Emmaus Project

Hey team,

I was thinking about other possible content updates that could be useful for peopleofpraise.org, and one thing that came to mind was file sharing.

Since this is a topic for future possible scope, please feel free to give a higher priority to other forum topics regarding the current scope at hand, knowledge sharing, coding tips & tricks, tools & resources, etc. - when in comes to submitting forum replies. This is merely a topic intended to put additional site content ideas out on the table for discussion, or at perhaps more like on the back burner for consideration.

Nevertheless, I think that there is a lot of useful information to date in the Center for Christian Studies File Library, but I don't know that your typical PoP member takes full advantage of it.

1. In looking at the current site's design, I think the option to download the document to your local hard drive is good, to avoid the concern of multiple users attemping to access the document from the server, as well as keep security for the documents restricted to peopleofpraise.org users only.
2. The thought of using something like google docs comes to mind, but the sharing and public nature of google docs is probably lacking the security and privacy that PoP, as an organization, hopes to keep within the its website.
3. The gadgetland idea that recently came to mind was something like a flash driven catalog. You may or may not have seen this ever popular technology being used by more and more online retailers as a way to bring their physical catalogs to their online users. A couple examples off the top of my head would be Home Depot Direct and Crate&Barrel Online.

So what does the appearance or relevance of an online catalog have anything to do with documents shared primarily by Craig Lent, Paul DeCelles, and Mary Frances Sparrow (at least thus far), you ask?

1. Well, I'll admit this gadgetland technology is not directly applicable to current use of online documentation within peopleofpraise.org. But, it could be relevant for adding a V&B online catalog so that members could browse the latest copy online if they didn't have the physical catalog with them at hand, at school, at work, to show to their employees or neighbors or friends online when describing our life, etc.
2. Other division-specific or branch-specific newsletters to could utilize this technology if we mastered an open source form of it. An easier form of online viewing could transform the existing documents in the file library.
3. I have yet to investigate the requirements and physical resources it may take to implement such an idea, and considering the solutions I found so far are not exactly open source on the same level as a django project, the idea may be shot down. But that's ok. Ideas are meant to be discussed right?

Resources: Here is a few things I stumbled across after a little google research, but I'm sure there's much more to be found.

1. Downloadable Shareware Web Catalog Software
2. An OReilly Book: Flash Remoting on integrating flash MX with SOAP-based web services such as ColdFusion, ASP.NET, Java, PHP, etc.

I think this is could be a flashy way - I hate when people say "pun intented", but it was - of presenting content to members online that could be more interesting or appealing. An alternative could be to put more downloadable .pdf's on the site. Please offer your thoughts & feedback to the idea of enhancing the functionality of documentation sharing.

God Bless,
Hugh
__________________________
Hugh Springer, Jr.
People of Praise
Branch/Division: Servant
email: hugh.springer@gmail.com
AIM: hughlspringer
(h) 651.698.4958
(c) 612.750.1230