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Open source software is always in flux. New projects are being born every day, and from time to time, we like to shine a spotlight on those that seem particularly promising. As we compiled this list, a few trends stood out. First was the sheer volume of projects surrounding JavaScript and Web development. Many of these relate to the creation of mobile apps and/or HTML5 technology. The second trend is closely related to the first—cross-platform or platform-independent apps. Web-based apps that will work on any operating system are becoming much more common than those designed for a particular OS. Last is the trend toward open source principles spreading beyond software. Every project on the list includes open source code, but in some cases that code is being used to write an open source book or to do open source science where anyone is welcome to participate. These are 50 good projects that have come to light in the last couple of years, but there are sure to be plenty more out there that didn't get included. If you know of one (or more) that we should have put on this list, please make a note in the comments section below. Accessibility 1. The Accessibility Project Launched earlier this year, this site aims to provide information on making other websites accessible to people with a variety of impairments, particularly those who are blind. You can read the content at the link above; if you'd like to contribute, visit the project's GitHub page. Operating System: OS Independent Book 2. Probabilistic Programming & Bayesian Methods for Hackers This is something new—an open source book on programming written in Python. And because it's open source, anyone can contribute, and the book keeps getting updated and improved. Operating System: OS Independent Collaboration 3. InterTwinkles If you're working with a group online, it can be really difficult to reach a decision. This platform (and MIT dissertation project) aims to make it easier to reach consensus without meeting in person. Operating System: OS Independent Database Tools/Data Management 4. BlinkDB Still an alpha release, BlinkDB is a "massively parallel, approximate query engine for running interactive SQL queries on large volumes of data." In some tests it performed up to 200 times faster than Hive. Operating System: Windows, Linux 5. Poderopedia This award-winning project makes it possible to set up large semantic databases where you can visualize connections between entities. It's particularly useful for journalists and media organizations tracking the relationships between people, corporations and political entities. Operating System: Windows, Linux 6. TokuDB/TokuMX Open-sourced this year, TokuDB is a performance engine that speeds up MySQL. TokuMX does the same thing for MongoDB. Both are also available in a paid enterprise version. Operating System: Windows, Linux Data Visualization 7. D3.js Short for Data-Driven Documents, D3 makes full use of newer Web standards to help users create interesting graphs and diagrams of their data. It grew out of the older Protovis project, and has been gaining more attention in the last couple of years. Operating System: Windows, Linux, Mac, iPad Development Tools 8. Bootstrap First released by Twitter in 2011, Bootstrap is a front-end framework for Web development that aims to speed the development process. It takes a mobile-first approach and compiles code to pure CSS. Operating System: OS Independent 9. Bower Also created by Twitter, Bower is a front-end package manager for the Web. It works with any type of package and runs over Git. Operating System: OS Independent 10. Brackets This Adobe project is currently one of the most popular on GitHub, though it's still a preview release. It's a code editor built with Web technologies for developers who are working in Web technologies. Operating System: OS Independent 11. Chaplin.js This HTML5 application architecture solution works with the Backbone.js library. It aims to help developers create single-page, scalable Web applications very quickly. Operating System: Windows, Linux 12. CodeMirror CodeMirror is a browser-based text editor. Basically, it allows Website developers to embed a code editor in their sites, which is useful if you're creating a site that offers programming tutorials. In addition to desktop browsers, it also works with many mobile browsers. Operating System: OS Independent 13. Conditionizr This tool allows websites to recognize the browser in use and serve up conditional files accordingly. It's great for situations where users are running older versions of browsers that don't support modern HTML and CSS features. Operating System: OS Independent 14. CoVim This plug-in adds collaborative features to the Vim text editor. It's sort of like Google Docs for Vim. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X 15. Ember.js There are a lot of JavaScript Web development frameworks out there—this one calls itself "a framework for creating ambitious Web applications. It aims to make developers more productive immediately. Operating System: OS Independent

16. Grunt Used by companies like Twitter, jQuery, Adobe, Modernizr and others, Grunt is a task runner for JavaScript. It automates tasks like minification, compilation, unit testing and linting. Operating System: OS Independent 17. Gumbo Released earlier this month by Google, Gumbo is a C implementation of the HTML5. It's meant to provide the foundation for a variety of other development tools. Operating System: Linux 18. Hammer.js If you're writing Web applications for mobile devices, this JavaScript library will allow to you enable multi-touch gestures, like swipe, tap, pinch, etc. The website proclaims, "You can touch this." Operating System: OS Independent 19. Meteor Want to write your entire Web app in JavaScript? Meteor makes it fast and easy. Note that it is still a preview release. Operating System: OS Independent 20. Mojito One of the "Yahoo Cocktails," Mojito is an HTML5 applications development tool for creating client-server applications in JavaScript. It works with Node.js and helps create cross-platform apps. Operating System: Linux 21. Sidekiq Sidekiq promises "simple, efficient background processing for Ruby." It speeds up Web applications and makes them more scalable. Operating System: OS Independent 22. SheetSee.js This JavaScript library makes it possible to use a Google spreadsheet as the database that feeds your website content. It makes updates quick and easy. Operating System: OS Independent 23. Textmate Exclusively for developers who work on makes, Textmate is a text editor that offers many more advanced features you would usually find in a full-fledged IDE. The project website states, "Created by a closet UNIX geek who was lured to the Mac platform by its ease of use and elegance, TextMate has been referred to as the culmination of Emacs and OS X." Operating System: OS X 24. TypeScript Developed by Microsoft and released in 2012, TypeScript is a variant of JavaScript with static typing and class-based object oriented programming capabilities. It compiles to pure JavaScript, and as a result, works with any operating system and browser. Operating System: OS Independent 25. ZURB Foundation One of the most popular projects on GitHub, Foundation humbly proclaims itself "The most advanced responsive front-end framework in the world." With it, web developers can quickly create sites that automatically adjust for the size and type of device being used for access. Operating System: OS Independent Disaster Preparedness 26. InaSAFE Foundation Created in Indonesia and Australia, this app helps scientists and communities explore the potential impact of natural disasters in a region. To use it, you'll need Quantum GIS, an open source geographic information system. Operating System: OS Independent Feed Reader 27. Stringer Still looking for an alternative to Google Reader? If you're tech-savvy enough to deploy it on your own server, Stringer might be for you. It's a "self-hosted, anti-social RSS reader" with no social or sharing capabilities but plenty of keyboard shortcuts. Operating System: OS Independent File Sharing 28. Sharefest If you combined Dropbox and Bittorrent, the result would be something like Sharefest. It allows you to share files with anyone without storing them in the cloud. The link above takes you to the actual service, but you can find the source code on GitHub. Operating System: OS Independent Fonts 29. Font Awesome Developed for Bootstrap, Font Awesome is a set of icons related to Web activities. They're vector graphics (meaning they're easy to scale) and they look good on high-resolution screens. Operating System: OS Independent Forum Software 30. Discourse Discourse calls itself a "discussion platform" and aims to modernize Web forums. Eventually, they plan to offer a hosted platform, but the open source code is available now. Operating System: OS Independent Games 31. Stunt Rally Although it's less than two years old, this racing game is based on VDrift and OGRE, so it's very complete and mature. The graphics are fabulous, and it includes 127 different tracks and 19 cars, plus a track editor so you can create your own racecourses. Operating System: OS Independent