Mar 18, 2021 12:24 PM
In November, I contracted with a small IT company, Deytah, which I located through the Airtable Community to develop a specialized map app that our nonprofit research project needs that would consist of an interactive, georeferenced map of medieval cemeteries that associates specific graves on the map with entries in AirTable. Deytah produced an almost complete app, currently in github, (GitHub - deytah/airtable-app-polygon-mapper: Display and edit GeoJSON geometry with Mapbox in Airtab...) that filled almost all of our requirements. However, before completing the final adjustments, the company simply vanished: Since December 21, we have had no communication from them and have been unable to reach anyone associated with the company. We are looking for someone with knowledge of React and AirTable who can make the final adjustments and corrections to the app.
Mar 19, 2021 07:16 AM
That’s unfortunate, but this is often the case with open-source projects. Companies run on cash, and customers carrying cash often get put at the front of the line despite how fun or how socially helpful the project may be.
Have you tried reaching out to the developers? They appear to be relatively active on GitHub.
Mar 19, 2021 07:38 AM
I have tried everything I could to reach the developers and anyone from the company. The odd thing is that they left $1500 on the table when they disappeared. They could probably have fixed the minor problems and collected their money with a couple of hours of work!
Mar 19, 2021 08:46 AM
Or, they could have canned your project because they were already way underwater and taken a $25k gig that may have been highly dependent upon immediate action.
What we often see (from a distance or lacking architectural insight) is a perceived “couple hours of work” that is really something far different.
If they did the entire project (as seen on github) for a total $1500 they left far more than $1500 on the table. I have no time to examine their approach but the project page tells me there’s easily $10k of effort in it.
Hopefully, you can find an enterprising consultant here in the community that is willing to learn their codebase (which will likely take many hours) and take a stab at earning $1500 in a few hours.
Mar 19, 2021 09:18 AM
Very interesting perspective. Thanks.
Patrick J. Geary
Emeritus Professor of History
Institute for Advanced Study
3570 S River Parkway
N. 2107
Portland OR 97239
United States
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