I just wanted to mention my status updates on this list, for
anyone who wasn't at the last IRC meeting.
1. Alison and i have been working hard on the media module.
Our work in progress is running in a sandbox at
http://sf4dean.com/sandbox/. We are getting feedback from
the Dean Media Team to help guide further developments.
It is very incomplete: we have media submission and weak
browsing, but no updating or search yet. Lots to do.
2. There is significant debate over whether the database for
the media repository should reside in a central location,
or be distributed among DeanSpace sites. I have posted my
arguments for a centralized database in/on [*] the Wiki:
http://www.hack4dean.org/phpwiki/index.php?CentralizedMediaDatabase
3. I've developed a rough starting point for the volunteer
directory (a.k.a. Visible Volunteers, Talent DB, DeanSter),
currently running at http://sf4dean.com/vv/. It is based
on the profile module i posted earlier (which was enhanced
to add grouping, privacy controls, and zip code lookup).
The profile module has been additionally enhanced to add
multiple-checkbox fields, a very clunky directory display,
extremely clunky search, and sending e-mail to other users
without revealing their e-mail address.
Again, lots to do here. Since the meeting, i have added
a feature to send custom invitations to friends, with
referral tracking so you can surf profiles by who invited
whom. Obviously there is a bunch more Friendster-like,
common interest etc. stuff we can do here. But first, we
still need basic search and filtering functions.
4. I said i was going to do an "action" module. Where does
that fit into all of this? Well, i personally consider
Visible Volunteers to be an early step towards Dean Action!,
my original concept for the "action" module. Dean Action!
was supposed to be a site where volunteers would register,
find each other, and propose action items for each other.
Whatever we call the site [**], it seems clear to me that
the two concepts overlap heavily. Zephyr, i'd love to
talk more about this with you when you can spare the time.
-- ?!ng
[*] Is a Wiki a place ("in") or a substrate ("on")? You decide! :)
[**] I think Dean Action! sounds more exciting than Visible
Volunteers, but that's no biggie. I have deanaction.{com,org}.
visiblevolunteers.{com,org,net} seems to be owned by Damaca, Inc.
