Hi,
my name is Christoph Roessner from ChasquiNet in Quito, Ecuador.
As a student at the Hamburg
University I got
in touch
with the software I’m going to present you. In my opinion, it could be
very
useful for Community Informatics research, but also for communities
working
with ICTs. If you have any questions, opinions or problems just let me
know
([EMAIL PROTECTED]).
The University
of Hamburg
developed a
product which is called CommSy. This software is similar to "normal"
groupware. But it was developed as part of a usability project of the
Faculty
of Informatics of the Hamburg
University.
Actually it is internet based, what means that its use requires
internet
connectivity. The development of an offline client would be very
useful,
especially in the Community Informatics context, where bandwidth and
connectivity at all are an expensive resource. However, CommSy is Open
Source,
what means that everyone is free to change the software. Moreover,
because of
its usability research background, CommSy is text based and works
without
pictures, animations etc. what makes it faster than "normal"
commercial sites.
The main idea of CommSy is to facilitate the work
of groups or communities.
Members of such entities share a (password protected) project room in
CommSy. There
they can do chat, put in materials, announce events, have discussion
etc. (The
whole functionality will be described below). In this way, people
working in
different places can coordinate their collaboration in an efficient
way. It is
also possible to found several groups in one project room and publish
materials
only for a group or to send an Email only to the members of the group.
Commsy offers project rooms and community rooms. The difference is that
a
community room contains several project rooms. Members of one project
room can
not see the materials, discussions etc. going on in other project
rooms. On the
other hand, members of different groups in the same project room can
also see
(not edit) the activity of the other groups within the same project
room.
CommSy has been used in Hamburg,
but also in other places for several years. This went in hand with a
continuous
development process, bettering the product. Now, at the Hamburg University
it is almost a standard for seminars and work shops. In the moment
CommSy is
available in English and German, but it is based on a dictionary which
contains
about 3000 words. This means that a translation in other languages is
relatively easy, because when translation the dictionary into another
language
CommSy will appear in this language. Apart from the translation no
additional
programming effort is necessary.
Below you will find the access data to a CommSy project room. The name
of this
test room is Community Informatics. In the room some exemplary material
has
been posted, some groups are active etc. Anyone who is interested may
enter the
room and add material, found groups, etc. Feel free to test the
software and to
leave your opinion!
Access to the CommSy test room: http://communities.commsy.de/commsy.php?cid=197555&mod=home&fct=index&room_id=269439
Name of user: Tom Test
Login: test
Password: test
Test room: Community Informatics
The functions of Commsy are the following:
-----------------------------------------------
Announcements: You can put in announcements of events, new information
etc.
Dates: You can put in date, e.g. for conferences, meetings, etc.
Materials: You can upload documents (up to 8MB per document) to the
Commsy room.
You have the possibility to define keywords, to define the type of
material, to
place an abstract and to make the document available to all or only to
certain
members (or groups).
Discussions: You can have discussion of any topic you feel that it's
worth
discussing. Every member of the project room can add his/her five cents
to the
discussion
People: It is possible to enter personal data such a telephone numbers,
email addresses,
addresses, pictures for every user.
Groups: Every user can found groups and enter himself/herself to the
group
(e.g. working on a special issue). Membership in several groups is no
problem.
Chat: It is possible to chat with members of the project room.
Topics: Every member can define topics guiding the work in the project
room.
Configuration: Every administrator of a CommSy project room can open
the room
for new members. Membership must be requested and granted by the
administrator.
Because of the password protection, privacy within the CommSy room can
be
assured up to a certain degree.
The administrator of a project room can also decide about the colors
and order
of the functions of the room. It is also possible to block a function,
e.g. if
chat shall not be available in the project room.
For every interested person:
CommSy can be downloaded at http://sourceforge.net/projects/commsy.
If you host CommSy on your own server, then the use of CommSy is free.
Of
course the CommSy team will help, when questions or problems arise.
Only when
using the service of hosting a CommSy room at the server in Hamburg, a fee
must be paid. More
information about the latter option can be found at http://service.commsy.de/hosting.php.
Note: This information is only available in German.
You may also directly contact the CommSy team:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Greetings from Quito,
Christoph Roessner
