Lost in Crossing

[nadiatamez]

What problem are we trying to solve?

How do we help people in Mexico, Central America, and South America find information about loved ones who died while crossing into the U.S. through the southern border?

Who will benefit (directly and indirectly) from this project?

Families who are looking for missing loved ones, advocates who are trying to help those families and raise awareness around this issue, law enforcement and researchers trying to repatriate remains, and members of the public who want to learn more about the topic.

Where can we find any research/data available/articles?

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/A-glint-caught-my-eye-Then-they-found-a-skull-11490622.php

http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/article_a70c859c-276c-11e5-9cdb-8fcd54407045.html

What help is needed at this time?

Input from people who work with the immigrant community or connections to those communities.

What are the next steps (validation, research, coding, design)?

Research on what kind of product and delivery method would best serve the people who are searching for their loved ones.

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Project management

Checklist for NEW ideas :baby:

Hey, you're official! You're now part of the growing civic hacking community in Austin. Here's a few things to get started (a couple you've probably already done).

• [x] Create this idea issue
• [x] Flesh out the who, where, and what questions above
• [x] Start the conversation about this new idea on Slack (this project uses #general )
• [x] Respond with at least one update on this issue within the next month

Checklist for ACTIVE projects :fire:

Let's get this project started! When this idea starts taking off, the Projects Core Team will start helping this project's lead(s) out with project management and connecting you to resources you may need. To get there, please complete and check off the following:

• [x] Post an update at least once a month to this issue. Use BASEDEF for ideas, but it's ok even if your update is just "nothing new happened this month" or "we saw a small increase in traffic to our app this month". If there's no activity for two months, that's no problem, life happens. We'll just label this as backlog so others know you'll get back to it when you have the time. If nobody hears from you at all in more than two months, we may mark it as abandoned so that others can pick up this idea and run with it.
• [ ] Take 30 minutes to complete Open Leadership 101
• [ ] Create a GitHub repository and Slack channel for work.
• [ ] Create a README file in your project repository. This file should help newcomers understand what your project is, why it's important, and kinds of help you're looking for.
• [ ] Create issues to describe each task that you plan to do or need help with and how a contributor can get started on that task. You might start and stop a lot, so consider issues as your to-do list.
• [ ] Create a team for your core contributors
  • This will make it easier for you to manage your github repo access. People on a team have the same level of access. Admin access will allow your trusted contributors to make changes as needed.
  • You can remove and add people to your team as needed.
  • View some of our teams: https://github.com/orgs/open-austin/teams
  • Note: You can also allow collaborators outside of your team and give them more limited access.
• [ ] Create a user group in Slack so you can "@" your team all at once
  • You'll need permission from a Slack admin, so just mention @leadership on Slack to get this set up.
  • This will make it easier to get the attention of the core contributors of your project in your project slack channel which may have some spectators or more casual contributors.
  • People can be added and removed to your group as contributors join and leave.
• [ ] Create a Google Drive, Dropbox, or other cloud storage to share larger files
  • Github and Data.World are good for code and data, respectively, especially when you need version control. But they're not good for very large files, documentation, articles, etc. A cloud storage option will allow you to easily share, create, and collaborate on documents with your team and help organize ideas and thoughts.
  • Doing this early on can help your team stay organized and to onboard new contributors who wouldn't have access to files you all have shared over email.

Checklist for FEATURED Projects :tada:

To have your project FEATURED on Open-Austin.org, complete the following documentation. In past projects, well-documented featured projects have more contributions than other projects.

• [ ] In your README, link to the Open Austin Code of Conduct or write your own code of conduct.
• [ ] Create file: LICENSE to give your project an open license, allowing for sharing and remixing.
• [ ] Create file: CONTRIBUTING.md so others know how they can contribute.
• [ ] Create an easily shareable project management artifact, like a Civic Tech Canvas or Open Canvas
• [ ] Create an issue on the open-austin.github.io repo with the title Add [my project] to projects page. An Open Austin leader will review this issue and post your project :balloon:
• [ ] Tell the City of Austin. If your idea is in a shareable format and can benefit people around the city, go to that site and follow the instructions on the bottom of the page to showcase your work there.

If you get stuck at any point, feel free to reach out to the leadership team on Slack by adding @leadership to your message. We're here to help you make real changes to our city.

[nadiatamez]

Tonight we created our "sales pitch" for introducing the project to people who might be able to give input on the direction of the end product. We also compiled a list of people and organizations (Austin and South Texas) who work with the immigrant community. Connecting with these people during the research phase is important because they, ultimately, are the ones who can tell us what kind of product will be most useful.

Our Open Austin Slack channel is #lost-in-crossing, so join us there! Share the email lostincrossing@gmail.com with anyone who wants more information about the project, and I can respond to them directly. A website with our sales pitch is in the works.

[twentysixmoons]

Archiving the #p-lost-in-crossing channel for now. @nadiatamez has left Austin.

@nadiatamez if OA can be of any help please let us know. I'm marking your project as inactive.