Re: [Phpgroupware-users] phpGW for free school? (duplicate, read this one)

[Dave Hall]

"Oren S. Weinrib" <address@hidden> wrote:

> 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.

Sounds pretty cool.

> 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.  

phpGW provides most, if not all this functionality.

> 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 am a bit biased, but i would suggest phpgw over a cms based system.

> 
> 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)?  

I would suggest sitemgr to allow you to leverage the data in phpgw. 
Sitemgr is in active development at the moment.  Patrick Walsh (aka
mr_e) is on leave at the moment, but he is the main developer.   Michael
Totschnig (sorry if i got it wrong) is also working on the project,
mainly doing the i18n work.  I have been hacking at the code also.  The
hooks to other apps are still in development at the moment.

> 
> 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?

I do not know of anyone using phpgw for this purpose but I am sure it is
possible.  I suspect that you will need to do some work to get it to do
exactly what you propose, but it is open source so you are free to do
that.  Once you get the hang of it the code is pretty easy.

Do you have any developers who can spend sometime working on it?  I
would suggest you/they drop in at #phpgroupware on irc.freenode.net. 
That is where the developers and users hang out.  People there should be
able to give you some pointer and answer questions you have.

Please keep us posted on your progress.

Cheers,

Dave Hall (aka skwashd)

> 
> Thanks greatly for any ideas,
> Oren Weinrib 
> address@hidden
> 
> 
> 
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