Re: collaboration with other non-profits?

Tom

Many thanks for the thoughtful suggestion.  It seems to me that 
universities are a natural fit with OSAF, and other non-profits may be 
as well (depends a bit on the information needs of other non-profits, 
which I'm sure cover the entire spectrum.)  So a relationship such as 
you describe could be very beneficial.

Can you provide any additional information about your organization? 
 Others at OSAF may disagree, but right now I don't think we're quite 
far enough along to do much more than make contact and learn about your 
organization. Our pressing task at OSAF right now is to get basic 
information about our architecture, APIs, planning and decision-making 
to date out to the entire community.  We're working on this, but are 
still in the early stages.  For example, we're not yet at a point where 
we can crisply get others started with Chandler's architecture, though 
we hope to make progress quickly.   It will probably take a few early 
releases of  Chandler architectural elements and basic functionality to 
get a clearer idea if Chandler will be a good foundation for your 
project and how we might work together.

So I suggest we connect again once Chandler is a bit more developed.  In 
the meantime, any pointers to information about your organization would 
be great.  

Mitchell




Tom Hoffman wrote:

>As the OSAF seems to be carving out a new niche for iteslf as a non-profit 
>software development firm, I was wondering if you have thought about 
>collaborating with other non-profits entities.
>
>I am tech coordinator (and Zope developer) that is working on a new design 
>research project (with a laundry list of Universities and Foundations) to do 
>design research on improving the 'information infrastructure' of schools.  I 
>think Chandler and its architecture might make a great foundation for some of 
>our work with teachers.  
>
>We once Chandler releases start appearing, of course we would be able to start 
>testing and adapting it to our needs.  However, I don't think I can convince 
>"the suits," i.e., the professors running the research project, that it is 
>safe to base to base our work on an open source project that we don't have 
>any sort of formal relationship with.  
>
>The general outlines of a relationship might look like this:
>
> * OSAF sets aside some time to meet with our developers and get them started 
>on Chandler's architecture;
>
>* We provide OSAF with a few well supported and documented test sites (our 
>participating schools);
>
>* Our developers & project managers get the reassurance of feeling like there 
>is someone standing behind the architecture;
>
>* OSAF eventually get a formal design research report on the efficacy of their 
>software in improving the culture of teaching and learning in inner city 
>schools in Providence and Chicago.
>
>Is this something OSAF might be interested in exploring?
>
>--Tom Hoffman
>http://tuttlesvc.org
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