About

AYA (Açık Yazılım Ağı) is a platform enabling volunteers motivated by social good to collaborate and develop quality information technology solutions.

We have collectively realized projects by providing expert volunteer support and technical resources. These projects have been open-source solutions accessible and controllable by everyone, primarily official institutions and non-governmental organizations. Our role has been facilitating volunteer communication and resource management coordination.

As a non-profit organization focusing on social benefit, AYA continues its journey with a software foundation identity hosting various IT projects.

Brief History

Today, software development practices have adopted open-source and free software principles, enabling collaborative IT solutions online.

Platforms like GitHub allow initiating and contributing to open-source projects easily. This development results from years of work by foundations such as Mozilla, Linux Foundation, Apache Foundation, and CNCF.

In Türkiye, several open-source communities have emerged, such as the Linux Users Association and Pardus, contributing significantly. Among these was the Açık Kaynak İnisiyatifi, founded in 2015, promoting open-source development through GitHub.

After the February 2023 earthquake in Kahramanmaraş, volunteers coordinated through Twitter, creating a platform that quickly mobilized over 24,000 IT volunteers via GitHub and Discord.

Named AYA, this initiative enabled nearly 50 projects addressing critical post-earthquake issues, liaising with organizations like AFAD, AHBAP, and AKUT.

Objectives

Our primary aim is addressing IT needs of field organizations during crises, combining optimal resources and expertise to minimize chaos and efficiently direct volunteer efforts.

Based on our experiences, we revised our purpose to:

• Raise awareness about IT solutions for social good.
• Lead development of practical IT solutions.
• Contribute to a sustainable open-source ecosystem.
• Promote widespread use of these solutions.

Goals

Our current goals are:

• Increasing IT volunteer participation.
• Encouraging developer communication.
• Cultivating collective work culture.
• Supporting development of social-benefit IT solutions.
• Meeting institutional needs effectively.
• Applying industry best practices.
• Offering projects to help developers gain experience during industry bottlenecks.