pcplantdb

[Richard Morris <webmaster@pfaf.org>]

Chad Knepp wrote:
> John Schinnerer writes:
>  > <snip>
>  >
>  > Speaking of buying guacamole...we need to get to the nitty gritty
>  > of how to best put that $$ to work - in ways that will be
>  > demonstrable when it's used up so we can ask for more from there
>  > and elsewhere.
>
> Great question.  I've been turning this around in my head for most of
> the last 24 hours.  Here are some of my thoughts and further
> questions:

I think question no 1 has to be where is the money going to
be put. Should we set up a bank account? I'm not sure what
the precise terms and conditions of the grant will be and
this will have some impact on this. There was some discussion
on these sort of things awhile back, I can remember what was decided.
>  o I am super excited and would love to dive into the design stuff
>    immediately and off the clock.  It would probably be nice to have a
>    tech list for this.  Lawrence?  Probably best to wait until John
>    has his phone though...
>
>  o I was assuming that we would be keeping track of hours and
>    submitting them to Stephanie or someone for payment.  Am I right? 
>
>  o ZODB/ZCatalog are new things for me but I love learning new things.
>    In order to more effectively use our funding I am planning on
>    bringing myself up to speed off the clock and would encourage
>    others to learn new things on their own time as well.
>
>  o There will probably be features that individuals would like to see
>    in our product that the group cannot reach consensus on (myself
>    esp.).  In order to get the most bang for our buck, I would
>    encourage individuals to implement these features pro bono.
>
>  o I am also willing to do a fair amount of dialog/correspondence off
>    the clock as well esp. while we figure out design.  I'm curious to
>    hear other peoples expectations.
>
>  o When do we [officially] start?
>
> In order to get started here are some things we need to talk about and
> reach agreement on.
>
>  o Feature set: This is huge and would probably better thought of as a
>    progression than a static set.  It would be great to hear from
>    everyone 1) what they wanted to have before they even bother using
>    it and 2) what they need to have to release it to the public 3) the
>    stuff you dream about.
The actual grant app and jim's feedback may have some baring on
feature set.

For me its
1) A plant database where users can add new information about
a plant, and add whole new plants.
If we can do that and nothing else it will be a job well done.

Before we begin I think we need:
        A CVS tree for the code (source forge sounds good to me
        I'd be happy to set this up)

        Possibly a wiki page for the specifications
        (i.e. something we can all contribute to and
        which will evolve with time)

        A project description page. Something that
        new people can read to get upto speed on the project.
        
Stuff I think should be in there, but not core

- extensible, easy to add new features at later date
        (e.g. so we can add a "folklaw" section, or
        vote for plants)

- full history of additions. So we can keep track
of who added what.

- buz word complience. Some sort of XML output,
rss/atom/rdf so its easy for third parties to
access the data.

- guilds/relationships. I guess we'll need to do
something on this line to keep funders happy,
initially I think something simple. (I'm happy
to work on this aspect)

- cool gui interface. Thinkpad type stuff. Again
we probably need something on this line and I'm
happy to work on this.

- picture uploads.

In my dreams:

- votes/rating system for plants.
- shared Links/contacts/events databases.
- etc.....

>  o Implementation details: After we have point 1 of the feature set,
>    we need to figure out who is doing what and how.  The how is
>    especially important when there is overlap between folks on the
>    what.
>
>  o Licensing: We need to agree on a license or licenses.  I am
>    completely open to suggestion, but I recommend the code base be
>    under the GPL and the data set be under the CC BY-SA or BY-NC-SA. 
There is now a CC-GPL license, which is basically GPL
but with machine readable metadata. This may be more
compatable with the dataset. I'd much prefer CC BY-NA-SA
to CC BY-SA for the dataset.

>  o Project details: Uhh... things like a name, although this could be
>    as hard choosing the color of paint I would love to start referring
>    to it as something other than "project" or "our product".  There
>    are a host of other details that may actually be easily answered
>    but I cannot immediately recall the answers.

I've been refering to it as the "opensource/community (permaculture) 
plant database". But a bit of a mouthfull.
> I'm looking forward to hearing from everyone.  Steph are you planning
> on announcing this to the permaculture list?  I think it would be
> great to do so and would be willing to do it if you don't have time.
I jumpped the gun a bit on this, heres what I sent out to the
PFAF and UK pc-list

>>>>>>>>>
Hi folks,
    A group of us have been working on developing
an opensource permaculture plant database for sometime
now. Last year we submitted a bid to the threshold foundation
for development money, and its finally come through.

The database will allow people to contribute their own information
and observations on plants. It should also include some novel
features such as information on guilds and the relationships between
plants.

Hopefully the site will become a global permaculture portal,
I'd like to include a links directory and lots of other good stuff.

We'ed like it to be a community project and if your interested in being
involved you can join the mailing list:

pcplantdb mailing list
pcplantdb@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/pcplantdb

    All the best

        Rich
>>>>>>>>>

I guess we'll need a project webpage, before we really
go for wide anouncements.

> BTW.  I got so carried away by the good news, I forgot to recognize
> the good/hard work of Steph and others that actually made this funding
> happen.  Here I've been just sitting around bitching about not having
> money fall from the sky for the last two years and Steph goes out and
> makes my dream come true.  Thanks Steph!!!

In other news: I've just heard that the main pfaf website
is going to have to move away from the comp.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf
host. (For political reasons at Leeds uni, a long story
which I can go into in more details if people wish).
This will mean that pfaf will need to find a new host
and I'll need to update the pfaf website. Still unsure
how things are going to pan out, but I suspect there
will be a need to have a reference pfaf database.
How this will work with the pcplantdb I'm not sure of at the
moment.

        ttfn

                Rich
--
Plants for a Future: 7000 useful plants
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