Roadmap

Two hundred needs, twenty per family. These are not entries: no content is produced for them until somebody writes them. They say where the catalogue is going, and what there is to pick up.

25 published 0 drafts 175 to write 200 au total

How to contribute

Detect and filter 20

Block abusive login attempts Spot waves of password guessing against a login form without punishing forgetful users. Take it on
Blur faces in photos Hide the faces of the people caught in an image before publishing or sharing it. Take it on
Detect text copied between documents Find passages reused from one document in another, even when a few words were changed. Take it on
Filter bot traffic out of server logs Separate human visits from automated crawls so that traffic figures mean something. Take it on
Filter noisy alerts before paging someone Group and drop repetitive or harmless alerts so on-call is woken only for a real incident. Take it on
Find credentials left in source code Find the access keys, passwords and tokens left in a repository before they get published. Take it on
Find duplicate records in a customer database Find the records that describe the same person despite different spellings, abbreviations or missing fields. Published
Find personal data in a spreadsheet Know which columns of a file hold personal data before sharing or archiving it. Take it on
Find the same image twice in a media library Find visuals that are identical, or merely cropped, resized or recompressed, cluttering a library. Take it on
Mask personal details in a message Replace the phone numbers, emails and addresses in a message before displaying, storing or forwarding it. Published
Moderate public comments Keep insulting or hateful comments off a public page without silencing legitimate criticism. Published
Screen the files users upload Check that an uploaded file really is what it claims to be and carries nothing harmful. Take it on
Spot a fraudulent payment attempt Flag suspicious orders at checkout without turning away legitimate buyers. Take it on
Spot explicit images among user uploads Keep sexually explicit uploads from ever appearing on a public site. Take it on
Spot fake reviews Flag mass-produced or paid-for reviews before they distort the rating shown for a product. Take it on
Spot profanity in usernames Reject crude usernames, including the ones disguised with digits or lookalike characters. Take it on
Spot scam links in messages Catch phishing or shady redirect links posted by users before a reader clicks one. Take it on
Spot spam in a contact form Keep automated and promotional submissions out of a public form without blocking genuine enquiries. Published
Tell whether a text was machine-written Estimate whether a submitted text was written by a language model, and how much that estimate is worth. Take it on
Turn away disposable email addresses Refuse throwaway addresses at sign-up, since the account becomes unreachable within hours. Take it on

Extract 20

Collect the contact details listed on a page Gather the phones, emails and addresses shown on a web page to fill in a record. Take it on
Extract amounts and currencies from a text Find the sums quoted in a message or a document, with their currency, however they are written. Take it on
Extract dates from free text Find the dates mentioned in a message or a document, whatever their format. Published
Extract measurements from a product description Find the dimensions, weights and volumes quoted in free text and bring them to a common unit. Take it on
Extract opening hours from a business page Turn opening hours written in plain words into slots a program can compare against the clock. Take it on
Extract the details held in a CV Recover the contact details, jobs, studies and skills from an application received as a file. Take it on
Extract the fields of an invoice Pull the number, date, total and supplier out of an invoice, whatever its layout. Published
Extract the ingredients and steps of a recipe Separate the ingredient list, with its quantities, from the sequence of preparation steps. Take it on
Extract the key clauses of a contract Locate the term, the deadlines, the notice period and the termination conditions inside a contract. Take it on
Extract the key terms of a document Surface the terms that characterise a document, so it can be indexed, labelled or previewed. Take it on
Extract the tables from a PDF Recover, as rows and columns, the tables inside a document laid out for print. Take it on
Find the people and organisations named in an article List the proper names mentioned in a text and tell what kind of entity each one is. Take it on
Isolate the newest reply in an email thread Separate the message that just arrived from the quoted history and signature wrapped around it. Take it on
Pull product data from a shop page Read the name, price, availability and images of a product shown on a shop site. Take it on
Pull quotes from an interview transcript Find, in a transcript, the passages each speaker said that stand up as quotes. Take it on
Pull the main content out of a web page Recover the article text without the menus, banners and side panels around it. Take it on
Split a bibliography into references Split a reference list and recover the author, title, year and source of each entry. Take it on
Split a postal address into fields Separate street, postcode, town and country from an address typed on a single line. Published
Split log lines into fields Turn heterogeneous log lines into named fields so they can be filtered and counted. Take it on
Spot a tracking number in an email Find the parcel reference in a shipping confirmation and tell which carrier it belongs to. Take it on

Classify and route 20

Assign expenses to accounting categories Give each expense line the accounting category it belongs to, from its label and its merchant. Take it on
Classify a company by its line of business Assign a company to a sector using its name, its description or its website. Take it on
Detect the language of a text Work out which language a message is written in before processing it or passing it to the right person. Published
Dispatch jobs to the right processing queue Send each incoming job to the queue that suits its size and urgency, to avoid pile-ups. Take it on
Gauge the tone of a customer review Tell whether a review is positive, negative or mixed, to follow overall mood and react to the worst ones. Take it on
Group free-text survey answers into themes Surface the recurring subjects in a batch of open answers instead of reading them one by one. Take it on
Identify the intent behind a user message Work out what the person wants — cancel, ask, complain — so the right next step can start. Take it on
Label audio clips by what can be heard Tell an alarm, a voice and background noise apart in a recording, so the right reaction follows. Take it on
Label contract clauses by type Find which clauses in a contract cover confidentiality, termination or liability. Take it on
Label log lines by severity Tell what deserves an alert from what is only noise, in a stream of heterogeneous logs. Take it on
Map free text to an official code list Match a hand-written description to the exact code of a mandated, very long classification. Take it on
Put products in the right catalogue category Place each item in the catalogue tree using its name and its description. Take it on
Recognise the type of an uploaded document Tell an invoice from a contract or a receipt as soon as it lands, so it enters the right process. Take it on
Route a request to the smallest model that fits Decide up front whether a request needs a rule, a small model or a large one, before handling it. Take it on
Route support tickets to the right team Send every incoming request to the team able to handle it, without someone reading the whole queue first. Published
Sort incoming email into folders File incoming messages into useful folders instead of letting a single inbox overflow. Take it on
Sort photos by what they show Organise a batch of images by their content, so a given scene or object can be found later. Take it on
Spot urgent messages in a shared inbox Bring the messages that cannot wait to the top, without reviewing the whole inbox by hand. Take it on
Tag articles by topic Put one or more topic labels on articles so they can be grouped and found again later. Published
Tell whether a message needs a human reply Separate what an automatic reply can settle from what needs a person, without letting a sensitive case slip through. Take it on

Search 20

Add a search page to a small website Offer site search on a modest website without standing up a dedicated infrastructure. Take it on
Add autocomplete to a search bar Offer useful suggestions from the first letters typed, fast enough to keep up with the typing. Published
Answer questions from an internal knowledge base Get a written, sourced answer drawn from in-house documentation instead of a list of links to open. Take it on
Combine filters and keywords in a product search Let a visitor narrow down by size, colour or brand while still typing free text. Take it on
Find visually similar images Find the pictures in a library that look like a given image, without going through keywords. Take it on
Find where a quoted passage comes from Identify the source document of a copied extract, even when it was slightly reworded or cut short. Take it on
Forgive typos in a search box Return useful results even when the query holds a misspelling, swapped letters or a missing accent. Take it on
Handle synonyms and in-house jargon Match the word a user types with the term the documents use, when the two are not the same. Take it on
Keep a search index in step with changing data Make a change show up in the results without reindexing everything or waiting until the next day. Take it on
Make a pile of scanned documents searchable Search for a word inside documents that exist only as scanned images. Take it on
Match a postal address to a known place Find the official address behind an approximate, incomplete or badly formatted entry. Take it on
Match misspelled company names Recognise that the same company appears under several spellings across two files of different origins. Published
Query a database in plain language Let someone who does not write queries pull a figure or a list out of a database. Take it on
Search a large archive of logs Find the trace of an incident in logs piled up over months, without losing the day to it. Take it on
Search across past conversations Track down what was said in chat threads or meeting notes. Take it on
Search in one language, find results in another Query a document collection written in several languages from one language and still get the right passages. Take it on
Search in your own documents Find a piece of information across personal or company files without remembering which file holds it. Published
Search inside a single long document Find the useful passage in a manual, a contract or a report of several hundred pages. Take it on
Search several sources from one search box Query separate tools at once and present the results as a single, coherent list. Take it on
Search through a codebase Find where a function is defined or used in a project too large to read end to end. Take it on

Blend editorial picks with automatic suggestions Let a single list hold both the newsroom's hand-picked choices and computed results. Take it on
Choose which comments to show first Order the replies under a post so the most useful ones are read first. Take it on
Explain why an item was suggested Give each suggestion a plain reason, drawn from the data that produced it. Take it on
Find visually similar images Offer, inside a picture library, the images that look like the one on screen. Take it on
Give fresh content a lift Give recent posts a chance without pushing the established favourites out of the ranking. Take it on
Keep suggestions from looking alike Remove near-duplicates from a list of suggestions so it covers several interests. Take it on
Match offers with requests Pair two lists on a marketplace: the listings published and the needs people posted. Take it on
Offer a replacement for an out-of-stock item Find the closest item still available when the one the customer wanted is missing. Take it on
Personalise a home page feed Assemble each signed-in visitor's home page from what they have looked at before. Take it on
Rank products by relevance Order the products on a catalogue page so the most relevant ones come first. Published
Recommend a clothing size Advise which size to order from the item's measurements and past purchases kept or returned. Take it on
Recommend the next video Pick what to play next when a video ends, based on what was just watched. Take it on
Recommend the plan that fits the usage Tell a customer which offer matches their actual usage rather than what they declared. Take it on
Suggest a reviewer for a change Point to the person who best knows the files touched by a change awaiting review. Take it on
Suggest accounts to follow Offer a member other accounts on the network, starting from the ones they already follow. Take it on
Suggest products that go together Offer, next to a viewed item, what customers usually buy along with it. Take it on
Suggest recipes from what is on hand Find dishes that can be made with the ingredients already there, allowing a few gaps. Take it on
Suggest similar articles Show, at the foot of an article, other pieces on the site about the same subject. Published
Suggest something to a brand-new visitor Offer a first sensible item when no history at all is available about the visitor. Take it on
Suggest the next action in an app Highlight the step the person is likely to take next, from the journey so far. Take it on

Predict 20

Announce a waiting time Tell people in a queue how long they still have to wait, and hold to it. Take it on
Anticipate a stock shortage Warn before an item runs out, combining how fast it leaves and how long restocking takes. Take it on
Check that a model is not drifting Watch forecast quality over time and raise a flag when the model comes loose. Take it on
Estimate a delivery's carbon footprint Work out the emissions tied to a shipment from the transport mode and the distance. Take it on
Estimate a second-hand price Offer the seller a range consistent with comparable items already sold on the site. Take it on
Estimate a text's reading time Show the reader how long an article will take before they start it. Take it on
Estimate attendance at an event Work out how many people will turn up, so welcome desks and supplies can be sized. Take it on
Estimate how long a job will take Give a likely duration for a planned job, based on comparable jobs already carried out. Take it on
Estimate the no-show rate for a slot Work out what share of a slot's bookings will go unused, so filling can be adjusted. Take it on
Fill a gap in a series of readings Rebuild the missing values of an interrupted record without distorting the averages drawn from it. Take it on
Find the seasonality in a series Bring out the weekly or yearly cycles in a measurement before trying to forecast it. Take it on
Forecast site load Estimate the traffic expected so the infrastructure is sized before a known peak. Take it on
Forecast staffing needed for a shift Estimate how many people must be on hand each opening hour, from past activity. Take it on
Forecast the coming weeks' cash Project the money coming in and going out to see whether the balance will hold. Take it on
Forecast weekly sales Estimate the coming weeks' sales from past figures, in order to plan purchasing. Published
Give a delivery date Tell the customer when their parcel will arrive, from delays actually seen on that route. Take it on
Plan maintenance before the breakdown Read a machine's measurements for the signs that precede a failure, and step in on time. Take it on
Put an uncertainty range on a forecast Pair a forecast with an honest range, so the reader knows how far to trust it. Take it on
Spot a lasting change of trend Tell a real turning point from a passing wobble in a curve watched every day. Take it on
Spot an anomaly in metrics Flag when a tracked measurement leaves its usual behaviour, without drowning the team in alerts. Published

Generate 20

Build a colour palette from an image Pick the colours of a page from the photo or the logo it contains. Take it on
Build preview images for shared links Compose the image that goes with a page when its link is shared elsewhere, without drawing it by hand. Take it on
Build quiz questions from a lesson Create test questions on a teaching text, with wrong answers that remain plausible. Take it on
Draft replies to common emails Offer a ready-to-review answer for the requests that keep arriving in a shared inbox. Take it on
Draw a diagram from a description Get a diagram of a process or an architecture described in a few sentences, and be able to correct it afterwards. Take it on
Give every account a default avatar Show a recognisable thumbnail for the people who have uploaded no picture. Take it on
Personalise a mass mailing Adapt each message of a campaign to the recipient's data without writing a thousand letters by hand. Take it on
Produce client code from an API schema Get the calling functions for a service from its published description, without writing them one by one. Take it on
Produce invoices as PDF files Produce a printable document from the lines of an order, with a consistent layout. Take it on
Produce placeholder images Show a stand-in image wherever the real one is still missing, in a mock-up or an unfinished catalogue. Published
Produce test data sets Fill a database or a mock-up with believable data, without ever pouring real customer records into it. Published
Turn a question into a database query Let a non-technical person query data by asking the question in plain language. Take it on
Turn titles into readable web addresses Turn a page title into a short, stable, readable address, despite accents and repeated titles. Take it on
Write a monthly report from figures Turn a table of results into a written commentary, regular and comparable month to month. Take it on
Write alt text for images Describe every image on a site for the people who cannot see it. Take it on
Write error messages people can act on Tell the person what went wrong and what they can do about it, without technical jargon. Take it on
Write page descriptions for search engines Give each page a short description sentence, different from the ones on the site's other pages. Take it on
Write product descriptions Write the sales text for every item in a catalogue, starting from its characteristics. Published
Write release notes from the commit history Say what changed since the previous version, in terms that matter to the people using it. Take it on
Write several variants of a message to test Produce several wordings of the same pitch to see which one works best with the audience. Take it on

Transform 20

Apply a house style to a text Enforce the in-house writing rules: agreed vocabulary, capitals, wordings that are ruled out. Take it on
Clean up a messy CSV file Make a carelessly exported file usable: shifted columns, dubious separators, headers that keep changing. Published
Expand the abbreviations in a text Replace acronyms and shorthand with their full form, for reading aloud or for search. Take it on
Fix the spelling and grammar of a text Find and fix the mistakes in a text before publication, without changing its meaning. Take it on
Flatten nested data into a table Turn an API response into rows and columns, ready for a spreadsheet or a database load. Take it on
Get the text out of a PDF Pull the readable content out of a document, whether it already carries text or only a page image. Take it on
Map fields between two formats Feed one system with another's data when the field names and the values do not line up. Take it on
Put phone numbers into a single format Unify numbers typed in twenty different ways so they can be compared and dialled. Take it on
Reduce a web page to its content Drop menus, banners and adverts to keep only the article, its headings and its paragraphs. Take it on
Remove the background from a photo Cut a product or a person out of the scene to show it on a plain background. Take it on
Repair text with a broken encoding Restore the accents and characters mangled by a bad hop from one system to another. Take it on
Resize and crop images for the web Produce a photo in the display sizes you need without cutting people's heads off. Take it on
Rewrite a text in plain language Make an administrative or legal notice readable for someone outside the trade. Take it on
Shorten a text to fit the space available Bring a heading or a summary down to the room available without making it unreadable. Take it on
Split a long text into coherent passages Prepare a document to be indexed or handled piece by piece, without cutting through an idea. Take it on
Straighten and clean up a scanned page Make a skewed, grey or spotted scan usable before reading it or filing it away. Take it on
Strip quotes and signatures from emails Keep only the message actually written, without the quoted history or the footer notices. Take it on
Summarise a long document Get the essentials of a report or a contract without having to read all of it. Published
Translate interface strings Make an application exist in another language, keeping the placeholders and the room available on screen. Published
Update translations after the source text changes Spot what moved in the source version and retranslate only that. Take it on

Recognise and transcribe 20

Align a transcript with its audio Match each word of an existing text to the moment it is spoken in the recording. Take it on
Check that a scan is usable Spot straight away that an uploaded image is blurry, cropped or too dark, and ask for another. Take it on
Detect the language of an audio recording Find out which language an audio file is spoken in, to send it to the right processing. Take it on
Find the spoken segments of a recording Split a long recording into speech and silence segments before transcribing or archiving it. Take it on
Get the text out of a screenshot Pull the text shown in a screenshot sent by a user, to analyse or search it. Take it on
Identify a music track from a short clip Find which musical recording matches a short audio excerpt, noise included. Take it on
Know whether a PDF needs OCR Tell a PDF that already carries its text from one made of images, before running a costly pass. Take it on
Read a barcode from a photo Get the reference encoded in a barcode photographed with a phone, even skewed or badly lit. Take it on
Read a mathematical formula from an image Convert a printed or handwritten formula into notation reusable in a document. Take it on
Read a QR code in a camera stream Detect and decode a QR code live in the camera image, without asking for a photo. Take it on
Read a utility meter from a photo Read the index shown on a water, gas or electricity meter photographed by a technician or a customer. Take it on
Read handwritten notes Turn handwritten notes into text, crossings-out and uneven handwriting included. Take it on
Read text from a scanned page Turn a scanned paper document into text that can be searched, copied or processed. Published
Read the ticked boxes on a paper form Find out which boxes were ticked on a printed then scanned questionnaire, without retyping it. Take it on
Recognise a spoken command Trigger an action from a small set of spoken phrases, on a device or inside an application. Take it on
Recover a table from a scanned document Recover the rows and columns of a printed table and rebuild a usable file. Take it on
Spot a specific sound in a recording Detect an expected sound, an alarm, an impact or a struggling machine, in a continuous audio stream. Take it on
Straighten a crooked scan Detect the skew and orientation of a scanned page and set it straight before any reading. Take it on
Subtitle a video Produce a synchronised subtitle file from the soundtrack of a video. Take it on
Transcribe a meeting recording Get the text of what was said in a recorded meeting, to read back or search. Take it on

Decide and validate 20

Apply discount rules to a cart Decide which discounts apply to an order, in what order, and which ones do not stack. Take it on
Check a company identification number Check that a company identifier is well formed and matches a genuinely registered company. Take it on
Check a configuration before deployment Spot a missing, inconsistent or dangerous value in a configuration file before it reaches production. Take it on
Check a file is really the format claimed Make sure an uploaded file really is the format its extension promises, before processing it. Take it on
Check a password against a policy Reject a weak or already-leaked password without turning sign-up into an obstacle course. Take it on
Check a product catalogue for inconsistencies Find mixed units, contradictory categories and empty fields in a catalogue before publishing it. Take it on
Check an invoice against its purchase order Check that an incoming invoice matches what was ordered and then delivered, line by line. Take it on
Check bank details before a transfer Catch a typing error in an account identifier before committing a payment. Take it on
Check that a contract contains the required clauses Check that a contract document carries every required clause before sending it for signature. Take it on
Check that a postal address is deliverable Make sure a typed address exists and can receive a parcel, before starting a shipment. Take it on
Check that a translation file is complete Find missing keys, forgotten variables and untranslated strings before shipping a new language. Take it on
Decide when to retry a failed operation Choose whether a failed operation should be retried, set aside or reported, depending on the error. Take it on
Decide whether a change needs human review Send for human review only the changes that deserve it, and let the rest through automatically. Take it on
Detect conflicts in a schedule Find overlaps, double-booked resources and impossible slots in a schedule. Take it on
Reconcile a bank statement with a ledger Match bank operations with accounting entries and isolate the ones that do not line up. Take it on
Validate a form server-side Check that the data received from a form is complete and coherent before storing it. Published
Validate a phone number and its country code Check that a typed number is valid in the stated country and bring it to a single form. Take it on
Validate an API payload against its contract Cleanly reject an incoming request that breaks the published contract, with a usable message. Take it on
Validate an email address without sending a message Work out whether a typed address stands a chance of existing before sending anything to it. Take it on
Validate an imported file against its expected schema Check column by column that a customer-supplied file matches the agreed format, and say what is wrong. Take it on