first saw this project in fall, now back onto the thread, looks like opening thread folk was long gone.... project still alive? 
project is absolutely live. here is one of our more recent updates => media.consensys.net/gitcoin-joins-consensys-announces-pilot-projects-f5a0955de9d6
for more updates on the project, you can follow https://medium.com/gitcoin or https://gitcoin.co/slack