide to apply, please just note somewhere that you are an existing mbed user so I can judge where the project applications are coming from (existing vWorker members vs mbed members).

I'll now wait and see if there is any interest, then we can see what the results (if/any) are like, and how it all works. I'll report back as it progresses.

Simon

disclaimer: I've posted this project in a totally personal capacity (my own project at my own cost), so please understand it is not officially associated with mbed!

This sounds great!

I read the project description on vWorker and it sounds like a project I can have some fun with. Developing a MIDI controller is something I've actually been meaning to do, for other reasons. I'm going to do some work on this when I get home and if I can get something good going, I'll be sure to bid on the job.

Anyone else here wanna have a go at it? I'm up for a good challange.

Hi,

So i've had a few replies on my USB MIDI job, of which one looks good (and one I think I can eliminate as spam).

The bids close on the 22nd Jan, and my plan is to leave it until then to decide, as then I can understand if e.g. bids come in on the last day based on e.g. closing bids listings or whatever (i'm thinking ebay, going soon search!).

Anyone on mbed want to put a bid in? If you are thinking this might be an interesting job, please submit a bid as it'll be great to get some more feedback on the process from both sides.

Thanks! Simon

Hmm, I thought this forum post/thread was about "how to find a coder" rather than "how to get a USB-MIDI library" ? I'm a little confused.

In a previous suggestion I said a "Paid Services Forum" here on mbed.org (similar to Drupal's forum) was a good idea. The reason I suggested that was that when coders reply, you get an instant link to their profile here on mbed.org. People looking for coders can then see straight away how active within the mbed community the coder is, examples of libraries and programs already published. Mbed.org user profiles act as a "mini reference or mini CV" specifically for the Mbed dev platform. You don't really get any of that from a third party site.

And, imho (and previous experience), you also increase the chances of the "client" agreeing that the library purchased can be published openly on mbed.org for others to use.

Anyway, that's my 2p worth.

Hi Andy,

It certainly is about enabling people to find a coder!

As a result of Jamie's suggestion of using vworker, I'm now testing whether vworker.com may be interesting. It is not just a way of finding people (they are mostly focused on web/app level), but potentially a good way to mediate the Paid Services once two people have found each other. It could be the thing that handles escrow, terms, process, resolutions etc.

If it is successful, we can do things like add the forum so people can chat about what they want/can offer, and vworker may be an easy way to follow that though. We could even do things like allow you to add your vworker id to your profile, etc. But it could be rubbish.

So it is a bit of a first personal test to see if it is worth recommending/using; i'm taking the risk so you don't have to :)

Simon

How'd it go? I had something similar in mind I wanted to send through vworker.

Alternatively, drop by my profile if you're willing to help.

Hi Graham,

Development is in progress now. Things are looking good, and so far I've been impressed with the vworker platform. I've also been trying to note down a few hints/tips based on what I'm learning about the process.

I'll try and do a full writeup when we're done as I think it could be a great way for people to get work done, and also for others to make a little money out of their skills. I've certainly found having the common context of the mbed platform between us really helps with sharing/testing results too.

More soon...

Simon

Hi,

The job I ran on vWorker has finished, with great results; i'll be writing up a full report, but I think it worked well and was useful to understand the process too.

One of the common things that has come out of various discussions with people interested in using something like this is requests to see if we can support this from within the mbed website to keep things consistent. So we've been looking a little at this, and found that of the top worker sites (including vWorker), Elance looks like it has the best potential for integration, so i'm interested in understanding how well this site works from the perspective of users.

I've therefore posted a new but similar task on Elance to again test out the process, and see the results:

• library programming task on Elance

If anyone else has any experience using Elance, i'd be very interested to find out (feel free to message me if you'd prefer to keep it private).

Thanks, Simon