[CS-FSLUG] Church Management Software

[Stephen J. McCracken]

> 2. How simple can we make it? How close to the reach of non-techs do we
>> dare to place it? Can we at the same time keep it useful to serious techs?
> 
> Making this an appliance might be overly expensive for the options. The
> typical church of this size could probably dig out a donated machine in the
> Pentium 3 or better range to act as a simple LAMP server with scripts to
> assist in its maintenance. Maintenance would include backup to a USB HD. The
> same box could have a single place to store files with the assumption that
> connecting to the network means access to the files (read: no permissions).
> I also think it should be designed using much available software. Ubuntu
> Desktop with as close to a default LAMP install as possible for example.
> This way, if some tech came in, they could easily understand what is going
> on and make modifications if needed (such as exposing Apache to the
> network).

IF an appliance-like solution is acceptable, I would suggest that the
proposed software would be a module/plugin to something already out
there and maintained--something like SME Server.  Then you offload the
burden of security updates and such to a larger/better maintainable
project/group.  You might also think about a project to go into Ubuntu
CE or the ichthux-ubuntu, if it is still alive.

It needs to be understood for the maintenance side of things that it
will serve nobody and hurt many if the initial coding enthusiasm dies
out in the maintenance cycle and the project dies after a year.  The
church you tried to sell on the software (it's open source!) that left
them hanging will give them a bad taste of open source.

Offload as much maintenance and security updating as possible.  To do
that would put it in as a plugin/module to something like SME Server or
as a sub-project of ubuntu-ce or the like. The SME Server I think
already had USB drive backup built in.  Offload the server upkeep tasks
to another project and concentrate on the program itself.

My 0.0128 euros

sjm