Re: Forums

On Tue, 27 Jul 2004, Helge Hess wrote:

> On 27.07.2004, at 15:44, Dustin Machi wrote:
>> Originally we were going
>> to use OpenExchange to do so, but we would prefer to use OGo because there
>> things we would like to enhance (such as adding basic gant chart generation
>> for projects).  In the more closed system of OpenGroupware this will be
>> difficult.
>
> What do you mean by "more closed system"? OGo is far more _open_ than SLOX? 
> (with SLOX being built on a proprietary groupware component).
>

Just a typo on my part...I meant SLOX was proprietary, sorry.


> I can see various options for adding something like a Gantt chart to an OGo 
> project.
>

Yes, and I have already done so on another projects.

>> However, in our pilot tests, one of the most used and requested
>> features were the threaded discussion forums.
>
> OK.
>
>> Our users use this to have
>> discussions among multiple people that are automatically archived and 
>> thread
>> on the system and done so in a secure fashion.  While we could use mailing
>> lists to accomplish some of this the security would be lacking, it is much
>> more difficult to archive the mailing lists and ensure that only the 
>> correct
>> people have access to the archives of a particular list.  Additionally,  it
>> is more difficult for the "users" of the system to add and maintain an 
>> ad-hoc
>> list...in fact since most of the discussions are science related and are
>> trying to establish _new_ collaborations and contacts, most people wouldn't
>> even be able to say who should be on a mailing list.  In a forum, they 
>> could
>> allow anyone that is a users of the system read and begin to follow a
>> particular forum or thread (or to limit this to a particular group if the
>> material warrants it).
>

> So far that sounds like projects are a pretty good match to the required 
> functionality. They can be created and maintained by anyone in the system and 
> they provide the mentioned access control facilities.
> Actually I assume that it is pretty cool for a science "project" to be able 
> to place versioned documents related to the discussion in the tree and 
> tracking associated tasks shouldn't be too bad either ;-)
>
Definately.  In fact we are using these capabilities.

> So basically we mostly seem to miss the facility of "threaded notes".
>
>> While I understand that we can do notes through projects, this isn't really
>> suited to what we want to accomplish, and would seem to be counterintuitive
>> to the users in this case.  Most discussion are occurring outside the 
>> context
>> of a particular project.
>
> Hm, maybe you are confused by the term "Project". Rename project to "Point of 
> Discussion" and add threaded notes. Would that cover your needs?
>
> The "Project" is just an ACL protected container for documents and some more 
> specific relations to other objects (like tasks or notes), but doesn't need 
> to match to a real-world "project".
>

I dont' think that I personally am confused by the term "project", but 
yeah it is somewhat confusing to the users.  Perhaps chaning the name, or 
something would work.  Threaded capabilities are still needed regardless 
(at least for us).

Thanks for you help and feedback,
Dustin



> best regards,
>  Helge
> -- 
> http://docs.opengroupware.org/Members/helge
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