How can I determine if there is an open source software for a specific purpose?

Question

Hi,

We are going to write an entire new application for a reservation system. In this system experts specify their free time in elaborated calendar and users seek them through searched and finally reserve the expert and his time.

We prefer to find an open source program like this and try to evolve it instead of creating it from scratch. In this manner our time is saved and that open source program will be completer too.

We are a entire .NET (ASP.NET, C#, NHibernate) company.

We have same problem to find open source applications for our new projects.

Any help is highly appreciated.

Answer 1

Google Search

Sourceforge

Google Code

UPDATE: There is the NerdDinners site http://nerddinner.codeplex.com/ This is an example of a basic reservation system in .NET MVC. This is not all the functionality you are looking for, but it is open source and can get you started.

Answer 2

Also

codeplex.com
codeproject.com

Answer 3

Freshmeat.net is also useful a useful standby for finding open source software.

Answer 4

Also: ohloh.net

Answer 5

We prefer to find an open source program like this and try to evolve it instead of creating it from scratch.

The openness of the source code is irrelevant here.

It's the license that it's important.

You can find a lot of GPL open-source code, but if you want to contribute to it, you'll have to stick to this license. This might not suit your company.