IAC: the information architecture conference is looking for volunteers to help finish up our website redesign and re-platforming project.
We are looking for:
Content Migration Volunteers
Context and History
Over the course of the past year, a small team of volunteers redesigned the IAC conference website and began development on the new site. We are in the process of moving the existing WordPress website into a new site that will be easier to maintain long-term using Sanity.
In the new site, we are bringing together content from previous Information Architecture Summits and Conferences into one website. Each year/event will have its own hub and our community will be able to find content from recent and previous years.
How You Can Help
We need help gathering content from each conference (such as information on the speakers, sessions, and videos).
We are using Coda to gather content from each conference. Coda is like a super-powered series of spreadsheets. After the content is collected and formatted in Coda, we plan to export the content into Sanity.
Helpful skills:
- Gathering information from various sources
- Organizing and preparing information into one database (Coda)
- Structuring and providing appropriate content metadata into a predetermined format
If you can pitch in a couple of hours or want to help over several weeks, whatever time you can offer will be a big help.
Want to help? Fill out the form below to express your interest. Thank you!
Development Volunteers
Technology Stack and History
Over the course of the past year, a small team of volunteers has transitioned content from the current Wordpress site to Sanity.io CMS and built the foundation of the new website. It is a Next.js application with most pages statically generated from data retrieved from Sanity.io, a headless, schema-driven CMS. We use Vercel for hosting and deployments.
Why are we looking for volunteers?
The core team has had other commitments that have come up in the past year and cannot maintain the same velocity we need to get wrapped up. It’s a great time to write some very clear requirements and open the project up to more volunteers.
What kind of volunteers are we looking for?
1) Experienced Devs: Tech layoffs hit our team as well. Or, for whatever reason, maybe you’ve got a minute of free time? We could use your help. Please see the list of Pros below on why this would be a good use of your time.
2) Bootcamp or recent grads: We use the same kinds of processes you’ll find working (or should) in your first job. These are things like git and shared workflows, style guides, reviews, code conventions, etc.
Why might you want to volunteer?
For anyone looking to volunteer, here are the PROs:
- Work with a fun, scrappy team that is big on communication and collaboration in a low pressure environment
- No drama. Clear requirements. Attentive answers to questions.
- Most of the remaining work is a mix of React component building and styling for desktop and mobile (perfect for entry level devs!) as well as some more interesting work like Firebase authentication and user preferences/permissions or the Sanity CMS-driven page builder.
- We used Next for its sensible conventions and widespread adoption. SASS was chosen for the simplest layer of theming. While understanding the schema and (very cool!) query language is a requirement for working with Sanity, it’s quick and the team has some experience - though we're not experts by any means.
- All application code is OPEN SOURCE and viewable to potential employers
- Tasks are just sitting in a TODO kanban column waiting for you to put it into development. We can help guide which tickets are appropriate for level and time commitment. There is a range.
- Want to do something creative or just see a refactor so OBVIOUS you want to spend an hour for a quick PR - no one is going to fight you.
Of course, there are two CONs
- Nothing is built in Rust
- It’s just a website
If you’re interested, please leave your name and email and 2 or 3 sentences describing your experience building with React. Any SASS/SCSS experience? We think we’ve got it figured out to support a range of experiences and commitments.
Reach out and let’s talk.
