Workgroup Pseudo Code(v1.0)

*creating the workgroup

if(loggedin==1){
create_workgroup - possible div pop-up on click
(form post update_workgroup.php)
input project_name = txt
input project_description = txt area
input project_members = txt, seperated w/comma
input project_admin = txt, autofill with user name

upload multiple thumbnails, jpeg, bmp, gif

(/form)
}

*once the workgroup is created you can then edit it, add job positions and descriptions
*each position will be connected to the project via project_id, so all avail positions can be viewed
*selecting all job listings with project_id

if(loggedin==1){
add_job_listing
(form post update_workgroup.php){
project_id = txt, hidden
position_title = txt
position_description = txtarea
position_talents = txtarea
(/form)
}

*file associated with projects
if(loggedin==1){
add_file
(form post update_workgroup.php){
project_id = txt, hidden
file_name = txt
file_path = txt ? maybe we can allow for a hierachy directory
file_type = list select - use for upload protection/virus protection
(/form)
}

Here is a new logo I have created

This is a small post of the 16x16px icon I created for our site. The icon is basically a stripped down version of my original icon post. The smaller icon is simply a world globe in black and white, which will be usefull for including in the url of our project.

Project Outline/Psuedo Code (v1.0)

Login

• Register




• Upload Resume


• Previous Works


• Contact Information




• cell


• email


• im






• Search Interface




• Categorized




• Skills


• Talents


• Avail Positions


• Name Contact


• Project


• Group


• Project Description







• Create Workgroup




• Project Name


• Project Description


• Project Members


• Project Files


• Avail. Positions


• Project Thumbnails





• E-mail


• IM Group/individual


• Video Conferencing



• View Workgroups




• Not Logged in
  
  
  • View individuals
  
  
  • View descriptions
  
  
  • View thumbnails
  
  
  • View expertise
  
  
  • View positions
  
  
  • Contact admin of group
  
  
  • Apply for position
  
  
  
  
• Logged in


• Download/upload files


• Add to message board


• IM group


• Attend conferences

Collaboration Network(Joe Grace, Derek Myska, Gary Nealey)

Our intent is to create a website that will allow users to network amongst themselves to find interesting jobs/projects that they can possibly work on.
The whole idea of our project is to create a system that will allow users to login and create projects that they are interested in and need help with. The creator of the project then becomes the admin of that current project, each project will have a description and some diagrams/images that will help explain the idea behind the project. Each project will have a listing of required skills needed for the project and if there is an opening. If there is other users can 'apply' for the project, at which point the admins will be able to view the persons history and previous works. Once a user has been accepted to work on the project he will be able to view all project parts. These include audio samples, source code, videos etc.
Each user will be able to work on multiple projects within the system, each project will have its own group, which includes all of the people working on the current project. Upon completion of a project we may integrate a rating system that will allow other group members to comment on other group members.

The Differences

The closest thing I could find to our system was the website freelance.com. Freelance.com is a website that essential does the same thing our website does. It has companies register then post jobs, the admins of the website then choose the best freelancers to work on that project according to ther talents.
The problem with freelance is that the administrators of the website are the ones that choose what workers are best fit for each project. With our system we want to allow the admins, of the groups, within our website to select the person they feel is fit to the job, according to the requests submitted. This way the site can grow exponentially, because no matter the amount of projects posted, the admins of the site, don't have to surf through every single job posting and than find the most talented person. Instead each admin of the group (which could be hundreds or thousands) can surf through the people to select the person fit.
The other difference is that our site will be self-contained. What I mean by this is that every project and piece of work will be on the server. This way each person within the group can download the information and work on it. I believe that with freelance.com you have to retrieve the information from the company once the admins have agreed to hiring you. Whereas with our system all you need to do is login and download the required files, once you have been accepted to the group.

Mini-Icons

Icons

Another small post regarding the design of our system. The link above is a website that includes over 320 mini icons that may prove useful for our website system free of charge. They also offer you a $30 cover charge for free access of the icons without including a link to thier homepage. This may be a good investment for the development of our project.

5 HTML Elements you never use

5 HTML Elements

-Small aricle on some useful elements that I have never used before in coding websites. Offers some good advice as to why you should use each tag, and gives an example of how they work. Could prove useful in the development of our system.

Freelance: Its time to work differently

Freelance.com

Above is a link to another interesting sire. It seems that this site allows freelancers to find jobs in related fields, which is almost the same idea that our Capstone will encapsulate.

There are a few differences in freelance.com that cause it to lack the independent growth that hopefully our system will have. Unfortunatly freelance currently doesnt operate in the USA, so I couldnt view job listings within the country. I was able to view other projects from various other countries but couldnt make much sense of them since they were written in other languages. What I did get from the site however is that companies that are looking for freelancers post a job on the site. The site than contacts freelancers that have the required talents that. When a user wishes to submit contact details he can leave a listing of all the talents he has. I am guessing that the system then leaves messages to the companies that post the jobs a list of users with the required talents, which from there the company most likely contacts the freelancer for further information.

This is a cool idea for the purpose of the system, but our project will allow people to work from anywhere and post jobs from anywhere, and also allow users to search for possible clients. Another unique feature that will be built into our system, is the ability for the system to grow on its own. Currently freelance.com has a group of admins that go through all job postings and select the required professionals. For our system we dont want to have to go through all the projects but rather have alisting of projects that people can search through and find the freelancer of thier choice, not the ones we pick for them.

Justin Frankel Rocks on

Rock On

This is a short artcile that describes a new type of music application. This application allows multiple people to play music together at the same time via the internet. This program Reaper would be especially useful for collaboration between musicians in our online community. This was one of the aspects that I was having an especially hard time trying to conceptual what and how we could bring musicians together. Fortunatly for us, Frankel has just come out with this software that will allow people to play toegtherm record and do many other useful things regarding music and collaboration.

Flash Meetings

Flash Meetings

We found this website regarding flash meetings. I think this is a need in our website for the following reasons.



Benefits
- One the users can do video conferencing with audio.

- Users can create meetings, and pass a 'ticket' to other users so they can join in on the meeting.

- The way the system was designed people can only be in the meeting if they have a ticket, once they enter the meeting only one person is allowed to talk at a time.

- Because only one person is allowed to talk at a time it eliminates the confusion of multiple people talking at multiple times.

- This program provides a very simple interface that makes usage and understanding(of who is next, who is talking etc...) very easy.

- The system also allows multiple people to be at a single meeting. Most video confferences only allow one person to talk to one other user. Here multiple users can talk at a single meeting, while all be connected.

O'Reiley Networks(Page 2)

Continuation of notes on the O'Reiley networks.


Bell Curves

-Cant please all users. Some will stick around just to see you fail. Use these people to give insightful suggestiongs on system.
-On the opposing end some people will always be happy. Sometimes they may withdraw but they will also give you great ideas, and volunteer for schemes.
-Dont depend on suggestions form people that speak the most, best contributers listen and think far more than they speak.


Barriers are mixed blessing

-Amount of users vary with the amount of work in registering the users. The easier the more members, but it may result in less activity.


The first contribution
-Adding features to encourage registration(discourage anonymouse partic.) acts as a filetering process.
-Weed out lazy users by requiring e-mail registration.
-Registration should benefit the users.


The interface

-Simplicity may appeal to the users. The lack of sophistication(reply's, searching etc) will putt of some users.
-Awkward interface may get in the way of the users., but the community may still grow.

-Make things simple and consistent.


Mischief

-Plan for trouble, set simple rules, and apply them consistantly.

-Start with simple list of unnacceptable behavior. Create list of consequences, if rankings can demote users as punishment.

-If possible avoid giving the impression that the rules are a game. People will push the boundaries, and others will only participate to provoke repsonses.

-Keep rules simple, make them readily available, so no execuse to not read them.


Discuss the community openly

-Change is difficult, suddden/dramactic may be threatening, but change is unavoidable.

-Any chaneg we dont make will offend someone, try to find the best minds to develop community better.

-Have a section for discussing improvements.

O'Reiley Network(Page 1)

Below are some thoughts and notes on the article Alayna WHite sent regarding online communities.



Exist for a Reason

-Every site must exist for a reason, what benefits can each user get form the website?

-Users will persure there own goal if it isnt outlined in your plan.

-Remain positive and simple as possible.


Users Draw Other Users

-It is our job to attract users, all standard procedures apply(links, search engines, word of mouth etc).

-Hard part is making the right users stick around. Beucase your most active users will draw more users than we can.

-Monitor traffic logs, becuase it will give us growth patterns.


Users will surprise you

-Issues and themes we find important may never resonater with the users. People will latch onto and chase down ideas we never though existed.



A sense of ownership

-Generally users wil contribute more to the site than we weill. Becuase of this we must respond to thier needs and expand the system.

-Let commuinity leaders and members perform administrative work.

Thinking about our system

- User profiles - Each user will be given a profile. These profiles will allow other people to search for certain traits and qualitys. Our system will depend heavily on recent projects, and works, that with give the users credibility. Each user will have a section dedicated to previous works, interests, talents, resume and other useful information. Within this sections the users will be able to upload/input information, which will allow other users to 'research' potential group members.