[Grassroots-l] ProjectDB and management tools for Pilots/Projects

[Sameer Verma]

Seth Woodworth wrote:
> I that that those are excellent suggestions.  And I have no particular 
> ties to ProjectDB personally.  What I really want is a conversation 
> about what needs there are in country-level groups that aren't 
> satisfied and how we can do so.
>
> Will you be participating in our meeting Sameer?
>
Which meeting is this? I have too many on my radar ;-)

Sameer
> -Seth
>
> On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 12:43 PM, Sameer Verma <sverma at sfsu.edu 
> <mailto:sverma at sfsu.edu>> wrote:
>
>     Christoph Derndorfer wrote:
>     > Good morning Seth,
>     >
>     > sounds like a great topic and I'd love to join in, however that time
>     > (Friday midnight!!) overlaps with my
>     going-out-and-drinking-beers plans
>     > so I don't think I'll be able to make it...
>     >
>     > I therefore vote for IRC as the means of communication since
>     that would
>     > allow me to catch up with what was said over the weekend.
>     >
>     > In terms of thoughts on the subject I just want to say that for
>     > "project management" there are tons of tools available and I'm
>     not sure
>     > whether hacking the ProjectDB and thereby reinventing the wheel
>     makes
>     > sense. Especially since that requires a lot of resources and
>     whatnot.
>     >
>     > So therefore I'm inclined to say that it would be better to
>     scout for
>     > worthy FOSS PM tools / Web services and then integrate a simple
>     > export-function from ProjectDB into that other system.
>     Some good FOSS PM tools:
>
>     Web-based
>     http://project.net/ (Java based)
>     http://dotproject.net/ (PHP/MySQL)
>     http://www.redmine.org/ (Ruby on Rails)
>     http://www.projectpier.org/ (time management is rudimentary)
>
>     Offline/client based
>     http://openproj.org/ (Java based)
>     http://www.openworkbench.org/ (Windows-based)
>     http://ganttproject.biz/ (has WebDAV-based group feature)
>
>     We use dotProject and Project.net on campus. In my opinion (I teach IT
>     Project Management) two very critical "features" of PM are the ability
>     to track resources (time, people, money, etc) and reorganize tasks
>     based
>     on contingencies (dependency management).
>
>     Trac has a Gantt module, but its not very featureful...at least it
>     wasn't when we evaluated it in Spring semester.
>     http://trac-hacks.org/wiki/GanttPlugin
>
>     > Then ProjectDB
>     > would remain lean and focused and there'd be a clear step in
>     terms of
>     > project status from "proposal" (as long as it's in ProjectDB) to
>     "work
>     > in progress" (as soon as moved into that PM tool).
>     >
>     >
>     +1 This workflow needs to be clear. Bogging down a proposal with PM
>     minutiae will only create more barriers to entry.
>
>     > But then again, I haven't had my morning coffee so I have no idea
>     > whether what I just wrote makes any sense at all... ;-)
>     >
>     >
>     I just had a solo espresso. The fog in my mind is clearing. San
>     Francisco remains foggy as usual :-)
>
>     Sameer
>
>     --
>     Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
>     Associate Professor of Information Systems
>     San Francisco State University
>     San Francisco CA 94132 USA
>     http://verma.sfsu.edu/
>     http://opensource.sfsu.edu/
>
>
>     > Thanks,
>     > Christoph
>     >
>     >
>     > Zitat von Seth Woodworth <seth at laptop.org <mailto:seth at laptop.org>>:
>     >
>     >
>     >> SJ, Pia Waugh, and I had a very interesting conversation
>     tonight about
>     >> organizing projects and proposals via a web interface such as
>     Austria's
>     >> ProjectDB (http://projectdb.olpc.at).  While I think that there
>     are several
>     >> more things that the wiki can and should be doing via Semantic
>     MediaWiki,
>     >> there are several things that wiki will never be able to do.
>     >>
>     >> There is a growing need for some project/proposal management
>     tools that are
>     >> a little smarter about keeping private information private,
>     which is the
>     >> current use of the ProjectDB.  There are several ways that
>     ProjectDB could
>     >> be expanded and used by individual OLPC groups (like
>     olpc.org.au <http://olpc.org.au>).
>     >>
>     >> We're going to have an open meeting on the subject at:
>     >>
>     >> * 23:00 Friday, August 15th, UTC
>     >> **9:00AM Sat .au
>     >> **6:00PM Fri .us
>     >>
>     >> Reply to this thread if you would prefer IRC or Phone and some
>     brief
>     >> thoughts on the subject.
>     >>
>     >> All the best,
>     >> Seth Woodworth
>     >>
>     >>
>     >
>     >
>     >
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