Trying to manage a robotics club.

>> thecodebend...@gmail.com writes:

>> > As of now, the North Carolina State University Underwater Robotics
>> > Club (URC) has no sort of code or project management.  There have been
>> > attempts in the past to use an SVN and wiki's but both attempts
>> > ultimately failed.  I feel like the club needs a place where dates and
>> > times are readily available for events going on and where code can be
>> > accessed and placed when we are working on things separately.

>> First question is why did the efforts fail?
>> Most of the time, the main thing that's needed to get code repositories
>> (etc) to work is for somebody to take the bull by the horns and do the
>> management.  Set up the repository, and when somebody makes a change
>> bug them about checking the code in.  When there's a presentation, bug
>> the presenter about putting the slides up on the wiki.  And so on.

> Mostly I suppose they fell apart simply because not enough of the club
> was actively and consistently using them. Also the SVN was never
> properly setup or managed, the basic understanding of the club is it
> was too complicated.

> ... I would like to keep
> it as single solution as possible if we can, trying to not run two
> totally different services like an SVN and a wiki, but they do seem to
> be fairly compatible so again I may be making more out of the issue
> than there is to it. Thanks for your thoughts!

and "better than what we have" rather than perfection. <grin!>

example. <grin!>)

> On Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:34:27 -0800 (PST), thecodebend...@gmail.com <theco=
debend...@gmail.com> wrote:

> >> thecodebend...@gmail.com writes:
> >> > As of now, the North Carolina State University Underwater Robotics
> >> > Club (URC) has no sort of code or project management.  There have been
> >> > attempts in the past to use an SVN and wiki's but both attempts
> >> > ultimately failed.  I feel like the club needs a place where dates and
> >> > times are readily available for events going on and where code can be
> >> > accessed and placed when we are working on things separately.

> --snip--

> >> First question is why did the efforts fail?
> >> Most of the time, the main thing that's needed to get code repositories
> >> (etc) to work is for somebody to take the bull by the horns and do the
> >> management.  Set up the repository, and when somebody makes a change
> >> bug them about checking the code in.  When there's a presentation, bug
> >> the presenter about putting the slides up on the wiki.  And so on.

> --snip--

> > Mostly I suppose they fell apart simply because not enough of the club
> > was actively and consistently using them.  Also the SVN was never
> > properly setup or managed, the basic understanding of the club is it
> > was too complicated.

> --snip--

> > ... I would like to keep
> > it as single solution as possible if we can, trying to not run two
> > totally different services like an SVN and a wiki, but they do seem to
> > be fairly compatible so again I may be making more out of the issue
> > than there is to it.  Thanks for your thoughts!

> Change is never easy.  Centralizing the efforts of a group who have
> been exchanging e-mail and perhaps the odd FTP involves all the
> technical and management issues that a company faces when looking at
> new accounting software, but with the added problem that you can't
> use a common point of reference like "money" ("purchase cost",
> "reduction in error rate", etc.)  to settle your arguments.
> First, get general agreement on what the club members want or might
> find useful.  You don't have to get complete agreement from every
> member on every detail, but if you find that most of the members who
> would contribute to it don't see any benefit to them, you need to
> more research or more selling.
> You need to understand the benefits of your proposed system from the
> other members' points of view for two reasons:  first, to help you
> navigate among your options, and second, to use as a basis for
> showing the advantages of whatever you choose.  If the "demand" is
> real and strong enough, many solutions will work to varying degrees;
> if people are satisfied with what they have, even a multi-billion
> dollar system may end up being completely ignored.
> Second, try to get a sense of the ongoing costs of the various
> options.  Anything you implement -- or have implemented for you --
> will take time and money, and not just up front; you need to
> consider the ongoing resources that will be needed to keep whatever
> you choose running.  Who would host it?  What bandwidth will it
> need?  Who will perform backups?
> The technical part is (relatively) easy:  pick a design, implement
> it, and let your members know that it is available.  Go for "useful"
> The management part is more difficult, as Machiavelli pointed out
> some centuries back:  how do you get the club members to _use_ the
> new system?  What benefits will _they_ see which will make using
> your new system worth the amount of time and effort they think
> they'll have to invest?  (I'm continually astounded by how many
> people disagree with _my_ concepts of "simple" and "intuitive", for
> example.  <grin!>)
> Please note that I'm not talking about a 400-page User Manual And
> Marketing Document here, but "someone" (you, for now) had better
> have a clear idea of why the new system is the greatest thing since
> sliced bread _and_ the ability to communicate his/her/its concept to
> other club members.
> Or...  you could take the approach used by many other volunteer
> organizations (and not a few commercial ones):  "someone" sets up
> "something" that a few people think comes close to what the club
> might want, and then spends the required time and effort to educate
> the club on its benefits and how to use it.  If it fails (many
> members don't use it), try to find out why, then use what you've
> learned to help you try something else; if it succeeds, try to find
> out why, then use what you've learned to improve it.
> Good luck. Let us know what you choose and how it works out.
> Frank McKenney
> --
>    "... there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more
>     doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to
>     initiate a new order of things. For the reformer makes enemies
>     of all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm
>     defenders in all those who would profit by the new order..."
>                              -- Niccolo Machiavelli
> --
> Frank McKenney, McKenney Associates
> Richmond, Virginia / (804) 320-4887
> Munged E-mail: frank uscore mckenney ayut mined spring dawt cahm (y'all)

>
> As of now, the North Carolina State University Underwater Robotics
> Club (URC) has no sort of code or project management. There have been
> attempts in the past to use an SVN and wiki's but both attempts
> ultimately failed. I feel like the club needs a place where dates and
> times are readily available for events going on and where code can be
> accessed and placed when we are working on things separately. We
> currently are using a mailing list.. which is working surprisingly
> well but falls short on being able to host code or work as a calendar
> of any sort. I was curious as to if anyone had any suggestions on
> routes I might take on setting up a usable web based system. Any
> thoughts or help would be greatly appriciated.

> There are also some free blogs, like Blogger or WordPress, that are
> hosted and some provide widgets for things like calendars. However these
> tend not to be as flexible as Yahoo Groups or a MySpace page, and
> there's a greater chance of getting it hacked because of exploits.

> As of now, the North Carolina State University Underwater Robotics
> Club (URC) has no sort of code or project management. There have been
> attempts in the past to use an SVN and wiki's but both attempts
> ultimately failed. I feel like the club needs a place where dates and
> times are readily available for events going on and where code can be
> accessed and placed when we are working on things separately. We
> currently are using a mailing list.. which is working surprisingly
> well but falls short on being able to host code or work as a calendar
> of any sort. I was curious as to if anyone had any suggestions on
> routes I might take on setting up a usable web based system. Any
> thoughts or help would be greatly appriciated.