Unlike software, hardware projects cannot be entirely defined, or contained within, the computer. That’s a shame because there are some really great tools for managing software projects.
Gary Hodgson has prototyped his proposal for using github to manage hardware projects. He called it githubiverse and, appropriately enough, hosted it on github. Here is an example of it functioning to track Mechanical Movement #27. All the files are on github and this custom webpage displays whatever is up to date.
If the name Gary Hodgson sounds familiar, that’s because he built a DLP resin printer, which Openalia covered previously. I don’t think I’m outing him as a true geek when I point to this…
An interesting advanced use case is the ability to use the same core template across many projects. You could fork the githubiverse-template project and edit the html/css as you wish. Then, in each project’s gh-page branch create a submodule referring to this fork. All that’s left would be to create a _config.yml file with the details in the root project gh-pages branch and an additional entry defining the source of the jekyll site as being the submodule folder.
…as reminding me of this Dilbert cartoon.
openalia 
Hah, yeah, perhaps that paragraph is a bit terse! “Out! Out!” 🙂 I didn’t want to go on for ages explaining that option in detail, and I reckon those that know git will get the idea, and those that want to know more can get in touch.
Thanks for the write up! Even though it was a little diversion project, I’d be happy to hear any suggestions and ideas about githubiverse.
Haha, that’s exactly why it reminded me of the comic.
It’s a good diversion. We definitely need some kind of tool for working with hardware the same way github helps work with software. Or, failing that, at least making the projects more approachable. Your githubiverse page would actually go a long way towards making the existing github projects easier to understand. They look like prototype boards, but a lot of people use them as the landing page for their project.