Transition Towns WIKI

Establishing a software platform for the entire Transition Network (and beyond?)

Transition Software Platform

Introduction Goals Collaborative approach Phasing The Teams "Go!" date Functional scope Evaluation Selecting the solution Technical considerations Geographical scope Getting involved

Introduction

A key element of Transition involves unleashing the genius of communities to devise their own solutions to collective challenges. Part of this requires us to recognise our place in the wider community of humans, making sure that as we devise solutions, mitigations and adaptations, we support, share and collaborate with each other.

A crucial component to enabling us to do this will be a software platform for organising, communicating, collaborating and sharing across like-minded initiatives. "Like-minded", at this stage, refers to Transition Initiatives and members of the LCCN (low carbon communities network).

Goals

Here's the first stab at a list of goals. These will be refined, hacked around or replaced by the steering group. They need to be read in conjunction with the Functional scope.

Goals are a proven way to handle software projects and are recommended in the key methodologies (eg CMM). Their crucial contribution is to steer the direction of the project and to focus minds when determining features and requirements.

Goals answer the question "What problem(s) are we trying to solve" and provide the "what" of the solution rather than the "how".

Goals fit into the overall project in the following way. Typically, you start with a number of goals. Each of these breaks down into a number of features. Each of those breaks down into key requirements. Any features or requirements that are discussed need to find their place in this hierarchy, otherwise they may be "rogue" elements. In that case, either they'll prompt a rethink on the goals or they'll need to be obliterated from the biosphere.

The goals noted here are not prioritized - that'll be the job of the steering group.

Goals - "must haves"

• Local initiatives will be able to set up their own web presence quickly and easily
• Groups, within geographical dimensions (local, regional, national, global) and/or on a specialty dimension (eg Transport), will be able to:
  • communicate with eachother
  • organise their calendars and events
  • coordinate their projects and activities
  • in such a way that avoids communications overload for individuals
• Individuals and groups will be able to solve community problems by collaborating and sharing solutions and knowledge

Goals - "nice to haves"

• local initiatives will be able to:
  • trade within and between eachother
  • launch and manage a local currency
  • manage subscriptions and donations

Collaborative approach

We're hoping that among the wonderful people already involved in transition work, we'll be able to build a community of netgeeks, technodweebs, commsboffins and functionistas that can rise up to the challenge of helping ensure that we have a robust solution and technical infrastructure to support the rapid acceleration of transition work around the world.

We have secured funding from the Tudor Trust to help us in this endeavour - hats off, with a flourish, to them.

So, in the spirit of unleashing, self-organising and trust, here's how we'd like to tackle it - with the understanding that someone out there may come up with a much better plan (but you'd better be quick).

Project phases

This is the proposed sequence of work:

1. Establish goals

2. Features, Requirements and Constraints

3. Evaluation and Recommend

4. Selection

5. Implementation, rollout and ongoing maintenance/enhancement

The teams that are needed to tackle this project

In order to keep the solution as effective as possible, our preference would be for separate teams to run the various phases, with a "sociocracy" element (see bullets below) to help continuity across teams. Depending on numbers, it may not be practicable to have separate teams - we'll see.

We foresee two paid roles. We envisage hiring a project coordinator to handle the project up until we've made the selection and have hired the second paid role - an implementation manager.

1. Steering group
   • overall accountability for success of project
   • will determine goals
   • will handle final selection
   • includes 2 persons from Transition Network (BenB + trustee)
   • includes 1 person from Requirements team (sociocracy provision)
   • includes 1 person from Evaluation team (sociocracy provision)
   • includes 1 person from Implementation team (sociocracy provision)
2. Requirements team
   • includes 1 person from Evaluation team (sociocracy provision)
   • ReqForum
3. Budgets team
   • includes Transition Network rep
4. Evaluation and recommendation team
   • includes 1 person from Requirements team (sociocracy provision)
   • includes 1 person from Implementation team (sociocracy provision)
   • EvalForum
5. Implementation, and ongoing maintenance team
   • includes 1 person from Evaluation team (sociocracy provision)
   • will involve usual subphases: design, build/assemble/partner, test, limited rollout, test, general release
   • ImpForum

When will the project start?

When the Steering group and Requirements team have assembled and established a modus operandi, we'll formally kick the process off. This will probably happen sometime in September or October.

We'll aim to have a virtual conference for all people involved (using whatever technology you deem to be the most suitable) on 5-Sep-08 at 2pm UK time.

The platform - functionality

It's important that we concentrate on key functionality and get the basics right before adding any bells and whistles. If anyone starts promoting a specific piece of technowizardology, it'll need to be underpinned by a concrete purpose and articulated need.

Establishing priorities for elements of functionality will be crucial as well - we can't do everything at once, so let's not try.

We're not sure whether our envisaged system exists in its entire form somewhere, whether we'll have to assemble 950 separate modules, or whether it'll need an integration job that pulls half a dozen existing systems together.

So here's our current best guess of outline functional areas:

1. Community Networking, enabling groups/subgroups/supergroups to:
   • form, communicate and organise based on geography and/or specialty
   • to include individual personal profiles
   • manage tasks and calendars
   • run events
   • maintain member lists and mailing lists
2. Knowledge Management, enabling groups and individuals to:
   • collaborate in devising solutions, such as:
     • preparing governing documents for community-owned energy company
     • compiling a "How Not To" guide of transitioner's biggest mistakes
   • document and publish solutions, such as:
     • records of a legal challenge against a local authority that refused to provide allotments
     • an awareness raising presentation that works brilliantly for businesses
     • a blueprint for a successful "get paid to grow vegetables in other people's gardens" scheme
   • search for relevant solutions, such as:
     • ... looking for a presentation on local economics vs economic globalisation, suitable for schoolkids aged 15-17 in industrial city
3. Online web presence, an option that will enable communities to:
   • set up an engaging website quickly
   • maintain the website
   • use templates for common content
   • replace current wiki or high maintenance website
4. "Key projects" - systems and software to support:
   • the following are requirements that we'll need to keep in mind as we work on the core high priority areas. Software to support "key projects" will be crucial to the overall work of transition, but less urgent than the core functionality noted above.
   • launching and managing a local currency
   • setting up a trading system for intra- and inter-community exchange, based on various trading protocols (financial, free, barter, reciprocal)
   • managing the set up, bookings and money for training courses
   • managing subscriptions and donations

Evaluating potential solutions

This phase should last around a month.

Proposed solutions could range from "off-the-shelf", through assembling multiple existing systems to a significant build/integration project.

There could be a solution out there which already covers most of this functionality. The closest I've seen to this so far is WiserEarth from the Natural Capital Institute. But there may be others out there right now amid the bustling social networking systems of CrowdVine, Ning, Project Dirt, Celsias, MyEcoEarth, MakeMeSustainable and many others.

Add to this the wealth of applications already sitting within the development environments of Plone, Zope, Drupal, Joomla, Ruby on Rails, and there's already a dizzy collection of possibilities and complexities.

And there's already work that's been done on the area of "online presence" that needs to be incorporated in the evaluation - Transition Town Totnes' website was built in Drupal in a template form that could potentially rollout across significant numbers of other transition initiatives.

Evaluation will not be a simple job, so we'll need some pretty robust characters on that team.

Selecting the solution(s)

This will be a Steering Group decision, based on the recommendations and a sober review of resourcing options. It's important that this phase isn't rushed - it'll be a mindblowingly critical decision, so it needs to have a lot of thought and discussion put into it.

Technical requirements

This is where the geekshow will come into their own. By way of apparent obfuscation, take a butchers at these cryptic manglings, "manage knowledge for fun ... coupled with real-time versions of stuff like thinkature and gliffy ... currently using plone 3 and a moving towards pure zope 3 ... big fan of Drupal ... php is not really a “proper language” ... and Web2POD ... but now only likes to code in python". And just in case you wondered - he's one of us!

Hopefully someone will be able to translate the technical requirements into english so that the steering group can figure out what they ought to select.

Geographical scope

Transition initiatives are springing up all over the world, and their needs will be fairly similar. Wouldn't it be great if we were able to access some brilliant piece of land restoration permaculture from Australia and implement it in Provence? Quelle horreur, cobber!

Language issues complicate matters significantly, and it would seem totally inappropriate to usurp the international ecological initiative through linguistic imperialism. However, resourcing constraints and initial focus would ensure that the first implementation would have to be in English.

If you want to get involved...

First, if you haven't already, read all of the above carefully. Second, consider which team you'd best suited to. Third, bear in mind that the phase you're suited to may already be over. Fourth, go to the following forums:

• Requirements team
• Evaluation team
• Implementation team

and everything you need to know will either be there or linked from there.

If you do get involved, you'll be part of a truly heroic team that is absolutely crucial in our efforts to engender the extreme levels of cooperation, collaboration and mutual support that we'll need to make this massive transition.

There is one paid role within this, possibly two. The first is someone to handle the implementation phase and then the ongoing going maintenance (this may be the same person or two sequential hires). Second - and we'll let the steering group decide if it's needed - would be someone to project manage the phases up until implementation (requirements, evaluation, selection).

For the rest of those involved, although we'd love to shower you with rose petals, feed you nectar and give you charge accounts at Domino's pizza, you'll have to make do with heartfelt gratitude, total kudos and prideful place in the archives of transition.