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pcplantdb - Re: [pcplantdb] [rere][synthesis]

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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>
  • To: pcplantdb@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [pcplantdb] [rere][synthesis]
  • Date: Sat, 24 Jul 2004 01:58:24 -0700

Stephanie Gerson wrote:

Phew, lots of activity in the past 2 days!

Once again, I’m gonna try to round everything up:

-Lawrence asked, “Or did the grant proposal specify that HG would have a GBI?” I completely agree with John’s comments on this (that first priority is backend, then worry about front end) – but as I mentioned in the last post, the grant proposal did specify a web-like user interface for the front end. Essential to this project is a UI that presents information about relationships between plants in a systemic way. So,
::::::::
the project does not only involve Permaculture, it also involves Systemic Education – and twin goals are to *both* collect Permaculture data *and* develop a tool to present it systemically (regardless of chronology). So

now you get an idea where I’m coming from in all of this – whereas most of you approach this project as permaculturists and software developers, I’m approaching it from education…
:::::::::
A "web-like user interface" is one thing and a GBI within a "web-like user
interface" is
quite another.

Options including Javascript cascading menus and SSI work OK as a
navigational tools.
Of course there are fancier tools available to those with the web authoring
skills to implement them.

Speaking of turning HG into an educational tool, adding little widgets here
and there
to make navigation easier, keep track/maintain a trail of where you've been
and what you've seen
would be a good thing: something you often see in newspaper and magazine websites:
"email this article
to a friend", the ability to cleanly send or save the information in search
results pages would be useful to
researchers or students. Ex.: go to a CNN news page; click send page, delete
attached file but copy and paste
article text into the body of your email beneath the URL - CNN inserts the
article's title into the subject line,
insert destination ID and send. You end up with a nicely formatted piece of
textual info on your computer, ready for archiving.

And then who will be the administrator?

I thought Rich or Chad would have explained this to you by now. I mentioned
something about it in a recent email.
When you all get it together enough to decide on and procure a project domain
name you then ask ibiblio to host it for you;
then all those who need read/write permission to the website's file system (website/database/wiki/mailing lists/other software tools and utilities) will need to obtain login accounts on ibiblio (Linux shell accounts/telnet and ftp access/individual webspace) as content providers collaborating on HG development. Rich is already on ibiblio so group permission for HG webspace would include him and be extended to others as needed.


-Rich and others, I asked you to check out the new version of Thinkmap not because I was interested in using it (of course it is way too expensive, among other things). I simply wanted you to check it out to get an idea of what we might want to (or want not to) do with our front end.
-Rich, I couldn’t really understand your instructions for adding another topic to the wiki – can I maybe send you some additional decision items for you to post? (Then again, I should learn how to use the wiki myself…can you explain what I need to do again please?)

Go to a pcplantdb wikipage you want to add info to and click on edit;
add formatted text then save page. From my last post here are simple
instructions:
- WikiSyntax for creating a new wikipage = First letter of each word in caps,
multiple words run together w/o spaces.
- Or place wikiword in brackets [], caps or not.
There are lots of help files in the pcwiki.

-Thanks for your comments on the group process, Chad. Lawrence suggested that others on the list introduce themselves and let us know how they want to be involved with the project over time. So this is to all yalls we haven’t heard much from – can you please introduce yourselves? (Umm...are you even reading this? Maybe I'll post a separate message with "hey YOU" as the subject...)

Good idea. Time to get busy, not just the programmers but everyone interested
in making HG a reality.

-Thanks for the name suggestions, Lawrence – did you add them to the wiki?

I will.

To me, this project is about relationships between plants (how
many times have I said this) - so I would like to incorporate that in the name. And not to be bratty, but all the names suggested so far are pretty boring. It can be straightforward, but clever, n'est ce pas? I’ll think about it.

pcplantrelationsdb

permaplantrelationsdb

or just:

http://plantrelationships.org
or:
http://plantrelationshipsdb.org

reads well, easy to remember, gets the subject matter of the website across

All available for registration.

> -Someone asked, “But is a comprehensive permaculture database the goal of
this project? Stephanie?” Not what we got funded to do. This sounds like Lawrence’s ultimate goal. HG is specifically about creating a database of information regarding relationships between flora. If it

Now we know. Good.

grows to be a comprehensive permaculture database (as part of Lawrence’s larger intents), that would be ideal! But that’s not the goal of this particular project, at least not at this point.

-Lawrence asked, “Should this pcplantdb mailing list allow public access to its message archives? Currently it does not. Subscriptions also have to be approved. Do you all want me to post new subscription requests to the list for discussion and group approval?” I am fine with anything, especially if we are all about open source/free accessibility/etc. but right now things are pretty logistics-oriented, so maybe we should wait, at least until we’ve finalized the project plan and we’re getting going?

I'll keep it as currently configured - archives accessable only by
subscribers,
which have to be approved.

Otherwise, posts to the list might be distracting? Hmm… but either way is fine with me. (can you tell I’m a libra)

Same here. October 14, 1939.

And finally…guess what? I’ve completed the first draft of the project plan! Haven’t learned any fancy project management software yet (I might, though), so it’s in a simple word doc for now. Please understand that this is the first draft and it is flexible. And also understand that it is difficult for me to estimate how long it will take to complete tasks that I don’t understand too well (techie tasks). I really have no idea if I grossy under or overestimated times for completing tasks, so you'll have to let me know. Rich and Chad, I put your tasks together, so you two are gonna have to communicate with each other and figure out who is doing what when…

Great show, Stephanie.

Please read the project plan I attached here and respond to me by the end of this weekend, if possible. Then I will edit it, and re-send it out.

Can you not send important documents as attachments but as plain text files
posted
directly to the list included in or as separate messages. Also I have no way
to cleanly read the doc file you attached
(I don't use Word); would prefer plain ascii text - much easier to edit.

--
L.F.London
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech





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