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Groupware for Small Consulting Organizations?

Posted by Cliff on from the filling-an-apparently-unfilled-niche dept.

vrmlguy asks: "I've worked for several small consulting organizations over the past few years, and have discovered an unmet need. Every place I've worked has developed lots of code (usually scripts) that rarely gets reused except by the person who wrote it. Management always talks about 'knowledge management systems', but nothing ever gets off the ground. Does anyone know of something that works? I've looked at the CMS Info and TECFA Portals Pointers web sites, but haven't found much that seems to meet my needs. What I think that I need is something similar to sourceforge, but without the bells and whistles. BSCW looks like the closest fit, but I've got a few concerns about its licensing. The ideal solution would let me control any code that I upload, and search other peoples' code for stuff I can download and modify for my own use. CVS is overkill, since I expect that people will rarely check things back in that they've downloaded. Ease of use is important, since people always think it's easier to write from scratch than to search for things to reuse. Security is paramount, since there will be a lot of code that, for various contractual reasons, we don't want to share with anyone. Does anyone know of a great project that I may have missed?"

4 of 20 comments (clear)

  1. Why is CVS overkill? by thelenm · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It sounds like you're interested in having everyone be able to upload their own code, and download and modify others' code for their own use. Why exactly is CVS overkill? It sounds like CVS or another version control system like Subversion might be a great solution for you. No one says you have to use all its features, you can just use it for what you need it for: keeping a central repository of code.

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    1. Re:Why is CVS overkill? by PsndCsrV · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Unfortunately, it seems the poster is looking for a sort of directory/search function built on top of that. I know core CVS doesn't do that. It's great for version control and code repositories, but has no functionality at all for displaying what projects are on a server and what those projects do.

      With a little coding, it would be pretty simple to create a perl or php web page that allows you to upload a file, along with a description of the program. Then that info can get stored somewhere (flat file, mysql db) that a search program can then use to search. If you really wanted to get into it, you could add categories and keywords to the description. The access could be limited using Apache's ip or password based controls.

      Then again... that kind of goes against the whole theme of code re-use. :-)

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    2. Re:Why is CVS overkill? by Jellybob · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The submitter of the article suggested Sourceforge themselves, but thought that it was too much for what they needed.

  2. Nitpicking ... by Etyenne · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Security is paramount, since there will be a lot of code that, for various contractual reasons, we don't want to share with anyone.



    Sorry for nitpicking, but if can't share some part of your code with anyone, how would "reusing" it be any more acceptable ?

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