[hackerspaces] Hackerspace admin software recommendations?

Wed Jul 23 22:18:44 CEST 2014

I recommend /dev/null on any unix.  Try to imagine you live in sparta...
and you are wandering through your rock gardens watching as your people
train themselves and develop into powerful fighters.  You are abruptly
disturbed by some tatterdemalion mendicant.  You ask with anger rising in
your throat for this interloper to explain their sudden and rude
interruption.  They herald you tidings of dark potent and grim portent.  It
is now /dev/null becomes the ultimate in administrative software tools.
You walk with your new found problem through the town demonstrating to the
lothespelled storm crow person that your town is mighty and fair.  You
entreat upon them to reconsider the nature of their bearing and the
decidedly negative impact of their folly.  They of course decline informing
you that time will not step back and trouble is darkening the doors to your
home.  So, with all the administrative finesse of our leonidas you punt the
bastard into the pit from which no data ever returns... /dev/null.  If
there's one thing leonidas taught hackerspaces it's that we all need a
giant bottomless pit at the center of our administrative constructs to help
us unload some of our problems.  And to stress with prejudice upon others
the importance of consequence in choosing to engage us with their problems.

be well fellow hackers.

On Wed, Jul 23, 2014 at 3:46 PM, JB Zurn <jbzurn at gmail.com> wrote:

> At Melbourne Makerspace (Melbourne FL) we use an ecommerce WordPress based
> system - WooCommerce with the Subscriptions plugin. A member had experience
> with this and donated the plugin. Someone can opt to pay dues from the
> website, by selecting the subscription and purchasing it. If they use
> PayPal it will automatically charge each month until they cancel. They can
> also give one-time donations through the same system.
>
> For now it doesn't interface with the door access system but another
> member is investigating a way to give access to active subscribers.
>
> -Brooks
> On Jul 23, 2014 12:00 PM, "dosman" <dosman at packetsniffers.org> wrote:
>
>>         Starting out with nothing, something like Seltzer is a good
>> option I'm sure. Of course that wasn't available when we started building
>> components for our administrative stuffs. If you are bolting components
>> together then you might consider some of these options.
>>
>> Our RFID system uses the 23b.org Open-Access-Control RFID Arduino
>> shield. We have a web-interface for it which was written in-house and
>> manages access control and logging.
>> http://bloominglabs.org/index.php/RFID_System_Software
>>
>> We use Simple Invoices for automatic dues invoicing. SI is web based, can
>> email out a monthly dues reminder, accepts paypal automatically, and can be
>> configured to let people check their own dues balances. I have not posted
>> this yet but I have a shell script for auto-generating nag emails based on
>> the data in SI for members who are behind on dues. Simple Invoices needs
>> some work though, I've written up how we configured it here:
>> http://bloominglabs.org/index.php/Simple_Invoices
>>
>> We have an asset management system based on some guys one-off PHP
>> inventory system. We extended it to support printing QR code asset tags
>> (both single and batches) along with a number of other tweaks:
>> http://bloominglabs.org/index.php/Asset_Manager
>>
>> We also use Sugar CRM for contact management. I am hoping to extend this
>> to maintain our active membership database (by keeping it populated, not by
>> coding). All that is required is to figure out how to add and remove
>> members programmatically (with wget/curl).
>>
>> Last but not least, we have a couple other scripts and web interfaces for
>> wrappering some of this when activating new memberships. Not exactly a good
>> single point of management, but these systems have lowered our overhead
>> significantly.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> -dosman
>>
>>
>> On Jul 23, 2014, at 10:27 AM, Shirley Hicks wrote:
>>
>> > Good morning all,
>> >
>> > I strongly suspect this question has been asked before (including by
>> me!), but I'm not finding it easily.
>> >
>> > Our 15-month old hacker group is preparing to step away from the
>> spreadsheets with which we are managing our space and start setting up (in
>> phases) a space information system.
>> > We will have a team of eight working on this project, with information
>> system experience ranging from seasoned system warrior to recently
>> graduated IS newbie.
>> > Project information page can be seen at:
>> http://wiki.redmountainmakers.org/wiki/RMM_Information_System
>> >
>> > We'd like to minimize the work required (who doesn't!) and are looking
>> for any available package recommendations for the following functions:
>> >
>> >       Phase 1
>> >       Membership management - yes, we are evaluating i3 Detroit's
>> Seltzer CRM.
>> >       Equipment inventory.
>> >       Technical library inventory & (possibly) sign-in/sign-out.
>> >
>> >       Phase 2
>> >       Space access control by pass card.
>> >       Space booking control (just see who's using what room for classes
>> and meetings when).
>> >
>> >       Phase 3
>> >       Equipment access control by pass card.
>> >       Class and materials sign-up/purchase.
>> >
>> > This is within the US context, and within US legal governance with
>> regards to information privacy and electronic purchases/transactions.
>> > Thanks in advance for any recommendations and comments regarding your
>> experiences with different packages. :)
>> >
>> > Shirley Hicks
>> > Board member-at-large
>> > Red Mountain Makers
>> > Birmingham, AL 35212
>> >
>> > Email: redmtnadm at redmountainmakers.org
>> > www.redmountainmakers.org
>> > -----------------------------------------------------------
>> > Home email: shirley at velochicdesign.com
>> > _______________________________________________
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>> > Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
>> > http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>
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