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  • From: Stephanie Gerson <sgerson@stanfordalumni.org>
  • To: <pcplantdb@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [pcplantdb] synthesis[17][8.26.04]
  • Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 18:30:42 -0700

Sorry if I’ve been incommunicado all day, but sounds like things are
buzzzzing

And seems like the ZOPE/Ibiblio decision is more undecided than when I wrote
last?! That’s mercury retrograde for you…

So:
-ZOPE/Ibiblio –
We almost had an agreement…almost!

Chad offered a proposal (start with ZOPE on Arashi, then switch to Ibiblio
when we purchase them the server) that seemingly everyone agreed with…but
Lawrence “emphatically” disagreed. Chad wrote to Lawrence, “I am
concerned that for you having the project hosted at ibiblio is more important
than the success of the project itself. Many of us (myself included) have
responded to getting less funding by deciding to volunteer a lot of our time.
I've personally invested many many hours in the last month and the spirit of
giving with which I started has diminished some.”
Chad, I hear you. And yes Lawrence, we have to be clear about the topmost
priorities for the success of this project. Also Chad, I super appreciate all
the work you’ve done so far (that goes for everyone), and I want this
process to inspire people to work *more*, not less. Think the attributes
thread. Animated, excited cross-pollination... That’s how I hope this
creative process can be in all respects. Keep that in mind as you interact
with the group and perform your work on this project – how can you do so in
a way that cultivates more motivation to work on hg among everyone involved?


So, Chad offered a completely turnaround proposal, “Start on ibiblio ASAP
with the Eden engine/dataset and build a RDBMS agnostic python cgi ala 3) from
August 11 post subject: 'platform revisited'."
Wow. Talk about compromise. Talk about serious commitment to keeping the
group together. Talk about integrity. I’m amazed, Chad. Really. Thank
you for the offer – but please make sure that it sits well with you as a
lead programmer, ok? Don’t feel like you have to sacrifice the
functionality of hg for the group to stick together, because really, Lawrence
would miss our kvetching way too much to leave now ;)

However, if you feel that you will not be sacrificing functionality, then
I’m all for it. And actually, this might make sense in more ways than one
– because this scenario would allow you to get something up and running
quicker than you would with ZOPE, using platforms you are already familiar
with (good for grant proposals, one of which is due October 15 and I would
like something to show) _while_ learning ZOPE 3 on the side (damn, this’ll
be a lot of work). So…comments from others?

If we end up buying Ibiblio a server to run ZOPE, though (not to confuse the
situation or anything - but in case we do take this route), how do we know it
will only take 2 weeks for it to be ready? I’m responding to Lawrence’s
request to not even start on Arashi yet – but we need to get going! And if
we want something to show the Whole Systems Foundation in October, 2 weeks is
meaningful. Is it that difficult to transfer from Arashi to Ibiblio that we
would wait another 2 weeks to start working on the project?? If the drive is
there, take advantage of it, no?

Related, Archer wrote, “Why are you now so gung ho about buying them a
server when they have already said that they would consider providing the
hardware pending evaluation of our requirements? Why not present them with a
proposal and see where it leads?”
mmm, again I like the way you think. Seems like we’d forgotten about this
possibility. So, what if we start on the project (either on Ibiblio with the
platform Chad presented or on Arashi with ZOPE) and then show ‘em what we
got? And present them with the proposal Archer described? I’d be willing
to write it, with some help from my techie friends. Even if it takes more
than 6 months, at least we wouldn't be paying for it. (I have a feeling this
was one of Chad's options long ago...)

Also with respect to Ibiblio, it seems that there is a bit of confusion. We
are somewhat unclear on our privileges, level of access, etc. Perhaps we
should create a list of questions, regarding root access and other topics
we’ve been wondering about, to ask Ibiblio – so that we are clear from the
beginning. If people send me questions, I’d be willing to compile them. In
fact, I’ll add that to the questions-to-answer below.

And a sincere thank you to Lawrence for offering to contribute some of his own
money towards these efforts. Yes.


-FUNDING –
I did some research on potential funders, and there are certainly
possibilities. Thanks for any suggestions, I certainly welcome more (Scott,
you want to talk about this sometime?).

Actually Lawrence, can you ask your tealeaves where the funding will be coming
from so I know where to submit proposals? Actually, considering your offers,
looks like you might be the sugardaddy they were talking about…


-POST TO PC LISTS –
Schinnerer writes, “Depends on what you're going to announce.
If announce is that "we've got this project going with some funding and a core
group and sometime in the future TBD we'll have an alpha for people to play
with, test, look at, give feedback on and we'll keep ya posted" then fine by
me. IMO that's all we can announce at present.”
I think Lawrence wanted to invite participation in the attributes discussion,
right?

So the post would be more like “"we've got this project going with some
funding and a core group, and we’re discussing relationships between plants
– specifically searchable attributes – want to participate in our
discussion?” Good idea? Too overwhelming at this point?


-PROJECT PLAN –
Thank you for your work this week, Schinnerer. You mentioned some bugs:

* Header graphic has incorrect project name.

* Text in header graphic not legible against heavy background.

* Graphic at top of page pushes project links and info below bottom
scroll margin - reduce height of graphic significantly or remove
completely and use text header.

So obviously…let’s make a new header! Is anyone on this list skillful
with graphic design? Because sorry Lawrence, I agree with Schinnerer and also
thought the headers you sent out were a bit blah – although I appreciate the
effort. You know what I’m gonna say...yup here it comes...relationships.
Webs. This is the kind of imagery I would like to portray. And of course,
readability. I’d Love to come up with a nice header, but would want to work
with someone who knows Photoshop/Illustrator better than I – and I’m sure
there are people on this list who do…

Also Schinnerer, you requested that everyone create an account on the interim
bugzilla and give you feed back. Can you please be a bit more specific about
what you want from us and how we are supposed to do it?

Also, thanks for adding those pages to the main PcPlantDb page, Lawrence.
But, wait – now we have the same files in different places – which ones
are we supposed to use?

Which leads me to shared web workspace, the next topic.

But beforehand a quick request: when you send me your status reports (first
one due this Sunday, and apologies – I won’t be able to send a reminder
because I’ll be camping this weekend), please be super explicit with how you
are progressing with your tasks, for my sake. It helps when you write the
status directly underneath the task itself, as you have been doing, but
sometimes I can’t how what you wrote has to do with the task in question.
Just spell it out for me loud and clear.

As usual, check the tasks and questions below.

-SHARED WEB WORKSPACE –
wikitikimikilikiwiofjkslfjlsj?!

Hello?

Schinnerer wrote, “If as I now hear some saying we are going to ditch the
current wiki, and/or what we will use for shared workspace is up in the air
for time unknown, then I will not spend any more time putting documents up on
the current wiki site. It's a pain anyhow, I have to reformat them manually -
the wiki can't even render plain ascii text correctly, it drops line breaks
and so on. :-p”

And there’s been proposals of workspaces other than wikis:
Schinnerer: “I am thinking best solution for me is to put stuff up on my
domain and then put links to it on whatever we eventually end up having/doing
for shared workspace.”

Rich (I think?): “I've been using unit test (JUnit) quite a bit in another
package. Very useful as I can easily run the full set of tests after a slight
change, just to check the change hasn't affected something else.

So, do we want to use:
a) wiki
b) Schinnerer’s domain
c) Whatever Rich presented
d) Neither

Questions to answer:
a) what are we going to use this workspace for?
b) What are our needs regarding the workspace?
c) Ultimately, what do we want out of a shared web workspace?

Not to stoke the flames, but now I’m curious – were wikis originally named
after the Hawaiian word, or is it an acronym or something?

That’s all for now folks. As I mentioned, I’m leaving tomorrow to go
camping, so you might not hear from me for a few days…I’ll try to send a
message tomorrow before I leave though.

que la fuerza este con ustedes
*s


ps how are we going to celebrate the anniversary of synthesis[100]?

…………………….
Latest tasks

· Everyone
1. relax. breathe. smile. Love hg.
2. Read this project plan
3. feedback regarding Chad’s and Lawrence’s latest proposals regarding
the
ZOPE/Ibiblio issue
4. Update me on your status regarding your tasks
5. Send me any ideas you have for potential funders (i.e. Lawrence
recommended
the Noble Foundation and Rich sent me a list – these suggestions are super
helpful for me)
6. Respond to the questions below
7. Create a bugzilla account at https://www.arashi.com/bugzilla/, study
the
info Schinnerer puts up there regarding testing and bug writing, and respond
to him with feedback
8. please send me questions you have for Ibiblio so I can compile a list

· John S.
1. upkeep interim Bugzilla set-up on Arashi, create permanent one when
we are
ready
2. look into customization options with John H.
3. teach others how to create and use their user accounts at
https://www.arashi.com/bugzilla/
4. once we are ready, set up more permanent issue tracking system and
whatever
data/parameters/customizations are necessary to start using it on our project
5. prepare and posts FAQs and other documentation on use of issue
tracker and
general software test/QA procedures and guidelines – due late the week of
August 30
6. post this info on the shared web workspace (whether wiki or
otherwise) for
feedback – please tell us what kind of feedback you would like!
7. organize for user test of first “build” (to start happening weekly in
1-3 weeks?)
8. resolve ZOPE/Ibiblio/Bugzilla issue (whatever you have been asking
Ibiblio
about)


· Chad and Rich
1. continue discussing task distribution with each other (as you are
doing off
the list)
2. create an Ibiblio account, when and if need be
3. ask Ibiblio what services we’d be entitled to if we donated a server
to
them
4. Finish demo accounting/budgeting app. in ZODB w/CLI
5. keep on reading and learning about ZOPE
6. continue developing CLI and add more “Zope stuff” for report
generation
in the future
7. create a working database (with no real data) with php connection and
simple front end (basically just checking that the different bits can work
together)
8. issue tracker working, cvs working, zope working
9. Get it running somewhere/somehow
10. Rich – start doing whatever needs to be done in order to get the
latest
version of PFAF that is under the CC-BY-NC-SA (2 weeks to complete)


· John Howe
1. Get your “box” set up to start the project
2. Review changes in the configuration of Zope 2.7.2 for releasing it to
development access
3. Get zope deployment platform setup for Chad (sometime in the next 3-4
weeks)
4. Back-end Q/A assistance (throughout process)

· Scott
1. Can we pay PI to take care of our bookkeeping? (I promise we’ll be
easier to work with…!)
2. Ask PCU about loan for server

· Lawrence
1. Create new and improved wiki, or other form of shared work webspace

· Stephanie
1. write first draft of email describing project to PC lists, sends to
team
for feedback (on hold for now)
2. write up description user interface/experience, send to list
3. re-connect with Paula
4. Accrue necessary funds for Ibiblio’s server, if we decide to pursue
that
plan
5. make new list of possible funders, including suggestions from
Lawrence,
Rich, and others

Questions
1. Shared Web Workspace – Would we like to create a shared web workspace
with ZOPE (Chad, would you be willing to do this?), use this listserv, use a
wiki, Schinnerer’s domain, whatever Rich described (if it applies), or
employ some combination of the above? Ultimately, what do we want this
workspace for – and therefore, what do we want it to be able to do?

2. Are we ready to post to the PC lists? Or should we wait until we
have a
structure to embed data into? Let me know so I can edit the post with the
feedback you gave me.

3. What questions do we have for Ibiblio regarding hosting services and
levels
of access? Send them to moi.

4. Archer: “I'm sure there are several people on this list who would
donate
either machine space or funding to rent a "virtual linux server" for the
purposes of developing this code.” Should I send a message to the PC lists,
at least about this?
















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


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