I am one of the 859 downloaders. We were looking to use the code base to start a hyperlocal company in Canada but after spending about 2 1/2 hours reformatting the read me files and looking at all of the software dependencies we decided that it was too risky to proceed and have undertaken our own development. The read me files highlighted that this solution is easy to pull together if you are one of the five Everyblock employees but as an outsider – good luck! There are too many dependencies and not enough details on how they did things. 2 years of development boils into 5 read me files of about 3-4 pages (20 pages in total).

One of the most disappointing parts is that the Everyblock team does not seem to understand open source development. They posted this code base to the internet but did not create an SVN site to allow them and others to download the most current code. Another reason we moved on. It appears they posted the code to the site to fulfill their grant application.

It becomes interesting because they GPL’ed the code base which means they need to continue to post changes somewhere on the web even though they are now a private company.

The other disappointment is that the iPhone code base did not come along with the web application.