How it works
Build it, share it, get verified, present it. BOSL links to work that lives elsewhere, so posting takes a few minutes and there is no approval queue in front of it.
01Post
Sign in with GitHub or Google, then add your project. Five things are needed, and the form checks them before anything is published:
- A source link that anyone can open: a repository, a publication page, a data portal or a design repository.
- A name and a description, with the description at least 50 characters.
- A type: software, research, dataset or hardware and design.
- At least one sector, so people can find your work by the area it serves.
- A maintainer contact, so people know who to ask about it. It is shown on the project page.
What each type adds
- Software: nothing extra. Live details come from the repository.
- Research: the authors, the publication date and an abstract. A DOI is optional.
- Dataset: the format and how the data was collected. Approximate size and a link to a field description are optional.
- Hardware/Design: the design file format and a link to the documentation. A bill of materials link is optional.
Signing in is not an approval step. It exists so you can edit your listing, so spam can be controlled and so verification has an owner.
02Live
As soon as the five checks pass, your project is live in the directory. People can search it, filter by type, sector, verification and activity, and open its page.
For software hosted on GitHub or GitLab, the project page shows live repository details: primary language, licence, recent activity, stars and forks. If the host is slow or down, BOSL keeps showing the last good data with the date it was fetched.
A project with no activity for 12 months is shown as Inactive. It stays listed, and its owner can ask for a fresh review.
03Verify
Verification is optional. Owners ask for it from the project page, after a short list of automatic checks (the source is reachable, a licence is declared, a description is present, and there has been recent activity).
A committee reviewer for the right track then checks the project against five criteria and either approves it or sends it back with written feedback. You can ask again at any time after making changes.
The verification page explains the criteria, the timing and what a verified mark does and does not mean.
04Present
Verified work can be put forward for the Showcase Track at OSCB events. Only verified projects are eligible, and the committee chooses which ones are shown.
05What BOSL does not do
- It does not host your work. Code, data and papers stay where they are. Direct file uploads are not part of this release.
- It does not approve posts before they go live. Hiding or removing a listing is a moderation action that needs a recorded reason.
- It does not read private or self hosted repositories. For hosts other than GitHub and GitLab, the details you enter yourself are shown instead of live data.