Hi,
I am working on a project to build a web portal that would facilitate free school activities in a geographic locale. People should be able to use the site to propose, browse, create or join free classes, seminars, skills exchanges, etc. The aim is face-to-face gatherings, so the website should be a support tool that enables people to find each other and provides a persistent environment that will sustain momentum around an interest area.
The UI model that I'm working with would have a portal-like front page that gives people an overview of ongoing free learning activities, and allows people to browse or search to specific areas of interest like spanish or martial arts. Each of these topics would then be a subsite, which would feature proposed and ongoing activities, a forum, a links and resources directory, etc. These activities or classes should have groupware-like features, allowing scheduling, editing, membership, intragroup communication.
I have been wavering between CMS tools like PostNuke and groupware tools like phpGW. The problem with the CMS model is that classes/events are not really addressed by news or article functionality. The problem with the groupware is that I want to build a UI that is welcoming and more portal-like than an Outlook-type workspace. The groupware features should be submerged, as the audience is internet, not inranet.
I thought that perhaps phpGW with the sitemgr would offer a good starting point, especially with a hooks implementation. I'm uncertain as to the status of this project, however. Are there committed developers working on that (cf. the "watch your back post-nuke" story).
What do you think? Is phpGW well suited for this project? Do you foresee any major obstacles? Are there other solutions that might be more appropriate? Finally, do you know of anyone working on such a project?
Thanks greatly for any ideas,
Oren Weinrib