pcplantdb

[Richard Morris <webmaster@pfaf.org>]

Chad Knepp wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> Well, I'm currently feeling highly motivated to hack piw and I
> actually don't feel like I know what I should be working on now.
> Well, I think I should be implementing relationships, but many things
> about them are still not clear to me.  I'll send out another email of
> questions soon.  In the mean time I can think of a number of other
> things to do but I also need some guidance.
First thing for me is to see dev.permaculture.info upto date.
i.e. a warts and all version of where your at.

> One of the things at the top of my list is expanding the level of user
> contribution to plants (creating new ones and adding/editing data) and
> other elements of the dataset.  This would be done as discussed by my
> proposed data model.  I feel that my data/security model has gotten
> pretty widespread support and unless I hear serious concerns about it
> soon I'm going to suggest that we consider it a decision.

Yes, go for that. Seems like a good thing to do while your energys up.
Leave relationships out for a bit.

  One of the
> implications though is that the current dataset needs to "be owned".
> I suggested that this be an uneditable account under of the name
> "PFAF/Ken Fern" (Rich is this name ok?). 

Names fine.

 All of this is pretty
> straight forward except for the 6 elements of the plant labeled
> Culturan Notes, Propagation Notes, Known Hazards, Edible Uses,
> Medicinal Uses, and Other Uses.  My question is should this become one
> comment, six, three (Uses, Culture, Hazards), or some other
> arrangement. 

I'm keen of having sections of data. So its posible to group
all comments on edible uses together. Also so its posible
to filter out sections from the display reports.

 While I'm in process of moving these comments how would
> folks feel about doing the XMLizing of the [42] style references while
> I'm at it.  I would be writing one-off custom scripts to transform the
> data anyway and a little regex magic would just be more fun ;-)

Sounds good.

> I'm open to projects/directions other things as well such as
> implementing a moderation system (need more discussion though), 

For me moderation is a low priority. It will be some time
when we really get sufficient quantity of data to necesitate any form of 
moderation. In the slashdot system it started with no moderation,
then sysadmin moderation, then user moderation as the level of 
contributions grew. I'm inclide to follow a similar path
i.e. implementing stuff when we need it.

> code
> clean up inc. client/server packaging split, locales (more
> discussion), somebody explain relationships to me, etc.  Anyway, I'm
> putting this out to my advisory board and need some direction.  I
> haven't worked since last Tuesday and crazy thing I'm all excited
> really feel like doing something.

One thing I'd be very keen to see is mixing in the tanplant data.
I know the guy who submitted it would be keen to see his data live on 
the web. Its also technically chalanging in how we can mix the two data 
sets. This seems to fit well with the comment idea. Think of this as
another large batch of comments. (It would be OK to miss out some fields
if clashes emerge).

> Weird,
> Chad

Hope the mood stays! Let us know how your doing.

Rich