[Calendar] [forwarded from Patrick P Murphy] Informal Survey: Groupware

[Patrick P Murphy]

FYI.

------- start of forwarded message (RFC 934 encapsulation) -------
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Length: 2803
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Return-Path: <pmurphy at nrao.edu>
Received: from cv3.cv.nrao.edu (cv3.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.2])
	by polaris.cv.nrao.edu (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id h8UHcTg26719;
	Tue, 30 Sep 2003 13:38:29 -0400
Received: from daghda.nrao.edu (daghda.cv.nrao.edu [192.33.115.220])
	by cv3.cv.nrao.edu (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id h8UHcR517632;
	Tue, 30 Sep 2003 13:38:27 -0400
Received: by daghda.nrao.edu (Postfix, from userid 12477)
	id 152FD13D032; Tue, 30 Sep 2003 13:38:27 -0400 (EDT)
X-MailScanner-Information: Please contact postmaster at cv.nrao.edu for more information
X-MailScanner: Found to be clean
From: Patrick P Murphy <pmurphy at nrao.edu>
To: tbastian at nrao.edu, jhibbard at nrao.edu, kkellerm at nrao.edu, jpisano at nrao.edu,
   dschieb at nrao.edu, dwells at nrao.edu, jbraatz at nrao.edu, jbrandt at nrao.edu,
   jford at nrao.edu, fghigo at nrao.edu, tminter at nrao.edu, cclark at nrao.edu,
   wbaudler at nrao.edu, bbroilo at nrao.edu, bbutler at nrao.edu, bclark at nrao.edu,
   tcornwel at nrao.edu, sdurand at nrao.edu, bglenden at nrao.edu, egreisen at nrao.edu,
   akemball at nrao.edu, wkoski at nrao.edu, fowen at nrao.edu, bsahr at nrao.edu,
   gvanmoor at nrao.edu, bwaters at nrao.edu, jrobnett at nrao.edu, switz at nrao.edu,
   demerson at nrao.edu, sradford at nrao.edu, avaccari at nrao.edu, jmangum at nrao.edu,
   klong at nrao.edu, dforster at nrao.edu, rmilner at nrao.edu
Subject: Informal Survey: Groupware
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 13:38:26 -0400
Message-ID: <16249.49042.988265.579517 at gargle.gargle.HOWL>
X-MailScanner-SpamCheck: not spam (whitelisted), SpamAssassin (score=-4.8,
	required 7, BAYES_10 -4.70, USER_AGENT_VM -0.06)
X-Mailer: VM 7.07 under Emacs 21.2.1

Greetings.  I'm asking the "CCE consultants" for some feedback again.

"Groupware" describes any software that allows people at an organization
like ours to collaborate in various ways.  Many groups inside NRAO have
expressed an interest in having such software.  The problems tend to be
that nobody quite knows what the term "groupware" means or how to solve
the inevitable "works for me, not for you" issues.

I need to try and find out what features people are likely to want in a
groupware product.  As there's a chicken-and-egg issue here, I'll
attempt to outline some of the features most packaged seem to have, and
one or two that we definitely want:

   - calendaring, including personal, shared, etc. (we have webevent
        already for public cals and scheduling)

   - forums for discussion (like the old NRAO usenet groups)

   - file sharing for easier collaboration

   - possible webmail interface

   - timezone support (we need this!)

   - some support for running projects

   - resource management, eg. cars, rooms (not available in all
        groupware suites)

   - support for chatting

   - flexible creation of new groups, delegating autonomy for adding
        users thereto, etc.

   - contacts manager, todo lists, polls/votes, reminders, timecards

   - integrated help desk

On the very high end of things, Lotus Notes might be a windows-specific
example of groupware.  On the lower end, the WebEvent calendar system we
now have in place for meeting scheduling is a web-based (and therefore,
platform neutral) example.  Wikis and blogs are another web-based
example, though they tend to be specialized for a particular purpose or
task (e.g. software development).

We clearly need something that will work well for all our users, so
Notes, Exchange, and other proprietary solutions are ruled out.  It's
almost certain that we need a web-based system anyway as there's nothing
out there that will work for Windows, Linux, and Solaris.

So what am I asking?  Please think about this issue, and tell me what
categories of services you and/or your group would benefit from and
use.  Some of us in the de facto NRAO-wide webadmin group are already
looking at some solutions, and in fact right now Stephan and I are
kicking the tires on one groupware system (phprojekt) that seems to have
some, maybe all, and maybe more than we actually need.  It's a bit
tight, but if you could have some answer back to me by Thursday morning
(11am Eastern, 9am MDT) that would be very helpful.

Thanks for listening; all feedback appreciated.

				- Pat
- -- 
   Patrick P. Murphy, Ph.D.              Division Head, CV Computing, NRAO
   Home: http://goof.com/~pmurphy/       Work: http://www.nrao.edu/~pmurphy/
"Laws of nature are...just parochial by-laws in our cosmic patch" - Martin Rees
------- end -------