How to find a passion project?
I need something fresh on GitHub so that prospective employers can see that I can actually code. I've been somewhat hamstrung finding a real world problem that I can reasonably address with a toy-sized project. Here's one go:
Problem: News articles on court matters are written in plain language and rarely include case citations, jurisdictions, or generally enough information to look further into the matter they're reporting on. With so much misinformation circulating via social media, it's increasingly important for people to verify stories they find online before sharing them further.
Caveat: Lately (some) news organizations has become better about uploading CourtListener documents from the matter they're reporting on in the cloud and embedding them in the news article.
Potential solution: A UI that helps the user identify the relevant info in the article, zeroing in on info that could help determine jurisdiction, party names, etc. Then find the documents using CourtListener API if it's a jurisdiction that is included. Forwards the user to info about access to that jurisdiction's materials if not. May need to integrate a map.
Obstacles: I research like a librarian. I like advanced search forms that let me narrow parameters, but most people just want a single search box so they don't have to think.
Can I just target this for other people who want to do careful research and include some kind of "simple search" link that kicks them over to the CourtListener search page?