Downhill Battle Labs
All Downhill Battle software projects are free and open-source. We work on things that, one way or another, help us win-- and they might be useful for whatever you're up to as well. We're starting with modest, concrete projects, but we have big plans.
Making democracy easy, like it was meant to be. -- Enter your zip code, write a letter, and send it to the op-ed pages of newspapers in your area, and/or your representatives in Congress. Non-profits pay way too much money for this kind of functionality, but we're going to make it available for free. See it in action on Downhill Battle.
Status:Collaborated method of getting new addresses and "Letters to Congress" functionality are still under development.
Status:We need help testing and debugging. We have lots of plans for new features.
Our Blog Torrent software is doing very well and is used by hundreds of websites. Take a look at BlogTorrent.com for more. Blog Torrent is also forming the foundation for our video platform publishing tool, Broadcast Machine.
Status: Functional. We're always seeking help to fix bugs and improve the interface.
This simple Perl script allows you to set up a "Defense Fund" for a group of individuals without the need for a new legal entity to parcel out funds. Participants each set up their own Paypal accounts, and the script puts whoever has received the least donations so far in the "Donate" box. Payments go directly from donor to recipient, but total donations get distributed over time.
Status: Currently being used for the Peer-to-Peer Legal Defense Fund.
iTMS-4-ALL is a Perl script that can access Apple's iTunes Music Store. You can check it out in action here. We have big plans for this little script.
Status: Announcement coming soon.
We're developing a PHP-based website kit for local Downhill Battle chapters, so that everybody will have the tools to start up their own website about music activism and/or their local music scene. This package will include everything you need for multi-user blogs, news aggregation, photo-logs of local events/actions, event calendars, and more. Local sites will be able to pull news feeds from downhillbattle.org, and news from local sites will bubble up to the main site.
Status: looking for help.
A very simple tool that lets you search for someone in your area who has a specific resource. We're developing it to help flyering teams find people in their area who've told us they can make free photocopies.
Status: This script is functional. Needs styling. Needs a name. We also need to integrateit into other tools, since it requires the photocopy providers to go through a separate signup process.
We need a tracking system that lets people sign-up to hand-out flyers at specific concerts (or sign up to do anything else). The software will keep a calendar database of who's doing what on what day, and automatically sends email reminders beforehand and a request for feedback afterwards. This would also function as a general calendar of events where there would be a Downhill Battle presence.
Status: basic functionality is in place. SourceForge page coming soon.
If you know of existing software that has this functionality, please let us know. And if you have the skills and experience to lead up one of these projects, we'd love to get them moving.
Howard Dean's campaign popularized the use of graphic status bars to display progress towards donation goals (they used baseball bats). There should be an easy-to-use tool that can use PayPal Instant Payment Notification to do this for any website. The tool should integrate / not-interfere with the IPN tracking done by Battle Cart.
Status: looking for developers.
Who needs the internet, anyway? Any computer with a big hardrive and WiFi can serve as a local library for popular music. These relatively cheap devices could be deployed on a college campus, in Times Square, or in the parking lot outside next years' Grammy Awards. Throw a solar panel into the mix and you can put one anywhere. The software for this has already been worked out (see The Bass Station) but we need to put it in a simple, easy-to-use package, like a linux live CD. Next up, local WiFi mesh networks.
Status: looking for developers.