pcplantdb

[Stephanie Gerson <sgerson@stanfordalumni.org>]

hi everyone,

I know you’ve been missing my syntheses, so here you go: 

‡ POST TO PC LISTS 
I agree with Lawrence that we should post once we have something to show, 
and I’m in no rush.  Thank you Lawrence, for creating the piw list.  I’ll

resuscitate my initial draft of the post to Pc lists for feedback once 
the following conditions are met: 

-we have something initial to show (no pressure Chad, take your time)
-I’ve written a mission statement (1-2 sentence) for the website
-I’ve written a vision statement (approx. 1 page) for the website (thanks 
Johns, for clarifying the difference between mission and vision)


‡ SHARED WEB WORKSPACE  
Still somewhat confused about this, but I assume that this listserv and 
the permaculture.info website constitute our “shared web workspace.”


‡ WEBSITE 
A few things:

-Chad, do you know if we’ve gotten any hits?  Just curious.
-I’ve attached team bios in Rich text format for Chad to post on the 
website (or am I able to post them myself, as with a wiki?)  Please 
review your own bio and make any changes.  And send any changes to me so 
I can edit the bios for grant proposals!  Also, If you’re bio ain’t 
included, you’re volunteering significantly to this project, and you’d 
like to have your bio on the permaculture.info website, please let us 
know.
-Is it possible to post documents on the website?  For instance, I’d Love 
feedback on the grant proposal I’m currently writing – but I’m not sure

we want to make these documents publicly available.  Is there, or do we 
want there to be, a members-only area?  And should I post them in a 
format other than Word?  (Of course.)  What, then?  Rich text format?


‡ PROJECT PLAN
Updated tasks pasted below.  Please send me your weekly updates today 
(Johns you are exempt, unless you have heightened powers of telepathy).  

Also, right on Chad, no worries about feeling like you’re lagging behind.  
Proposed deadlines are meant to be a guide, not rigid due dates.  Is 
there anything you need from us to continue?  

Following, now that Chad has begun coding, do we want to initiate a 
discussion about informational architecture and user experience?  
Basically, I have pretty elaborate ideas regarding the informational 
architecture and user experience of hg, and I assume others do as well.  
Should we flesh this out early on, while Chad starts coding (and decide 
on what plant attributes we’re going to present, for example)?  Or, are 
we not ready for this level of specificity yet?  I guess I’m eager to 
initiate this discussion (the most exciting part of this project, for me) 
and think we ought to start fleshing it out now (assuming there will be 
disagreements!) before Chad gets to a point where either: 

-he wants to write code for elements that we haven’t agreed upon yet, so 
he writes it anyway and then has to go back later and change it

or

-he wants to write code for elements that we haven’t agreed upon them 
yet, so he can’t write it and is stuck at an impasse

What do yalls think?


‡ FUNDING 
I am currently writing a proposal for the Whole Systems Foundation.  And 
I’m wondering if we want to modify our budget – do we want to request 
more in wages, and less in other categories?  I attached the budget in 
Rich Text Format, is this ok for everyone to read?  Please give me *
specific* feedback on what edits to make.

Also, I will contact the Whole Systems Foundation and ask if they limit 
the amount of funding which can be allocated towards wages.  


‡ MISCELLANEOUS 
-Johns wrote, “If people seem likely candidates for serious help with the 
design and tech aspects of the project, let them on this list and have 
some kind of probationary period. If they are too high-maintenance and/or
low-contribution within some reasonable amount of time, they don't get to
stay.”  Sounds fine to me.  Do we want to define this better, or assume 
that we will handle it collectively on a case-by-case basis?

-I’m going to initiate a thread dedicated to “ecosystem information 
engineering,” the branch of Industrial Ecology I was referring to.  Just 
to give you an appetizer: “The means by which living ecosystems have 
created robust knowledge systems and information cycles should be 
understood in terms useful for managing current society’s information 
explosion. As industrial society evolves toward the information society, 
holistic models are needed that account for the available energy and 
material resources required to operate effective information ecosystems, 
such as service industries.”  (To read the entire article this was 
excerpted from, go to http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/
default.asp?sid=E6D28F5F-B575-47F2-8A1A- 681FC9F9E74C&ttype=6&tid=11735.)

buenas noches
*Stephanie

…………….
LATEST TASKS
∑ Everyone – now
1. Make an account on bugzilla, create bugs, check Johns’s docs (has 
anyone done this, Johns?)
2. Add/change stuff to/on permaculture.info website – check your bio 
(attached), make UI design suggestions, etc. 
3. Check Phase 1 goals below, respond with feedback and timeline ideas 
(no one responded last week, so I’m trying again)
4. Check project budget, make recommendations
5. Respond to the questions below 

∑ John S.
1. look into customization options with John H.
2. 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
3. post this info on the shared web workspace (whether wiki or otherwise) 
for feedback (is this what Chad just did?)
4. organize for user test of first “build” (to start happening weekly in 
1-3 weeks?)

∑ Chad and Rich 
1. 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)
2. 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

∑ 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 up description user interface/experience, send to list
2. re-connect with Paula
3. grant-seeking…
4. send group Industrial Ecology references
5. write mission and vision statements for website

ooooooooooooo

QUESTIONS
1. Is permaculture.info going to be our shared web workspace *and* the hg 
homepage?
2. should we start discussing the informational architecture and user 
experience now?

ooooooooooooo

PHASE 1 GOALS
Johns wrote:
"We don't even have a basic spec of any kind.
No need for volumes of yadda-yadda, but some fundamental statements as 
to what the phase one system will DO are IMO necessary.
For example:

Permaculture.info web application, phase one, will:

* enable authorized users to create plant entities within the 
permaculture.info database
* enable authorized users to input plant data into such plant entities, 
in various forms (string, text field, numeric, date, list, image, etc.)
* enable authorized users to edit plant entity data in various forms (as 
above)
* enable registered users to add discrete information to (annotate...?) 
a plant entity (narrative comments, additions/suggestions, etc.)
* enable anonymous users to search for (query the database on) plants or 
plant-related information using a variety of search fields including but 
not limited to:
   - name(s) of plant(s)
   - botanical characteristics of plants
   - functional characteristics of plants
   - location, climate, etc.
   - etc. etc. (I am just giving example of high-level spec - more 
details needed here)
* implement initial plant entity creation, input, editing, annotation 
and searching  using css- and xhtml-validated web forms/web pages 
accessible by all browsers/internet devices.
* and so on...

The above example implicitly creates three user classes already - 
authorized, registered and anonymous - so that's part of a spec as well 
- user type definitions and privileges.

The above is also extremely high-level - a bit (but not too much) more 
detail would be a very good idea, such as inserting an eventual plant 
entity attribute list, details of search options/implementation, 
how/what of registered user annotation, and so on.

IMO there is no clear idea common to us all as to what "phase one" will 
actually DO.
This is likely to lead to more annoyance and wasted time/money when Chad 
and Rich implement what they think it ought to do and the rest of the 
group finds out it's not necessarily what they think it ought to do.

Annoyance if we don't take the time to sort at least the basics out 
first, so people know what to expect to a certain extent.
Wasted time/money in hashing out phase one basic specs *after* some 
amount of implementation has already been done and then has to be 
redone."

Chad added:
"My personal desire is to also provide an intelligent search that
queries all of aspects of the database from a single text box."

and

"This is pretty much exactly what I had in mind to start doing with one
one addition and the questions where noted.  The addition being adding
relationship elements and allowing authorized users to create and edit
relationships.  The relationships would possibly be displayed in some
text/html way in a browser but would much more likely be used by our
GBI package (TouchGraph/FreeMind/whatever)."


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


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