[Chapter-delegates] chapters collaboration demo - evaluating buddypress - anyone care to use it ?

Wed Jan 25 12:21:13 PST 2012

I have some experience with buddypress having used it for OneWebDay a
couple of years running. http://onewebday.org. I am a member of a
succcesful one operated by our local WordPress Meetup http://wpnyc.org

I think that if it is used as the central platform for a multi group
project it can work well. The email integration is pretty good, enabling
easily configurable notification of relevant items.

But I agree with Klaus's 'cart before the horse' point below, and I think
it's doubly true when alternative, and less complex, platforms already
exist. I think we are all familiar with failed attempts to move vibrant
listservs over to web based forums. However there are web forums that
thrive of their own accord.

Where I think we can succeed with the buddypress is by not approaching it
as a general purpose tool but using it for specific purposes, say, for
instance, co-ordinating 20th anniversary activity. The e-coursework plugin
could well be another.

Another truth, imparted by Boone Gorges one of the authors of the
program, at a recent NYC event: it is a good idea to run it initially in as
stripped down fashion as possible, and then slowly add features as they
become necessary and users become more familiar/accomplished.

j

On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 5:40 AM, Klaus Birkenbihl
<Klaus.Birkenbihl at isoc.de>wrote:

> Elena,
>
> great job! (Finished after 2 in the night ...)
> I wish you and us good luck with it.
>
> To have good tools is essential if you have collaborations.
> But frankly I'm afraid we don't have the collaborations yet.
> And this was not because a lack of tools. :(
>
> Enthusiasm will always overcome the lack of tools (or find
> people to provide them). On the other hand tools can never
> substitute a lack of enthusiasm.
>
> Nevertheless as an aged optimist I registered :)
>
> Cheers, Klaus
>
>
> Elena Zvarici wrote on 2012-01-24 01:16:
> > Dear @all I would like to thank to those who have joined our proposal
> > for a chapter collboration platform at http://www.anuntul.eu/wordpress
> > and for taking the time to study it.
> >
> > It is more or less clear that this is a demo solution, not ready yet
> > but it could do the job if we put our minds to it colaboratively :)
> >
> > If interested I can make you administrators so you can take your time
> > to study the back-end when you have the time.
> >
> > There are several nice features to this installation:
> >
> > - a Wiki editor with html editing capabilities (Buddypress Docs),
> > which allows for collaborative document editing and revision history.
> >
> > - an eLearning solution within each group which can be used as a
> > virtual classroom.
> > I am testing out the Buddypress Scholarpress plugin for our chapter's
> > purposes, which allows the creation of eCourses  within dedicated
> > Budypress groups. Private messaging can also be activated within each
> > group to allow / disallow for student communication.
> > Maybe Scholarpress can be used by chapters for their eLearning
> > purposes towards their local membership - this is what we plan.
> > Buddypress and Scholarpress can be fully translated into all
> > languages, several translations are already available.
> >
> > - The integrated forum is in fact a collection of forums split into
> > discussion groups - topics (a bit confusing, I know). You can see the
> > different groups I've created to simulate a little bit the kind of
> > discussion we could have among chapters. In this situation we can
> > imagine a general group to include all registered members and specific
> > groups dedicated to discussions on specific topics. Group creation can
> > be made available to all user roles OR restricted to a user category
> > (chapter delegates .. )
> >
> > - Each group can be made public (free to join) private (request for
> > membership necessary) or hidden (only possible to join on invite from
> > an existing member). It functions a little bit like Facebook groups.
> >
> > - Within each group the user can set his / her group digest settings:
> > daily, weekly, monthly.
> > - Each group can contain a document storage space for PDFs, docs etc
> >
> > - Each user profile can be made public or private - only friends will
> > see the user's activity stream and other generated content. check this
> > within your profile
> >
> > - Members can become "friends" or follow each other's activity. Based
> > on the user's privacy settings, users can specifiy if they want to be
> > contacted only by friends or by everyone.
> >
> > - The advantage of Buddypress compared to a classical forum is the
> > activity stream resembling a little bit a private Facebook with
> > possiblity of embedding multimedia, videos and slideshare docs like
> > you see in the sitewide activity stream. This can generate lively
> > discussions on specific topics. Each activity stream has its own rss
> > feed making it possible to check it from anywhere within your browser
> > provided the forum is public. A bit of testing is necessary to fine
> > tune the privacy settings and to decide what is public and what is
> > private.
> >
> > Of course like with any Wordpress installation, users have the
> > possibility to publish posts, collected into the blog page. But I
> > guess the groups and the forums would be the preferred alternatives
> > for communication. We will definitely see more messages passing as you
> > just need to hit "Enter" so short messages will abund instead of long
> > emails. Daily / Weekly Group digest settings will be welcome in this
> > case.
> >
> > - There is a known bug with Embedly (http://embed.ly/) which breaks
> > any frontend html editor in Buddypress (used by Wiki but also the
> > Scholarpress lectures) I will have to find another embedding plugin.
> >
> > Well this is pretty much it, the solution has to be fine tuned,
> > privacy levels specified, and a webspace decided for it (it can stay
> > here or Isoc can host it?) but it is doing lots of things "out of the
> > box" for an opensource solution.
> >
> > Most importantly - do you see yourselves using it instead or as a
> > complement to the classic mailing list ?
> >
> > @Ted, I hope this covers your question about why we "chose" this
> > solution over others: it functions prety much out of the box quickly,
> > the other solutions were bulkier like Alfresco (java app, 4 gig of
> > memory needed, a real server) and need "real" developer hours rather
> > then tweaking a few things to make it work.
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > Elena Zvarici
> > Communication manager
> > Internet Society Romania
> > +40726128728
> > <http://http:www.isoc.ro><http://http:www.isoc.ro>http://www.isoc.ro
> > /Consider the environment: don't print this email unless necessary. /
> >
> >
> >
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>
> --
> Klaus Birkenbihl
> Internet Society German Chapter e.V. (ISOC.DE)
> http://www.isoc.de/
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>

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