Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

pcplantdb - [pcplantdb] [synthesis][5]

pcplantdb@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: pcplantdb

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Stephanie Gerson <sgerson@stanfordalumni.org>
  • To: <pcplantdb@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [pcplantdb] [synthesis][5]
  • Date: Mon, 02 Aug 2004 21:39:21 -0700

Busy day communicating, eh folks?

Methinks these syntheses will be coming out almost daily? (oy ve…)

So here goes:

-VISION – Thank you all for responding to la vision! I’m glad we have a
mutual general understanding, although details will certainly come up for
discussion during the creative process. A few notes:

John wrote, “There are definitely limits to what can be presented on a
computer screen. Again, with the right "pieces" at our disposal we
humans are quite good at dealing with significant levels of complexity.
We can't replace ourselves with this - we can design it to work well with
our existing human capabilities though. That in itself would be a
massive advance in computer technology!” And I think we should take this
challenge on. While applying for funding, I almost didn’t know what
category to place this project in – because I see it pertaining not only
to sustainable agriculture (and sustainable livelihood overall), but also
to education, mechanisms for online collaboration/networking, user-
interface design…so if we end up creating something that proves to be an
advance to computer technology, more power to us!

-NAMES – So sorry, but for the life of me I cannot figure out how to post
them on the wiki. So I sent them to Rich and asked him to do it for me
(super apologies, I somehow figured it out last time…) Anyways, please
vote on your top three and add comments! Chad wrote, “I would vote for
the shortest one that is a word not an acronym.” I am completely with
you. And after thinking about the vision some more, and about Rich’s
fascinating idea for creating a web of posts (I Love it!), I am thinking
more and more that we are creating webs of information. Or guilds of
information. Anyway, keep that in mind as you think of and vote on
names…

-ZOPE - I asked about transferring from MySQL to Zope, and John wrote,
“Um, not in the object-based design mode that I think we have agreed on
pursuing (Chad, RIch?). As they say in Maine, "you can't get there from
here." Well, not quite that bad, but it would be lots of duplication of
effort. Zope can talk to MySQL, and a variety of other SQL DBs, but MySQL
is not an object DB.” So what would be the plan B if Ibiblio refused to
host ZOPE? Do it in Zope anyway? Or go with Ibiblio on MySQL? I assume
the answer is to do it in ZOPE anyway, since that was Chad’s and the two
Johns’ preference? (by the way, perhaps we should come up with better
names for John S. and John H. – either of you have a nickname or wanna go
by your last name? I like Howe. Easier to write than Schinnerer.)

But, Chad wrote “I have a high degree of confidence that ibiblio will be
able to provide what we need regarding a zope platform, even if it isn't
right away. We also have the expertise between us to do it ourselves or
help them do it for us. Zope really is common/popular enough to be
available almost everywhere.” And wouldn’t it be wonderful if we were
the impetus for Ibiblio to begin hosting ZOPE?…


-COMMUNICATING WITH IBIBLIO – Speaking of Ibiblio, I agree with Lawrence
that it would be best to have one liaison. And John H., thanks for
offering! But you said you can’t do it right away and I think Lawrence
wants us to contact them sooner rather than later while ZOPE is still
fresh in their minds (I believe Lawrence talked to folks over there in
the past couple of days). John H. – by when can you communicate with
Ibiblio? And can everyone who has questions for Ibiblio (i.e. Bugzilla,
etc.) please send them to him, so we can contact them fewer times by one
liaison rather than numerous times by numerous people? Thanks.

Also, Lawrence wrote, “Anyway, you and everyone else will need to obtain
ibilio login/shell/content provider accounts in order to work on the
software.” Do I need to do this as well, or is this just for the
techies?


-PROJECT PLAN – I pasted a re(re)-edited version below, please at least
check out this week’s tasks. And I still have some questions for you,
please give me specific dates/weeks for the following:

John S. and all, when would the first “build” be ready, and accordingly,
the first user-testing session?

John H., by when can you contact Ibiblio?

Chad wrote, “So nobody really responded to my emails regarding the fact
that 1) I need additional time to learn Zope and 2) I really only can
commit to 30 hours a week.” I did respond, saying no worries – simply
tell me specifics so I can edit the project plan accordingly. Alllll
good.

“I hope to release a full feature set on a weekly basis until we shift to
bug stomping and incremental features.” Oops, I lost who wrote this, but
whoever did, starting which week?


-TECHIE TRANSLATOR – thanks for offering Chad. Instead of trying to
decide what is or is not understandable by us non-techie folk, I would
just ask you to please sum up anything you think we need to be updated
on. This way, your posts would be of service to both techies and non, as
a simple update of what was discussed techie-wise in the past couple of
days.


-POSTING TO PC LISTS – Thank you Chad for your comments about this. Does
anyone have any suggestions before I draft the post about this project
for PC lists? Either way, you will get a chance to give feedback after I
draft it, before I post it. Just wanted to know if anyone has any
specific ideas, like Chad’s, about what should go in there, tone, etc.


-MISCELLANEOUS -
Should we make posting categories, to help sift through posts? As in:
synetheses/summaries, financial matters, publicity, etc. (like the
categories I’m using in this email)? Maybe that is overboard, and our
post subject names are working fine, but they are definitely crossing
over topics-wise (it *is* a concept web after all…). At the very least,
when are we going to create a separate list for techie stuff? Lawrence,
was that you? I still vote to keep this list as the public one (so other
subscribers need not resubscribe) and create a completely alternate one?

I’ll end with what Lawrence wrote, “I plan to focus more of my attention
on HG than on any other web projects I work on, now or later.” glad to
hear it!

right on yalls
*Stephanie

p.s. that touch graph plant family tree thing was so scary and
overwhelming I had to close it. We can do better than that…

p.p.s. I think it’s cute that you have favorite languages, mine is
Portuguese

+++++++

___________por favor read tasks for this week_____________

Project Calendar

Notes:
∑ Tasks are listed by week (the week during which they should be
completed)
∑ Tasks are “due” on the Sunday at the end of the week (i.e. tasks for
week of July 25-31 are due Sunday, August 1st) – this is not fixed, I
understand that there is contingency involved
∑ Every Sunday, everyone involved in the project should send an update to
the group, describing task status and sending any completed work to share
∑ Every Monday, everyone should respond (if necessary) to whatever team
members sent out on Sunday (the day before)
∑ This calendar is simply a tool to assist with our project process, and
it is flexible!
∑ Please notify me if you need to shift deadlines around
∑ If team member is not specified in task, then the task is the
responsibility of all team members (i.e. respond to project plan is a
task for everyone)
∑ I will send reminder emails each week (or, more frequently if
necessary) reminding everyone of their tasks

Until July 24
∑ Stephanie – create initial project plan
∑ All participants respond to project plan, making comments/edits/
suggestions

Week 1: July 25-31
∑ Agree on common vision (clarify importance of user-interface) – I will
initiate a dialogue about this and all should respond
∑ Learn about SCRUM (http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/darrell.norton/
articles/3910.aspx) and respond if you are interested in using it
∑ Post name suggestions to wiki, and vote by Sunday!
∑ Stephanie
o look into project management software and learn one if need be
o initiate dialogue about common vision regarding user-interface
o post decisions that need to be made on wiki

Week 2: August 1-7
∑ Whoever is in charge of shared web workspace (as determined Week 1)
creates it
∑ Vote for top 3 name suggestions on wiki, by Wednesday!
∑ John Howe
o Prepare communication to Ibiblio
o Get your “box” set up to start the project
∑ Chad
o Finish demo accounting/budgeting app. in ZODB w/CLI
o Create a Zope front end for app (to learn Zope)
o
∑ Stephanie
o write first draft of email describing project to PC lists, sends to
team for feedback
o write up description user interface/experience, send to list
o re-create project plan with new project management software, if need be
∑ Lawrence
o write a clear description of relationship between PCKnowledgebase and
HG (if separate entities)
∑ John
o set up issue tracking system and whatever data/parameters/
customizations are necessary to start using it on our project
∑ Paula
o Send info about her work to the list

Week 3: August 8-14
∑ Respond to Stephanie’s draft of PC email
∑ Respond to Stephanie’s description of user interface/experience
∑ Respond to Stephanie’s vision for user interface
∑ Chad and Rich
o a working database (with no real data) with php connection and simple
front end (basically just checking that the different bits can work
together)
o issue tracker working, cvs working, zope working
o Get it running somewhere/somehow
∑ Stephanie
o Edit email to PC lists and send
o Edit user interface/experience incorporating feedback from team, send
back out
∑ John
o prepares and posts FAQs and other documentation on use of issue tracker
and general software test/QA procedures and guidelines
o organize for user test of first “build” (to happen weekly from now on?)

Week 4: August 15-21
∑ Finalizing design of server-client interface
∑ Chad and Rich
o Sample plant info added to database, simple query (maybe just query by
Latin name) and simple plant report
o Facility to append info to plant, and add a new plant
o Go back to rethink/evaluate former 2 steps, come up with some sort of
DB-schema
o communicate with Paula about how to get database information in usable
form
∑ Stephanie
o Compiling and keeping track of feedback from PC lists
o Incorporating feedback into design of server-client interface

Week 5: August 22-28
∑ Chad and Rich
o import PFAF dataset
o Import Paula’s dataset
o work on queries/frontend
∑ Stephanie
o synthesizes feedback from PC lists, sends to group
o if necessary, drafts another email for PC lists, asking more specific
questions
∑ John
o Manage test/QA process and issue tracker
o Test HG releases and coordinate efforts of community/volunteer testers
o agreement/design of server-client interface

Week 6: August 29-September 4
∑ Chad, Rich, and John
o Testing, re-iterating
o Fixing bugs of server-client interface

Week 7: September 5-11
∑ John
o Compiles results from user testing, sends to group
∑ Chad and Rich
o Testing, re-iterating
o Incorporate results from user testing, re-iteration

Week 8: September 12-18

Week 9: September 19-25

Week 10: September 26-October 2

Week 11: October 3-9
∑ Stephanie
o Write proposal to Whole Systems Foundation (include functioning
component)

Week 12: October 10-16
∑ Whole Systems Foundation grant proposal due October 15


+++++++++++++++
Stephanie Gerson
sgerson@stanfordalumni.org
(c) 415.871.5683


____________________________________________________________________






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page