Here’s how Midas works: You come up with a great idea that would help your workplace, but you and your coworkers don’t have the skills to execute it. Rather than bringing in a contractor, you can post your project idea to Midas, where other people within your organization can see it and then work on it, if they’d like.

Midas is currently in active use inside the US federal government as the software that drives the Open Opportunities program, which connects people from across and within government agencies to collaborate on projects. Open Opportunities validated the model using WordPress and a Lean Startup "concierge" approach, with people from over 50 government agencies, completing over 100 projects, ranging from 1 hour tasks to working part-time for 3-6 months. Open Opportunities moved to Midas in October 2014, and is available for all federal employees here. Midas was originally developed by the Department of State and is being piloted there, specifically for foreign service officers.

Our Goal: to foster innovation across team boundaries by connecting individuals who identify challenges and then work collaboratively to implement solutions.

Midas can benefit all organizations, but it’s especially useful for those with distributed teams and whose employees have diverse skill sets. Using Midas, you and your colleagues can work on projects together, get to know each other better, and develop skills you don’t use as often as you’d like.

• Use our test server and write up issues
• Join our Google Group and introduce yourself, please ask any general questions here -- how the product is supposed to work, usability issues, technical questions, whatever you want to know, we want to hear about. If you are interested in using Midas for your organization, let us know.
• Read our Contribution Guide -- everything you do with us is a contribution to the public domain, there are also some tips for getting started
• If you are a developer, install the software for development
• Dive into our help wanted issues -- there are both dev and design opportunities there

This project is in the public domain within the United States, and copyright and related rights in the work worldwide are waived through the CC0 1.0 Universal public domain dedication.

For more information, see license.