## Inspiration: We decided to try out chrome extensions.

## What it does: Creates a new tab with a screen that looks like the user is working.

## How I built it: I used java script and json to build this.

## Challenges I ran into: Having the screen loop such that each click would produce a different screen.

## Accomplishments that I'm proud of: Finishing the project.

## What I learned: It is the process that matters.

## What's next for Pretending to Work: Pretending to be cool?
## Inspiration

Luke had this idea at 2AM at night inspired from an idea he saw that had entrepreneurs able to share anything they thought was useful to their success, or something they used everyday. For example, Mark Cuban being able to share quotes he looked at everyday. We spun this to have anybody, not just rich business men, have a place to store quotes, code examples, stories, classes, or anything else they use daily or think could be helpful later.

## What it does

If you have a junk drawer at home think of it like that. A typical junk drawer has batteries, screwdrivers, tape, light bulbs, etc. This is like that except for anything on the internet. Our Chrome Extension takes a screenshot of any page you want and store it in your personal gallery. From there you can access that drawer and see everything you have thrown in there. This app takes away the stress and hardships of having to label anything you want to store away in a folder. This way you have a general place where anything useful can go.

## How we built it

We built this app with no prior knowledge of Chrome Extensions. We used tutorials to hone our skills quickly and produced an Extension that can take screenshots + scrape urls and store them locally. We also used our React JS skills to make a website that can link to both the Chrome Extension and your personal gallery. The React JS website was by far the easiest part. In short we used React JS and a locally stored Chrome Extension to make this website.

## Challenges we ran into

Our first major problem was our idea. We could not agree on what we wanted our idea to look like. After coding for a little bit we decided to stick with screenshots alone instead of trying to form it into a JSON file or anything more complicated. After that it was simple coding problems that we ran into. Next problem was how we are going to store the screenshots taken by the extension. We tried firebase and other cloud storage. However, it was late on May 14th when Luke texted me that he just remembered local storage, and we never looked back from there.

## Accomplishments that we're proud of

I am proud of Luke as he was the main mastermind behind the project and figuring out how to use and create a Chrome Extension. He started the project with zero knowledge on the subject matter, and within two days had a deep understanding of what he needed to do. I am proud of myself because as the more novice programmer in the family I have not finished a a project with Luke before and I think this is a huge step forward for me and us working together.

## What we learned

We learned loads about how Chrome Extensions work. Probably more than I will ever need to know again. I learned more about proper professional code formatting. Luke had to help me with that, but I now feel much better about how I should format my code especially in React. We learned each others strengths and weaknesses and are excited to work together in more competitions in the future. With that being said we also learned not to bite off more than we can chew. With our main problem being finding an idea we had less time to code than is desirable. Though we are both happy with the final product we wish we had more time, and hope to continue producing this until completion.

## What's next for Junk Drawer

The next steps are mostly polishing. As of writing this the gallery part of the web app is not finished, and the website buttons do not link to anything. So finishing those two features are important and general polishing/making things look pretty is the next steps for us and Junk Drawer.
## Inspiration

**Read something, do something.** We constantly encounter articles about social and political problems affecting communities all over the world – mass incarceration, the climate emergency, attacks on women's reproductive rights, and countless others. Many people are concerned or outraged by reading about these problems, but don't know how to directly take action to reduce harm and fight for systemic change. **We want to connect users to events, organizations, and communities so they may take action on the issues they care about, based on the articles they are viewing**

## What it does

The Act Now Chrome extension analyzes articles the user is reading. If the article is relevant to a social or political issue or cause, it will display a banner linking the user to an opportunity to directly take action or connect with an organization working to address the issue. For example, someone reading an article about the climate crisis might be prompted with a link to information about the Sunrise Movement's efforts to fight for political action to address the emergency. Someone reading about laws restricting women's reproductive rights might be linked to opportunities to volunteer for Planned Parenthood.

## How we built it

We built the Chrome extension by using a background.js and content.js file to dynamically render a ReactJS app onto any webpage the API identified to contain topics of interest. We built the REST API back end in Python using Django and Django REST Framework. Our API is hosted on Heroku, the chrome app is published in "developer mode" on the chrome app store and consumes this API. We used bitbucket to collaborate with one another and held meetings every 2 - 3 hours to reconvene and engage in discourse about progress or challenges we encountered to keep our team productive.

## Challenges we ran into

Our initial attempts to use sophisticated NLP methods to measure the relevance of an article to a given organization or opportunity for action were not very successful. A simpler method based on keywords turned out to be much more accurate.

Passing messages to the back-end REST API from the Chrome extension was somewhat tedious as well, especially because the API had to be consumed before the react app was initialized. This resulted in the use of chrome's messaging system and numerous javascript promises.

## Accomplishments that we're proud of

In just one weekend, **we've prototyped a versatile platform that could help motivate and connect thousands of people to take action toward positive social change**. We hope that by connecting people to relevant communities and organizations, based off their viewing of various social topics, that the anxiety, outrage or even mere preoccupation cultivated by such readings may manifest into productive action and encourage people to be better allies and advocates for communities experiencing harm and oppression.

## What we learned

Although some of us had basic experience with Django and building simple Chrome extensions, this project provided new challenges and technologies to learn for all of us. Integrating the Django backend with Heroku and the ReactJS frontend was challenging, along with writing a versatile web scraper to extract article content from any site.

## What's next for Act Now

We plan to create a web interface where organizations and communities can post events, meetups, and actions to our database so that they may be suggested to Act Now users. This update will not only make our applicaiton more dynamic but will further stimulate connection by introducing a completely new group of people to the application: the event hosters. This update would also include spatial and temporal information thus making it easier for users to connect with local organizations and communities.