[CS-FSLUG] Your Mission Dream

[Tim Young]

Thanks, Kelly.  We do our best to find similar projects and help the 
ones that do fit the need of the greater missions body. (see 
http://CODN.net)  There are few missions projects that are not currently 
being developed by others, which we have started.  One of them, Kardia 
(Kardia.sf.net) has a number of similar type projects.  But the scope of 
Kardia and the technology being used is drastically different.  Kardia 
should be able to be used by a start-up mission, until it is quite 
huge.  We have watched a lot of the "scaling" problems throughout the 
years, and realize that there are a few technologies that should be used 
instead of what most people choose to use.  :)  Ie, open database 
standards (use any database back-end), and an infrastructure that allows 
you to plug in different technologies as they emerge (RSS, XML, bar-code 
readers, etc.).  Most projects focus on the current end use, we are 
focusing on building an environment which can grow as technology (and 
the mission) changes.

So, that is one example of a project that we have gone off and developed 
something other than was already being done.  There are a few missions 
database programs available, but none that are scalable as the mission 
grows.

But most of the time we can use existing open-source software.  If you 
look at CODN, you will see that we are not re-inventing the wheel, but 
rather trying to list projects that people host elsewhere.  (CODN, by 
the way, is stalled.  Our original web-page, which has more content and 
information, is still available here: http://www.fieldsync.com/wiki/)

    - Tim

Joey Kelly wrote:

>>There is also a several missionary agency programs you can find out
>>about at LightSys that are being developed under the OpenSource model.
>>Some are highly complicated and probably in need of people with
>>commitment and significant coding skill to put years of their volunteer
>>coding time into making these programs usable. I know of agency's who
>>have invested multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars into software to
>>do what they need to do, in other words, your time on this project could
>>save a lot more money than you could potentially ever give.
>>
>>    
>>
>
>Don't forget all the existing open-source applications out there on freshmeat 
>and sourceforge, etc.. I understand that the corporate world thinks that if 
>something is free it is worth using, but non-profit (which is what ministry 
>is) organizations can benefit greatly by not having to shell out thousands of 
>dollars for software.
>
>  
>
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