pcplantdb

[Stephanie Gerson <sgerson@stanfordalumni.org>]

hi folks,

I know this is a bit lengthy, but bear with me because I am going through 
all the issues that have been raised:

-Lawrence suggested that we establish ourselves as a non-profit so that 
we can receive direct funding.  (Ok maybe not the Holy Guacamole 
Institute, but something more serious – like the Fractal Peapod 
Institute…heehee).  I think this is a wonderful idea.  He also suggested 
that we contract someone else to do the bulk of the work for us.  Whether 
we contract out to an organization/person specialized in this kind of 
work, or we contract someone on one of the Permaculture listservs to help 
us and charge us less (what I vote for), this is going to cost money.  
Are we willing to allocate funds towards this end?  And if so, when?  
Now?  Or after we have already completed a portion of the project?  And 
let’s find out how much this would cost.  

-Chad asked what counts as billable work.  Hmmm…  Because I am not 
familiar with what goes into the tech work, perhaps the techies should 
list the kind of work you will be doing – specifically that which would 
count as billable.  And I suggest that we make a project plan with 
deadlines, etc. and all track our hours, and then only get paid after we 
fulfill our responsibilities – at increments in the project plan (i.e. 
after stage 1).  Does this sound fair?  But this means that we have to 
make a project plan!   (By the way, I know we all spend much time 
communicating with each other – reading posts, responding, etc. – but I 
don’t think this should count as billable work.)

-I like Lawrence’s wiki idea.  Can we incorporate a wiki into this 
project – both in the design project and as part of the resource itself?  

-I suggested a CC license (did you all check it out?  If not, please 
visit http://creativecommons.org/ because I know that it offers 
flexibility.  However, I do not know what kind of license we want.  This 
is the old issue revisited - what is our relationship to PFAF?  If we 
chose to have some kind of license/copyright, what would be the 
intention?  I assume we want free accessibility (John’s point) and 
compensation for participants (Lawrence’s point) – so what is the course 
of action?

-About Paula, she has collected a wealth of information on plant 
relationships in USDA zones 3, 4, and 5 – and she would like to 
contribute this information to the hg database.  She’ll write to us soon…

-I’m down with ppod

-I feel like we should perhaps redefine our roles, responsibilities, etc.  
This will happen if we create a project plan, and devise what specific 
tasks we are responsible for.  Does anyone know how to use any project 
management software, that would be willing to help us?  I think this is 
top priority.

-How can we integrate with what Lawrence is trying to achieve?  Would hg 
be a part of Lawrence’s larger database, or otherwise?

-And finally, about sending a message to the pc lists, Jim wrote that we 
should not announce the funding publicly just yet – because it hasn’t 
been officially announced.  Does sending a message to the pc lists count 
as public announcement?  Probably not.  But maybe we should get organized 
(as in, create the project plan described above) before we send a 
message?  If you are all super keen on sending a message now, though, I 
will write one up this weekend and send it to you all first for comments.

Pheww, many things to discuss.  I think our main priorities are to decide 
what our relationship with PFAF/accessibility status are, and create a 
project plan.

Look forward to continuing the discussion…

peace
*Stephanie

p.s.  John, I don’t think we’ll be getting any contributions from 
Alison…but I’m definitely laughing out loud



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Stephanie Gerson
sgerson@stanfordalumni.org
(c) 415.871.5683


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