Volunteers/help wanted for a project

[James]

My dad's project, actually.

He's forming a non-profit organisation which will run a website. The website will (eventually) document every print of Australian flora or fauna published before 1900, mainly for research purposes.

So basically it will be a database with a bunch of pictures and descriptions in it - dimensions, publishing history, bio of the artist or engraver, and so on. The database will be updated by a community of volunteers, most of whom will be non-technical and this the content management system needs to be super easy to use, and allow a certain workflow (entries are put in by volunteers, then checked before being published by editors).

My girlfriend has written a spec (she consults to large companies re-doing their web presence) so if anyone's interested drop me a PM or an e-mail and you can see what it's all about.

I was imagining it as a MySQL database front ended with something like PHP Nuke or whatever; perhaps a forum as well. If anyone has any other ideas, suggestions, time/skills to donate, whatever, I'd love to hear from you.

 

[Handruin]

There is a module for handling images in php-nuke, xoops, and I believe postnuke. It is called Gelleria.

http://galeria.data-arts.com/modules/news/

I don't know if it will do everything you need, but they offer a demo if you are interested. Their may also be something at www.hotscripts.com that could help to manage an image gallery. I can look through it when I get home from work.

 

[jtr1962]

About the only suggestion I can come up with is to have a good back-up system in place. This project sounds intriguing, but since about 95% of the readers here have more computer knowledge than me, I doubt I can be of much more help than that.

 

[Mercutio]

It probably sounds horribly seedy, but you already know where to find image-associated databases, don't you?

Quite a bit of that stuff DOES make it to freshmeat.net. It wouldn't surprise me at all that there's something completely usable developed entirely in PHP and ready for use, just sitting out there.

Anyway, I'd be worried about the ultimate storage requirements for your project. It's nothing to buy into hosting service that gives you 500GB of traffic a month, but 500GB of traffic and 20GB of storage? That'll probably cost some serious money.

 

[James]

Thanks for all the suggestions. And no, in Australia it's almost impossible to find a service that will give you 500GB of traffic unless you pay for it - 500GB x $120/GB = AUD60K a month.

That said, this is a pretty specialised project for a very small market. 2GB of traffic a month should be more than enough.

I'll have a look on Freshmeat.

 

[flagreen]

My girlfriend has written a spec (she consults to large companies re-doing their web presence) so if anyone's interested drop me a PM or an e-mail and you can see what it's all about.

You've kept that Girlfriend of yours in suspense for quite some time now James. When are you going to make an honest Women of her?

 

[NRG = mc²]

Ahh Flagreen, go wear your grey overcoat and cap and go read a newspaper will you? :mrgrn:

 

[James]

Bah, 'tis only 3 1/2 years. She can wait.

 

[flagreen]

Bah, 'tis only 3 1/2 years. She can wait.

LOL

Time to go take my nap. :zzz: