Much progress on many fronts over the last two days:
- I posted to WeaveTech yesterday looking for assistance with the social networking site. Several people volunteered to donate time, skills, and donations (mostly items to be sold to raise cash). Other people gave detailed feedback on what they’d like to see, advice on business setup, and all sorts of things. Of course, other people grumbled about the uselessness of the whole idea, but that’s fine: they’re not my audience. There are enough people in the weavers’ group on Ravelry that I think the idea is viable.
- Someone pointed out that we need legal advice for the website before we set it up. Makes sense to me; I’ve added a cheap-but-good internet/intellectual property attorney to my “to-do” list. Fortunately we don’t need it until we’re fairly close to going “live”. But it will definitely add substantial expense. I can play developer, but I can’t pass for a lawyer even on TV.
- Got some ideas on where to get grants for funding, courtesy of Ruth, the listmom for WeaveTech. Claudia (the business side of this project) is going to investigate further. This is a Good Thing – I can fund the development side out of my own pocket (as long as it doesn’t get too expensive) but things like legal advice, incorporation paperwork, etc. have to be paid for and probably won’t come cheap. So if we can get grants that will make our lives easier.
- Made some progress with Drupal. I’ve downloaded Drupal 5.10 to my laptop and to the website, and have been playing around with configuring user roles and permissions. I’m a long way from being able to sing arias, but I’m working through the tutorials and learning to play single notes. In time, I’ll be able to belt out Wagner with the best of them.
- I have also sent out feelers to two Drupal consultants, asking if they can help architect the system. Tell me what modules I need to implement which functionality, stand back, and watch me go. A lot of Drupal website building is figuring out what modules are required and how to configure them; give me that information and watch me go!
- Packed off the proto-functional spec to two volunteers, one a user interaction designer and one a systems engineer. Hoping they can help me build out the spec and make it easier to understand, build a robust development/upload process, and design a workflow that will make the site a joy to use.
- Finally, I have scheduled lunch with an entrepreneur friend of mine (the CEO of Balsam Hill, where I was contracting for a couple months this year), and am going to pick his brains about building a startup, and particularly building an Internet-based startup. I’m also hoping his Rolodex includes other people who might advise us.
For two days, that’s not bad progress.
There are still a host of other things I need to do – finish spec’ing out the site, create a project plan, do more Drupal research, figure out how to coordinate volunteers, etc. – but they can wait until tomorrow.
I also got my sectional beam off to the woodworkers, and am waiting for a quote. They’re going to replace the three wood sections around the metal core with thicker sections (to make the groove bigger). It will probably take them a week or so, following which I can (finally!) get back to this doubleweave project.
I must say, I’m really enjoying this project so far. It has many of the facets that appeal to me – coordinating lots of very different things, networking, and starting something new. And being creative, of course. It’s very challenging, and also lots of FUN!
Off to play with Drupal some more…
