<br>Along the lines of the Hackathon happening this weekend, several of us are considering tackling this idea of a "Hackerspace in a Box". Not my concept, but I'm afraid I don't know who in the Southeast US what I heard of originated from many months ago.<br>
<br>I hope I'm not stepping on many toes here...<br><br>In my view, this includes:<br><br> - membership tracking system<br> - API and sample plugins for provisioning, deprovisioning, and reprovisioning services (security badges, e-mail accounts, whatever)<br>
- member account management portal<br> - API and plug-ins for payment gateways (google payments, paypal, etc...) to handle dues and donations<br> - API and Android application for member account management<br> - simple accounting system (as simple and automated as possible)<br>
- high level of customization decoupled from core applications (simplified upgrades, ability to turn stuff off so you can use existing things like wikis, mailing lists, etc...)<br> - reporting (mostly financial)<br><br>The idea here is to bootstrap Hackerspaces. It'd be ideal if we can build a system that existing spaces may also use -- which requires a lot of decoupling, customization ability, and an overall competent build, and then to have the hackerspace community continually build it.<br>
<br>The idea here is NOT to force anyone to replace any working systems. Use this when you have no working system. Use this when you have a poorly working system.<br><br>In the spirit of this, I'd like for folks to start indicating interest if they'd like to take a leadership position, or are capable of being a principal developer (with other people probably working on smaller pieces as directed by them, and learning in the process).<br>
<br>I'd like to break this into five chunks, with some overlap when it comes to the API's:<br><br>1) Core System (the open-source applications and integration)<br>2) Customization, look, feel, gui (make it work, make it pretty)<br>
3) Plug-In APIs (make it easy for people to create additional plugins for provisioning, etc... and sample plugins for common services)<br>4) Mobile API (hooks for android, iphone, etc... apps)<br>5) Android (first mobile client)<br>
<br>I can use:<br><br> - project managers/project leaders<br> - lead developers for each area<br> - volunteers for each area (working for the lead dev, and learning is okay)<br> - folks with understandings of the API's for international payment systems<br>
- treasurers for spaces, or those with financial responsibility (I want to throw you on a mailing list to go over accounting systems, reporting, etc...)<br> - Folks that actually work for Google as Android Subject Matter Experts, willing to lend assistance. Likewise for Apple or Microsoft, if available, we may take advantage of those opportunities.<br>
<br>Languages will depend on the systems being implemented. Android speaks for itself. Most web components will use php, css, etc... The rest is up to the leads.<br><br>I will create an overall project plan defining a starting place for requirements/capabilities. A blueprint, if you will.<br>
<br>We'll want leads to be able to communicate, if possible, sometime on Thursday/early Friday, to make sure we're on the same page.<br><br>-----<br><br>I'd love to hear comments from all of those in the community. In particular, I'd like to know if:<br>
<br> - You have ideas, requirements, etc...<br> - You are already working on something similar, and whether or not we should consider using part of that code, or helping to complete your own.<br> - You have already completed this code, or part of this.<br>
- You have very qualified recommendations of what package to use for any given piece (or anything you'd like to see be a piece of this) -- please be sure to qualify your recommendation with regards to competing platforms/applications.<br>
<br>All comments welcome -- feel free to reply to me individually, or on the thread. I also encourage you to forward this to your own space mailing lists. In particular, I'd love to get as many treasurer eyeballs on the blueprint as possible, once I'm done writing it (Thursday).<br>
<br>I'm hoping this will move quickly. If enough resources don't appear, we'll have to reassess which pieces we -can- reasonably accomplish, or push this off to happen at a later date.<br><br>-kive (Freeside Atlanta)<br>
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