Introduction for Contributors

The very heart and soul of the OpenBeta project lies in the collection and maintenance of climbing data. The task of keeping an up to date regional set of climbs is a difficult one, but is well suited to open source community-driven effort. The best people to maintain this dataset are climbers (🧗 you!), and OpenBeta is here to make sure the tools exist for climbers to engage in this work.

All contributions made to the data in OpenBeta will be open source in perpetuity - meaning that the work done by the community will never be licensed out of the hands of its creators.

If you've ever used or contributed to Wikipedia, you will probably be familiar with the mechanics at play. All you need to do is make an account, and you can start using Open Tacos to contribute updated information 🗂.

What data does OpenBeta need?

The critical data that OpenBeta deals with is encompassed by the concepts of Areas and Climbs. The core task of maintainers is to add and update data of this kind. Our hope is that if climbers engage with OpenBeta services like Open Tacos they will recognize data that needs updating in their casual use of the platform. In this way, updating data is distributed among all climbers, and will present small irregular work to the average climber.

Adding new data of this kind is a different kind of work. Finding uncaptured data is an active task that requires agency on the part of maintainers. Routes are developed all the time and there are a great deal of known climbs in the world that remain to be captured in the OpenBeta system, and so this kind of contribution will be very important for OpenBeta throughout its lifetime.

The other kind of Data that OpenBeta needs is, well, Beta! Outdoor climbing requires its participants to be informed. Documenting best practices and ethic for different climbing regions is another active effort that needs to be undertaken by local contributors. If you are a local climber, your contributions would be greatly appreciated.