As one of the people who has been trying to head up this discussion on our Apps list (I think that any discussion regarding the technical merits of one solution over another should definitely move over to that list), let me set some things straight:
Let me state first that if you have any input what-so-ever about which maps system NYCwireless chooses to use, please make your voice heard. We have discussions about this on the Apps list, and welcome anyone who wants to comment. Let me state at the beginning that NYCwireless is a volunteer run organization run for the benefit of its members and the community. As such, the community looks to those of us who lead certain aspects of the group to make informed decisions. Most people on this list I'm sure don't care what maps system we use, just so long as it works. If you do, then you can help us make that decision. As I have said before, we have made no decisions regarding which maps database we are moving to, however we have been investigating the few options out there. I apologize for not moving faster on this, but as all of us who are trying to contribute to the NYCwireless community,my time is limited. Bon, as a community, we certainly appreciate the work you've put forth with your database technology. You're developing a solution that is very robust and I'm sure quite useful for your purposes. I will say, however, that the features of your database system don't entirely match what we (the people who have been involved in this discussion) have been looking for in a replacement for our maps database. Foremost on the list is usability of the web interface, and unfortunately your database system doesn't yet match what is available in our current system. I am aware that wasn't your first priority, which is completely understandable, as you had other important goals to achieve with your system. As for opensource vs. proprietary systems, let me state that for us (the people who head up certain aspects of NYCwireless) this is not the issue. My primary concern for our maps database is that we (as developers and sysadmins) can easily make changes to the system whenever necessary. Unfortunately, were we to go with a system hosted by a third party (for example, queens college), we wouldn't have the direct access to make the changes that we need or want to make. Furthermore, we are all volunteers with limited resources and limited time. We need to go with a solution that will minimize the amout of time and effort needed to maintain and administer. I've had a lot of experience with Oracle, but I can't speak for the other people who do sysadmining for NYCwireless. I know from experience that Oracle requires alot of knowledge to operate properly and efficiently, and we don't have that knowledge or resources to make Oracle worthwhile. MySQL, on the other hand, is easy to administer, is known by everyone, and operates quite well under any server load we could expect. Remember, we're not a big corporation, we're just a bunch of people who do this for fun! -- *D a n a S p i e g e l* *s o c i a b l e D E S I G N* *::* *www.sociableDESIGN.com* 346 Lexington Avenue, Suite 2F, New York, NY 10016 p +1 212 867 5172 :: m +1 917 402 0422 :: e [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/
