One of my secret hobbies is following all manner of cool GitHub repositories. My chops as a developer are limited, but it’s always fun to learn about new technologies and poke around the READMEs to get a sense of how various apps, libraries, utilities, toolkits, and side projects are used.
GitHub is mostly used for projects based on code, so it’s these that make up the large majority of the projects I’ve starred.
But I’m particularly interested in how GitHub, and its underlying protocol Git (about which more below) can be used for things that are not based in code. So for a while I’ve been maintaining a separate list of fascinating projects on GitHub — to date over 60 repos across a wide variety of topics and forms.
I’m calling this collection Repos Beyond Code — right now it primarily lives on Are.na, and you can find the whole thing embedded below.
While GitHub is a proprietary platform, it’s built around the open-source software tool “Git”, which has become the de facto standard for version control. If you’re not a developer: version control software is what enables things like tracking line by line differences in text files, collaborating with a team and resolving conflicts when multiple people are editing a document at the same time, and restoring earlier versions of files when needed (if a recent change caused a bug, for example).
It’s one of the main mechanisms used for collaborative, tracked creation and sharing of text — specifically and most often code, but in practice (and potential)…almost anything! And I think the fact that Git is almost always used in the context of writing code makes it all the more exciting to see uses that break that mold and demonstrate its wider applicability.
Some of my favorite use cases, to name a few I see repeatedly:
- Would-be-blog-posts
- Resource lists
- Guides and handbooks
- Documentation (of code or otherwise)
- Books and zines
- Curricula and syllabi
- Reading lists
- Open data sets
Why do I find these projects so interesting? And why does the fact they’re found on GitHub contribute to that?
Part of it is a fascination with the diverse ways we can use technology to both create and share. First, it’s interesting to see how version control software and “working in public” can enhance the processes of writing, editing, and collaborating, helping to bring about all kinds of interesting work. And second, I love how the ethos of open source and the tools (like Git) that power it can extend the ways such work is shared, archived, branched, remixed, and made all the more valuable by being both publicly accessibly and malleable.
Here are a few of my favorites from the collection so far:
If you like opening lots of new browser tabs a little bit I’d start with the links above. If you like opening new browser tabs a lot, go ahead and click each item below!
chadsansing/open-facilitation
GitHub is where people build software. More than 28 million people use GitHub to discover, fork, and contribute to over 85 million projects.…
ubuwaits/beautiful-web-type
beautiful-web-type - A showcase of the best typefaces from the Google web fonts directory.…
dariusk/corpora
corpora - A collection of small corpuses of interesting data for the creation of bots and similar stuff.…
appplemac/cooking-patterns
cooking-patterns - A collection of patterns that can be used to simplify cooking.…
bamos/reading-list
reading-list - My reading list.…
coryschires/reading-list
reading-list - List of books and screencasts related to development, user experience design, and entrepreneurship.…
nsbarr/HAM
HAM, or Hard As a Motherfucker, is a methodology for rapidly turning ideas into prototypes.…
thoughtbot/design-sprint
design-sprint - Product Design Sprint Material…
sinker/tacofancy
tacofancy - community-driven taco repo. stars stars stars.…
busterbenson/public
My public self and book of beliefs.…
dianakimball/mentoring
The source of a distributed mentoring movement.…
tchoi8/poetry
version controlled poetry…
allisonburtch/Critical-Theory-of-Technology
Critical-Theory-of-Technology - Politics, Utopia and Code. Fall 2014 class at SFPC.…
maxfenton/boq
boq - Max's Box of Quotes…
dylanegan/travel
Some sort of travel log.…
clef/handbook
An employee handbook built for inclusion…
lpatmo/git-training-notes
git-training-notes - I attended a free day-long training held by Git trainer @PeterBell and TA'ed by Github's @aidenfeldman. These are my edited notes from the day, organized in Question/An...…
jed/building-brooklynjs
building-brooklynjs - My story of how we built BrooklynJS.…
awesomedata/awesome-public-datasets
awesome-public-datasets - A topic-centric list of high-quality open datasets in public domains. Propose NEW data ☛☛☛PR☛☛☛…
WorldAfterCapital/WorldAfterCapital
WorldAfterCapital - Technological progress has shifted scarcity for humanity.…
vic317yeh/One-Click-to-Be-Pro
One-Click-to-Be-Pro - A curated list of resources to help you start learning a new CS topic…
nayafia/lemonade-stand
lemonade-stand - A handy guide to financial support for open source…
datasciencemasters/go
go - The Open Source Data Science Masters…
prakhar1989/awesome-courses
awesome-courses - :books: List of awesome university courses for learning Computer Science!…
hock/SupplyStudiesSyllabus
SupplyStudiesSyllabus - Collaborative syllabus for studies in supply and critical logistics.…
hypotext/notation
Collection of quotes on interesting notations & how they affect thought.…
frnsys/speculating_futures
speculating_futures - futures we can feel good about…
jwasham/coding-interview-university
coding-interview-university - A complete computer science study plan to become a software engineer.…
melanierichards/just-build-websites
just-build-websites - Some ideas for websites you can build!…
jdiedrick/whitefragility
whitefragility - Because talking about race shouldn't be so stressful -_-…
tegacodes/Dark-Ecology-Studio
GitHub is where people build software. More than 28 million people use GitHub to discover, fork, and contribute to over 85 million projects.…
tegacodes/Drawing-Seeing-Moving-with-Code
GitHub is where people build software. More than 28 million people use GitHub to discover, fork, and contribute to over 85 million projects.…
tegacodes/EccentricInterfaces
GitHub is where people build software. More than 28 million people use GitHub to discover, fork, and contribute to over 85 million projects.…
tegacodes/speculative-bureaucracy
GitHub is where people build software. More than 28 million people use GitHub to discover, fork, and contribute to over 85 million projects.…
dmvaldman/library
library - 📚 Papers/books/essays I like…
tchoi8/teachingasart
teachingasart - Class on pedagogy.…
tchoi8/teachingasart2018
teachingasart2018 - Teaching as Art. A class at NYU ITP on pedagogy and social practice art.…
kdeldycke/awesome-falsehood
awesome-falsehood - :pill: Curated list of falsehoods programmers believe in.…
piepdx/pie-cookbook
PIE is an experiment. We've been everything from a coworking space to a community hub to an early stage startup accelerator. Now, we're open sourcing everything we've learned from nearly a decade of helping startups.…
kamranahmedse/design-patterns-for-humans
design-patterns-for-humans - An ultra-simplified explanation to design patterns…
terkelg/awesome-creative-coding
awesome-creative-coding - 🎨 Creative Coding: Generative Art, Data visualization, Interaction Design, Resources.…
thoughtbot/apprenticeship
apprenticeship - A packet to give new apprentices. It should be printed out and waiting on their desk when they arrive.…
edouerd/products-systems
products-systems - An open syllabus for product designers -…
k4m4/movies-for-hackers
movies-for-hackers - 🎬 A curated list of movies every hacker & cyberpunk must watch.…
nicoleslaw/strategicwriting
strategicwriting - Writing for designers - course materials for SVA IXD thesis prep…
dexteryy/spellbook-of-modern-webdev
spellbook-of-modern-webdev - A Big Picture, Thesaurus, and Taxonomy of Modern JavaScript Web Development…
learn-anything/curated-lists
curated-lists - Curated lists on various topics…
MimiOnuoha/missing-datasets
missing-datasets - An overview and exploration of the concept of missing datasets.…
danluu/post-mortems
post-mortems - A collection of postmortems. Sorry for the delay in merging PRs!…
openmusictheory/openmusictheory.github.io
openmusictheory.github.io - A growing, online "textbook" for music theory and aural skills…
open-source-ideas/open-source-ideas
open-source-ideas - :open_hands: Ever had a cool idea to an Open Source project but didn't have the time to implement yourself? Let someone else give it a try!…
tiimgreen/github-cheat-sheet
github-cheat-sheet - A list of cool features of Git and GitHub.…
noffle/art-of-readme
art-of-readme - :love_letter: Learn the art of writing quality READMEs.…
JJ/hoborg
hoborg - A dieselpunk novel with Spanish-created robot hobos in a balcanized America at the beginning of the XX century…
antimodular/Best-practices-for-conservation-of-media-art
Best-practices-for-conservation-of-media-art - Best practices for conservation of media art from an artist's perspective…
nayafia/awesome-maintainers
awesome-maintainers - Talks, blog posts, and interviews about the experience of being an open source maintainer…
10up/Engineering-Best-Practices
Engineering-Best-Practices - 10up Engineering Best Practices…
danistefanovic/build-your-own-x
build-your-own-x - 🤓 Build your own (insert technology here)…
basecamp/handbook
handbook - Basecamp Employee Handbook…
protocol/research-RFPs
research-RFPs - Repository for hosting RFPs and bounties…
OpenJournal/awesome-textbooks
awesome-textbooks - If you could nominate one formative, novel, or comprehensive textbook to survive into the future.…
nasa-jpl/open-source-rover
open-source-rover - A build-it-yourself, 6-wheel rover based on the rovers on Mars!…
Droogans/unmaintainable-code
unmaintainable-code - A more maintainable, easier to share version of the infamous http://mindprod.com/jgloss/unmain.html…
kickstarter/kickstarter-autodesk-3d
Kickstarter Autodesk 3D Printer Evaluation. Contribute to kickstarter/kickstarter-autodesk-3d development by creating an account on GitHub.…
ivanreese/visual-programming-codex
Resources and references for the past and future of visual programming. - ivanreese/visual-programming-codex…
mdibaiee/awesome-lite-websites
A list of awesome lite websites without all the bloat - mdibaiee/awesome-lite-websites…
poteto/hiring-without-whiteboards
⭐️ Companies that don't have a broken hiring process - poteto/hiring-without-whiteboards…
LDNOOBW/List-of-Dirty-Naughty-Obscene-and-Otherwise-Bad-Words
List of Dirty, Naughty, Obscene, and Otherwise Bad Words - LDNOOBW/List-of-Dirty-Naughty-Obscene-and-Otherwise-Bad-Words…
gmoe/piano_fundamentals
This is a Sphinx adaptation of Chaun C. Chang's book, "Fundamentals of Piano Practice." - gmoe/piano_fundamentals…
nayafia/microgrants
A list of microgrant programs for your good ideas. Contribute to nayafia/microgrants development by creating an account on GitHub.…
JefMari/awesome-wysiwyg
A curated list of awesome WYSIWYG editors. Contribute to JefMari/awesome-wysiwyg development by creating an account on GitHub.…
aparrish/rwet
Notebooks and other materials for Reading and Writing Electronic Text - aparrish/rwet…
aparrish/text-resources
I have this big list of links to text stuff that I like, so I thought I'd make it into a repository. - aparrish/text-resources…
RichardLitt/knowledge
💡 document everything. Contribute to RichardLitt/knowledge development by creating an account on GitHub.…
mgp/book-notes
Notes from books and other interesting things that I've read. Enjoy! Quick description of how I take notes: On my Macbook, I have the Kindle app open with the book, as well as the markdown file open in a text editor (usually Sublime Text or MacVim,…
dumb-password-rules/dumb-password-rules
Shaming sites with dumb password rules. Feel free to submit a pull request with dumb rules you've encountered. See other sites for the formatting and follow these rules: Include the name of the site with a link. Add a clean comment about the dumb…
thetuttingtutor/accessibility-disability-justice
This is an evolving, continuously updating resource collection. 😊 Related resource collections in this repo: Coming soon: books, plug-ins, notable activists, and videos/talks Disability justice challenges the idea that our worth as individuals…
thetuttingtutor/accessguide
Access Guide is a simplified, illustrated version of WCAG 2.1 (web content accessibility guidelines). Please keep in mind that this is NOT the intended final format of the guide, but rather a repository of all written content for the purposes of:…
danielsuo/furniture
You can't perform that action at this time. You signed in with another tab or window. You signed out in another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session. Reload to refresh your session.…
rockita/Environmental_Intelligence
A deluge of Earth system data has become available in the past decades including remote sensing, in situ observations from sensors, socioeconomic data and citizen science observations. One challenge is that in many countries such data is not…
hongkonggong/beyond-lennon-walls
Setting up a Lennon Wall or joining in a rally may be the most visible way to help the Hong Kong protests from abroad, but it isn't necessarily the best. Below are some other ideas on how to support the protest from afar. Last updated 14 October…
sakofchit/fund-my-project
This is a collection of verified resources & programs that offer grants + funding towards ideas, side projects, startups, etc. It contains application information along with deadlines. Pull requests are accepted and must follow the format below.…
