Software foo, you may ignore

[noahgibbs]

Here's an insightful little something by JWZ called Groupware BAD!. If you work on open source projects, or just wonder how these things get started (at least at bigger companies), read it. There's even some genuinely useful advice from a guy who *doesn't* have his head shoved up his ass.

Comments

[zqfmbg.livejournal.com]

Heh. Makes me wonder.

I still work on the same stuff at NV. How the hell does it get *anyone* laid?

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

Well, it's a way to show off fancy silly graphics. Geeks still *think* that will get them laid. Touching, really. *sniff*

[zhaneel69.livejournal.com]

Well, other than that I don't have enough knowhow to deal with installing Hula, I want it.

I want something that is easy for me to calendar, easy for me to send out my calendar, easy for others to access parts of my calendar and a way to deal with invites other than through Evite or Davite.

Zhaneel

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

Well, Hula doesn't *do* much yet...

At least, that's what their web site seems to imply.

[zhaneel69.livejournal.com]

They have some stuff, but most of it is still planning. They do have an install, but I don't grok it so nothing for me.

It is very geek friendly but not very "joe user" friendly.

Zhaneel

[veryloki.livejournal.com]

That was a very interesting article. I'm rather surprised that there's no open source replacement for evite.

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

To do it Evite's way, you need a big central server. That costs money to maintain. There are a few OSS projects that do that (Slashdot, LiveJournal), but mostly if it requires a great big central server, there's not much demand for small-scale hackers playing with the code.

[veryloki.livejournal.com]

Is there really any need for evite-type functionality to be centralized on a big server? It's not like LJ where everyone has accounts and there are conversations going on...

(I know, it is possible to have an evite account, but I avoid this.)

[sheenaqotj.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too. Just a straight-forward way to rsvp and send out reminders is all you need. They might have patents on that, though.

[zqfmbg.livejournal.com]

A mailing list comes to mind, but that too is also centralized on a single server.

It's possible to split things up among multiple servers, but then things get really complicated. However, if you're limiting use to some small number of people (say, 1000), then you probably don't need a huge server or a huge connection.

[sheenaqotj.livejournal.com]

Well, each event at least can be on its own server, and then you could establish some sort of protocol to track them against each other...

Or just have them sync'able with some standard calendar format so you can stick them on your own planner. I'm trying to think of the evite-like-things that do _not_ have alternative solutions. Mailing list + cron job covers reminders. Simple web page covers the invitation page.

Um... there are actually a bunch of things, and I shouldn't dive into this at work, so I'll let other people take over now. :)

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's not that Evite *couldn't* have an OSS alternative. But nobody's done it, that I know of. You'd have to do a lot of extra design work, as you realized.