Talk:What a New System Should Have

 

Serious Evaluation of Big Tent (etc)

1. 1756 From: Paul Thompson

Date: Wed Sep 1, 2010 8:31 am Subject: Serious Evaluation of Big Tent (etc) paul_in_ascot

With the recent wobbly that Yahoo has thrown us (see Edward's message on Central), I think it would be prudent for us to do some serious evaluation of Big Tent and other possible pre-built solutions that we might be able to move to.

The techies that have commented here seem to agree that writing our own is likely too big of a project. However, piggy backing on another, more modern web platform, has a hope and a prayer at least.

How would such an evaluation best be done? Should we develop a list of evaluation criteria?

Thoughts?

Cheers, Paul Thompson

#1757 From: sixmum

Date: Wed Sep 1, 2010 4:45 am

That's a good idea Paul. I'm up for trying anything out.

I like this idea, it would carry through whatever we were considering.

• Got to cope with large volumes of traffic
• Large membership lists

Carole

#1758 From: Esther Reeves esther.reeves

Date: Wed Sep 1, 2010 10:41 am

I know nothing about Big Tent but I do think we should at least look at other options. Is Drupal worth looking at? Again I know nothing about it really apart from the fact the Transition Town forum has been talking about them as a possible for transition town groups to run their on-line presence on.

I'm a sort of sudo techie.. in that I have worked in computer support and so on but mostly I know enough about a wide variety of things to understand what techies say and translate or to test any new system as I'm good at finding the bits that don't work and systemically poking at all the corners :) so if those with more knowledge want to look at such things I'll happily poke any trial set up.

Esther

#1760 From: Trafford Freegle <sueandjean@...>

Date: Wed Sep 1, 2010 11:25 am

I don't know how these things work, but someone on FC Next has got a world wide groups up and running for recycling, then Ecomodo seem to have a very good site but with a slow growth rate. Is there some way we could piggy back on this type of group? It makes sense to join one that is built with similar aims to me.

The downside is that I have joined a few groups and because they are non Yahoo I tend not to visit them. Will our members do the same? On Yahoo's new format I presume we will be listed on Yahoo and be able to spread the word easier, members will have quick links to their groups if they have an account, and more will probably have an account if it ends up catching on.

Jean Trafford

#1764 From: Paul Thompson <freeglepaul@...>

Date: Wed Sep 1, 2010 11:18 am On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 10:41 AM, Esther Reeves <esther.reeves@...>wrote: > Is Drupal worth looking at?

Nope. Drupal is a content management system... Not at all what we need.

But a side point based on your suggestion, it is worth looking at Open Source Software available....

Cheers, Paul Thompson Ascot Freegle

#1761 From: Chris Cant <chriscant@...>

Date: Wed Sep 1, 2010 11:24 am

Drupal is an open-source general purpose Content Management System (CMS) that lets you build web sites. As an admin you can add and edit pages. It lets users register etc. There are oddles of (free) modules that do useful stuff, eg blog and forums come bundled with the basic installation. There are major extensions such as CiviCRM that is a Customer/Constituent Relationship Manager. I'm working on a couple of Drupal projects at the moment; the (paid-for) tool Artisteer is good at making themes, ie the appearance skin.

While Drupal is good, it may not have the modules or particular functionality that we would need to run a Freegle group.

I presume Big Tent and others are specifically set up to run a re-use group.

If we pitch our tent in someone else's field, then there's always the risk that they suddenly rearrange the furniture.

As I understand it Paul was suggesting that we work out some criteria for what we want in any system.

Even moving to someone's else existing will require a lot of time/energy.

If we don't find something suitable and we wished to start from scratch, then that will require even more energy. That said, Drupal may be a suitable starting point.

Chris Penrith

#1762 From: Esther Reeves <esther.reeves@...>

Date: Wed Sep 1, 2010 11:37 am On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 11:24 AM, Chris Cant <chriscant@...> wrote:

Drupal is an open-source general purpose Content Management System (CMS) that lets you build web sites. 

Thanks I now now much more than i did about it!

As I understand it Paul was suggesting that we work out some criteria for what we want in any system. That would certainly be a good place to start.. have there been any threads on this before or are we starting at the beginning?

Esther

#1766 From: Paul Thompson <freeglepaul@...>

Date: Wed Sep 1, 2010 2:13 pm On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 11:37 AM, Esther Reeves <esther.reeves@...>wrote:

As I understand it Paul was suggesting that we work out some criteria for what we want in any system.
That would certainly be a good place to start.. have there been any threads on this before or are we
starting at the beginning? We've randomly chatted about the prospect of replacement systems
(either pre-built or building from scratch).
But we've not properly talked about real criteria for such a system. 

To do this properly, we need to be quite thorough. I would suggest first defining some high level categories, then breaking into those and adding some detailed criteria. For instance....

High level categories:

1. Implementation - how does setting up groups and migrating groups work?
2. Capabilities - what do we need the system to do?
3. Dependability - could the system disappear one day? what sort of uptime can we expect?
4. Flexibility - is there any chance for adding on features we need, sort of like you can enhance Facebook by adding Facebook apps?

Lots to consider here. And these are just the ones I came up with briefly.

I wonder if facebook would even remotely be a usable platform... Hmmnn.........;)

Cheers, Paul Thompson Ascot Freegle

#1767 From: David Freegle Mod <davidfreegle@...>

Date: Wed Sep 1, 2010 2:28 pm On 01/09/2010 14:13,

Paul Thompson wrote:

Lots to consider here. And these are just the ones I came up with briefly. As a non techie: I think one of
the main criteria will be to initially offer an "alternative" to yahoo and make it optional as we
don't want to repeat the mistakes TFN made with MY Freeceyle 

Open source is also important although I do like the Ecomodo site which I believe was done with MS products and took them a couple of years. Just out of interest I could ask them how long that took and what resources they used as I seem to remember a couple of them took a few years

I would also say that allowing photos of items would help a lot

And consider some form of member rating system even if it was just a I had a successful transaction with this member and /or some way of identifying how reliable a member is

I can see that in plugin in that the no of offers /wanteds a member posts so I suppose a recent posts of member may help Very much random thoughts as I assume we are talking years ahead here and first priority will be to work with new yahoo system but would be handy to collate thoughts on this and maybe we could do a google survey when we have more time

Regards David

• David*
  • Reading Freegle*

#1768 From: Trafford Freegle <sueandjean@...>

Date: Wed Sep 1, 2010 2:44 pm

As a non techie: I think one of the main criteria will be to initially offer an "alternative" to yahoo and make it optional as we don't want to repeat the mistakes TFN made with MY Freeceyle  
Regards David 
Yes I agree with most of this. There is no harm going down this route as it may be possible to ask Yahoo to implement some of what we want anyway, if it turns out to be viable on their new platform. 

I was wondering if we could somehow run a simple separate system to run alongside Yahoo groups with maybe just a list of emails going to and from members for those who want to opt out of Yahoo?

Jean Trafford