Projects

Textile Literature: Digital Storytelling Workshop

I taught a group of writers to code with HTML and CSS, the building blocks of the web. They enhanced their published stories with colour, photos, and layout customisations to create a unique immersive experience for the web. Learning the basics of web design has equipped these participants to enhance their narrative in future articles online, no matter where they are published.

https://textilekw.ca/collections/digital-storytelling-workshop

Tri-City Hip Hop

Explore the places in Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge that have shaped local hip-hop culture. Featuring music videos and first-hand stories from the artists themselves.

https://tricityhiphop.com

Gaukel Block

In September 2019, Gaukel Street in downtown Kitchener was transformed into a fun pop-up park. Now, working with a group of downtown community members, neighbourhood associations, businesses, and city staff, we have achieved a long-term plan for redesigning Gaukel St. as a pedestrian-first urban park.

https://gaukel.ca

Contexts

Slides from a presentation I prepared about software architecture in the real world. Tech isn’t a bubble. It’s affected by, and affects, a user’s environment, social biases, business models, and the other software it interacts with.

http://samnabi.github.io/contexts

Traction

A self-hosted, file-based solution for mass email campaigns. Traction was developed for Hold The Line Waterloo Region’s campaign against Bill 66. We coordinated with dozens of local advocacy groups. Community members sent over 18,000 emails to local mayors, councillors, and members of provincial parliament. In less than a month, Bill 66 was amended to respect our demands.

https://github.com/samnabi/traction

NGHBRHD

A little city-building puzzle game where you try to balance jobs, housing, green space, and active transportation by making land use decisions.

https://nghbrhd.samnabi.com

WR Blogs

One combined feed for Waterloo Region’s blogs and email newsletters. Because we could all use a little less algorithm and a little more community.

https://wrblogs.samnabi.com/

Shopkit

A comprehensive commerce solution for the excellent Kirby CMS. Flexible product variants, shipping and tax rates, inventory control, and search engine optimization are built right in.

http://shopkit.samnabi.com

Monetize This

Monetize This uses a patented algorithm to build the optimal monetization strategy for anything your heart desires. If it exists, you can monetize it.

https://monetizethis.co/

Croissant Reviews

Find the croissant of your dreams. All the reviews are categorized using a six-point flavour profile: crunchiness, flakiness, airiness, consistency, butteriness, and roasted flavour.

http://croissant.reviews

Wonderful Waterloo Archive

This thriving community for urban issues was abruptly taken offline in 2014. I managed to save some posts and photos from this significant forum.

http://wonderfulwaterloo.samnabi.com

Convocation Bingo

A fun, tongue-in-cheek buzzword bingo game that I made for my university’s convocation ceremony.

https://bingo.samnabi.com

Project Mushroom

Project Mushroom started in November 2022 as a community-led effort to build a safe place on the internet that centres joy and action. We want to build a better online experience — free from harassment, free from bigotry, and one that promotes connection, mutual aid, and transformative action at this critical moment in history. I act as an organizer and one of the moderators for our Mastodon communities.

https://newsletters.projectmushroom.xyz/

Bylines

Subscribe to your favourite Canadian writers no matter which publication they appear in.

https://bylin.es

Busy Berlin

A directory of Kitchener’s grassroots groups. Focusing on art, culture, and advocacy.

https://busyberlin.ca/

Apartment Café

Pop-up culture is coming to the York! We’re opening our home to freelancers and work-from-home folks who want a place to work that isn’t their own home.

http://apartmentcafe.samnabi.com/

Bandcamp Embed

Bandcamp Embed is a handy little app that gives you complete control over the look and feel of embedded Bandcamp players. [Update Oct 2020: It looks like something has broken with the Bandcamp API, and this site isn’t working reliably.]

http://bandcamp.samnabi.com

Saved + Favs

No need for a separate read-it-later app. This site pulls together your favourited Tweets and saved Reddit posts all in one place. [Update Oct 2020: The API for Twitter has been changed and this no longer works.]

http://favs.samnabi.com

Real World Index

Tracks social and environmental well-being in real time by pulling together public data and comparing it against past trends. Updated hourly.

http://realworldindex.samnabi.com

Find A Bed

Providing real-time open data for emergency shelters, in order to help shelter staff, residents, and policymakers. This project is no longer in active development, and I intend to open-source the code.

Zombie

Advanced search and better structured data for the Ontario Municipal Board, with an API and email alerts. [Oct 2020: The OMB got replaced with the LPAT so I stopped working on this.]