Extending the monk philosophy a little bit- what about a "volunteer" section? Monks are known to practice good deeds- heal the sick, brew excellent beer, make loaves and fishes, etc. etc. Seriously though, I think this would be a great way to build the PerlMonks community and work on some interesting projects.

The idea- non-profits are incredibly technologically challenged in many cases. They can't afford to pay coders of PerlMonk caliber in many cases, and may have simple projects that they just don't have resources for.

The idea is that we'd set up a section where a non-profit could put specs up for a project (web or non-web based), and Monks could then review and get involved if they were interested. Some of the projects are bound to be pretty damn cool, and maybe even cutting edge.

This idea arose partially because I work for non-profits, and partially because I have another non-profit web designer friend who needs a simple project done. It would take me 20 minutes to do, but it's taking her hours and hours. In this case, she's trying to learn perl, but in many cases people just have projects they need to get done.

Of course we're all strapped for time, but I think PerlMonk skills are too valuable to be used only for for-profits. Look, most people volunteer at some point, we can either slop food on a plate (still important!) or use our highest and best skills.

Obviously this is still a pretty rough idea. Thoughts?

In reply to PerlMonks as do gooders- or, MonkCorps by Hero Zzyzzx

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