Roadmap for my involvement

[Michael Allan]

(cc metagov, as requested)

Hi C,

> Do you use procmail? We could use it to setup the scraper instead of
> cron for the mailing list. Since you use irssi to log and run your
> chat client this applies to it as well, as I guess that it supports
> scripting.

Myself, I use http://www.postfix.org/local.8.html

> Since this is a prerequisite for my planned usage and tests with the
> tools I think it would be best to help you with anything being
> necessary to make the resource management work as quickly as
> possible. I dive in today and you might point me to a part I could
> take care of. ...

So far, I've identified two parts.  You're welcome to take either of
these, or to suggest something else.  I can provide more details if
you're interested:

  1. Resources track stack.

     It sits just under the toolbar, either in the votespace map or in
     embedded views: http://zelea.com/y/vw/xf/#c=DV&s=G!p!sandbox

     Its purpose is described here: (Resources slice stack)
     http://metagovernment.org/pipermail/start_metagovernment.org/2011-June/004075.html

     That actually describes the tracks (formerly "slices") for
     crossforum extent.  But you'd just code the track stack itself,
     which is an empty container, plus the component tracks for vote
     and quantitative summation accounts.  Other developers would add
     their own tracks later, as needed.

  2. Client cache of server requests.

     Its purpose is to prevent redundant requests from hitting the
     server, especially from separate browser windows that display
     similar views.  We'll use the HTML 5 client store to cache server
     requests for the life of the session.

     The need is not specific to resources, but it comes up now
     because the embedded view in the difference bridge is going to be
     hitting the server, too.

My own rationale (briefly) for working on this stuff is: (a) we need
users, which for us means voters; (b) the people to get voters are
politicians broadly speaking, or candidates; (c) the places to find
voters are vote-servers and discussion forums; (d) the extent of a
vote-getting campaign across multiple servers and forums is therefore
a useful resource for the participants; (e) tools are needed therefore
to "cultivate and harvest" cross-server and crossforum extent.  So I'm
making a beeline for that.

My development strategy has been to start at the two ends of the I/O
pipe: the input end in the pollwiki where the resource information is
entered by the users; and the output end in crossforum theatre where
it is viewed.  The middle bits, which mostly involve the count engine,
will be coded last.  Meantime the server spits out simulated data for
testing of the theatre UI.
  
> ... Btw. do you have a method to mirror resources? It would be
> really handy to mirror stuff like http://www.kickstarter.com/ as
> raising then happens in forums. Anyway you have something similiar
> for the crossforum extent in mind, so I think we share a common
> interest here.

No, I haven't pursued the idea.  Till I see a few alpha users, I'm
focusing mostly on candidates.

> You already have pointed parts out to me, so maybe we can skype
> around 18:00 GMT today to figure it out more closely.

OK.

> You have also talked about bringing the resource view to the
> difference bridge, which is interesting, since we might want to
> visualize the difference here differently, not in the semantic wiki
> markup style.

I'm coding that now.  It's exactly the same difference bridge as
before (Wicket), but with a resources view embedded at top (GWT).

> I have talked on #opensourceecology btw. and they have told me to
> write a proposal about using our software on their Wiki. I can write
> it up and draft it together with you if you like. Can we use a draft
> pointer to a text in any MediaWiki atm. or do they have to support
> that?

No, all they require is a recent version of MW with the write API
enabled.  It's enabled by default.  But I wouldn't put serious time
into it unless they had an immediate need we could fill.

-- 
Mike


C wrote:
> Hi Mike,
> 
> I have fixed the outstanding glitches in the diff feed. The rest of the night 
> I have thought about my interests and how to best continue on something 
> additional to the diff feed. My development setup runs here: 
> http://whiletaker.homeip.net:8080/voff/xf/#c=DDum
> 
> 1. DiffFeed
> 
> Do you use procmail? We could use it to setup the scraper instead of cron for 
> the mailing list. Since you use irssi to log and run your chat client this 
> applies to it as well, as I guess that it supports scripting. 
> 
> 2. Further involvement
> 
> I would like to use our software. As I have joined this project for political 
> reasons mainly, I am interested to use the tools to bridge forums and bring 
> discussion together. Especially now that I have seen the diff-patching in 
> action. But to make it interesting I need the resource management stuff 
> roughly working. I can then setup account types and draft positions of 
> organisations or forums and start posting there about common plans and ways to 
> organize available resources. So I'd like to become an activist myself a bit. 
> This will also give me a clearer understanding on the further development of 
> the difference feed, I hope.
> 
> Since this is a prerequisite for my planned usage and tests with the tools I 
> think it would be best to help you with anything being necessary to make the 
> resource management work as quickly as possible. I dive in today and you might 
> point me to a part I could take care of. Btw. do you have a method to mirror 
> resources? It would be really handy to mirror stuff like 
> http://www.kickstarter.com/ as raising then happens in forums. Anyway you have 
> something similiar for the crossforum extent in mind, so I think we share a 
> common interest here.
> 
> You already have pointed parts out to me, so maybe we can skype around 18:00 
> GMT today to figure it out more closely.
> 
> You have also talked about bringing the resource view to the difference 
> bridge, which is interesting, since we might want to visualize the difference 
> here differently, not in the semantic wiki markup style. 
> 
> I have talked on #opensourceecology btw. and they have told me to write a 
> proposal about using our software on their Wiki. I can write it up and draft 
> it together with you if you like. Can we use a draft pointer to a text in any 
> MediaWiki atm. or do they have to support that?
> 
> c