We're starting to get into stuff that's months or even years down the road. I've put nearly four years thinking about the technical aspects of this so far and I've been waiting until I felt like I knew enough about the requirements that each organization which might want to use is might face and until I felt I had enough technical answers for any of these problems. There will likely be more issues but I'd like to start moving ahead with what we've got and if the solutions don't work for you, perhaps we can work together at that point to solve them, or you can use something else.

For now I'm just trying to get some names out there, please feel free to send them to me directly and I'll take every one I get and put it into a voting app for those interested. I'd rather not build up to much discussion at this point.

These are some of the features I envision us taking on, I can foresee the possibility of potential problems, technical, social or otherwise, but let's keep those discussions until they are in sight:

• Recording of sales (if you want it)
• Membership information (if you want or need it, if your organization doesn't have members, you won't use it)
• Recording of expenses and budgeting tools (optional)
• Connecting with other organizations, could be news feeds, job advertisements at other orgs like yours, questions and answers (optional of course)
• Tools to help organize meetings or events, possibly volunteer scheduling (yup, optional)
• Tools to help organize documents and possibly share some documents (think about technical howtos, maybe just connecting with the wiki) with other organizations if you're comfortable with it (optional)

Thanks everyone!

.godwin

---

From: analyst@bikefarm.org
Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2012 11:08:12 -0800
To: thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org
Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Shop software

I wonder if we can get a spread sheet of the data that Square creates.  It might be useful to develop an app that takes the data from square, and transforms it into useful data for bike collectives. I've had a look at their web page https://squareup.com/register

It's unfortunate that you must have an ipad to use Square as a POS.

The data base appears to collect this info:
date, product, price, payment method, discounts,

i've got a theory that one can use a POS for membership data base, as well as volunteer data base.  But i'm not sure if Square collects data about the customer.  That would be necessary.  I like that you can have cash or check or credit card transactions stored.  I just wish you could also have it on a desktop.  A lot of our volunteers are against the use of an ipad in the shop and I understand.  It sends an odd message to the people who come into the shop for help.  We're already in danger of adding to the gentrification of our neighborhood, the last thing we need is is fancy chrome apple products to alienate people even further...

Godwin,

I of course support you in your effort to develop this web based app.  Hopefully you/we can think of a simple solution that is flexible.  I'm terrible at naming things... So i've got no suggestions there.  But I've forwarded on your email to my developer friends.  I'm sure we can add some sections in.  I assume you'll get it up on github?

cool

we'll talk soon
-m

On Tue, Jul 3, 2012 at 12:44 PM, Jonathan Morrison <jonathan.morrison@gmail.com> wrote:

If you haven't checked out Square, you really should.  It is cheap and simple, and that might be enough for most shops.

https://squareup.com/?gclid=CJfQsMOu_rACFQkZQgodBEtl8A#register

At least it might provide some ideas...

Sincerely,

Jonathan Morrison
c: 801-688-0183

On Mon, Jul 2, 2012 at 4:00 PM, Godwin ! <goodgodwin@hotmail.com> wrote:

I’ve also had reservations about going with a web-based system but in the end I think it’s the most adaptable solution. I’m not worrying about hardware integration for now, I’m pretty sure anything is possible but I think that would be far down the list of requirements for most shops that need free software.

 

It will be open source and modular, so there won’t be a single point person for the entire system, I’ll do my best to set up a good environment for users to interact with the developers and for developers to provide documentation. This is a bit of an experiment but I have far more faith in open and crowd sourcing technologies than I do having a long term individual or group in charge (including myself).

 

Thanks!

.g

 

 

From: Jonathan Morrison
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2012 3:49:13 PM

To: The Think Tank
Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Shop software

 

Godwin, 

 

Will it be able to swipe credit card?  Interface with a cash drawer?  Or scan a UPC?  My concern with any web-based system is that you don't have access to the necessary lower level hardware of a useful POS system.  

 

Also, how much will you be charging for tech support, or what level of on-going support can users expect?  Or will use be at your own risk with no implied support?

 

Name Suggestion: PIF - Pedaling/Paying It Forward

Sincerely,

Jonathan Morrison
c: 801-688-0183

On Mon, Jul 2, 2012 at 2:33 PM, Ryan Sharpe <sharpe@sacbikekitchen.org> wrote:

At the risk of being too family-unfriendly, gratuitously offensive to Godwin's herculean task, and over-aware of the cobbled-together nature of some of our various operations, I'd be tickled if it were named "That POS".

--Ryan S.

On Mon, Jul 2, 2012 at 1:13 PM, summitcyclingcenter@yahoo.com <summitcyclingcenter@yahoo.com> wrote:
 

I Appreciate what you are doing.  Name-I suggest Velocomp POS.

Sent from my HTC EVO Design™ 4G from Boost Mobile

----- Reply message -----
From: "Godwin !" <goodgodwin@hotmail.com>
To: "The Think Tank" <thethinktank@bikecollectives.org>
Subject: [TheThinkTank] Shop software
Date: Sun, Jul 1, 2012 6:50 pm

Trying to squeeze in the extra time this week to open up to developers soon but first:

 

Non-technical

1. Nominate a name!
• Right now the code name I'm using is 'Samara' after the fruit that a maple tree produces but I'd like to hear better ideas if anyone has them (and maybe get some sort of consensus)
2. Will my shop / organization be able to use it?
• Yes. The intention is to make everything completely customizable so that it can work with the way your organization does, although I'm not going to promote it over any of the other options
• It will be web-based and (if required) compatible with Wordpress, Joomla, and Drupal and eventually hopefully IPad and Android. Setting it up to work offline will also be possible.
3. What will it do?
• The focus at the beginning is to create a point of sale system, after that I'd like to implement other features from news feeds to keep everyone informed to budget planning and audit modules (everything will be optional)
• Whatever else you can dream of and find someone to help build
4. Why are you doing this?
• To create a common tool that will work for everyone's needs, so that we can combine our efforts where we can and diverge when we need to
• Because I like software development and especially interesting projects
• Not to overshadow other people's efforts such as freehub
5. When will it be ready?

• No clue. I've made a number of promises in the past but I realized that I really need to stop making them, we all know what volunteering is like
• Don't wait for it if you need something now, there's lots of other tools out there and if you eventually want to switch we may be able to work together to get that done.
• Check out:  http://erply.com/, http://www.merchantos.com/, and of course  https://github.com/asalant/freehub/wiki/

 

 

How to get involved 

 

GIVE IT A NAME! - It's likely that your shop name will be more prominent (if this name is even visible at all) but it would be nice to have something to call it when downloading or when talking amongst ourselves

 

Design a logo - You might want to wait for the name

 

Otherwise wait for my next email (but don't hold your breath), I'll be setting up a development environment so that people can jump on as they can. We'll be more in need of experienced PHP developers in the beginning stages to round out the framework, less experienced developers can hop on in the later stages to build modules and themes.

 

Feel free to send questions or feedback (critical or otherwise) directly to me if you'd like,

.godwin

 

_______________________________________________
Thethinktank mailing list
Thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org
To unsubscribe, send a blank email to TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org
To manage your subscription, plase visit:
http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.org

--
Sacramento Bicycle Kitchen
http://sacbikekitchen.org/
1915 I Street, Midtown Sacramento
Open Tu 6-9p, We 6-9p, Th 6-9p, Fr 10a-2p (kids 6-8p), Sa 12-4p

_______________________________________________
Thethinktank mailing list
Thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org
To unsubscribe, send a blank email to TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org
To manage your subscription, plase visit:
http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.org

_______________________________________________
Thethinktank mailing list
Thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org
To unsubscribe, send a blank email to TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org
To manage your subscription, plase visit:
http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.org

_______________________________________________
Thethinktank mailing list
Thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org
To unsubscribe, send a blank email to TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org
To manage your subscription, plase visit:
http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.org

_______________________________________________ Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org To unsubscribe, send a blank email to TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org To manage your subscription, plase visit: http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.org

_______________________________________________
Thethinktank mailing list
Thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org
To unsubscribe, send a blank email to TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org
To manage your subscription, plase visit:
http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.org