Its no secret that I’m someone that likes to multitask things into the ground. I pride myself on being able to hold 3 conversations at once without getting lost, or being able to work on up to 4 computers at once.
At the same time, my brain is always thinking of ways to make things easier. At the moment, I’m currently in charge of an Open Source Project called RBE (Resume Builder Engine). Basically a Monster clone for small to mid-sized businesses. While I’ve been working on the DB layout and such for almost 8 months now, I do it when I have time. A lot of the planning and layout is design aspects - everything from how the DB tables layout and relate all the way down to how the application looks to a visitor. I’m about to really start pushing for it to be functional pretty soon. If all goes well, since I’ll have a lot of time free at work soon, I’ll have an Alpha copy of it by the end of August.
Now, the main problem is, I want to create another project at the same time. This time, I would like to create an Open Source Project that competes with the likes of Kana Response and eGain. While I think the small business community would like it, its a major undertaking to getting this type of software to groove right. I would have to work with DB’s, mail servers, web servers, desktop applications, etc…
The main problem is, most of the email support solutions I’ve seen out on the OSS market have been dismal. Most of these projects are created by someone that wanted something done as quick as possible. Most are not fast, have a lot of bugs and are just ugly. There are a few projects out there that try to combine CMS software into something that resembles Email Support Management, but that just doesn’t work. Putting together a true ESM requires very specific focus. Anyone that has administered a package like Kana or eGain knows exactly what I’m talking about - there are facets of the process that most people would have even began to think of. Not to mention features that mere mortals haven’t thought of.
The secondary problem is one created by many OSS groups - customization. While I’m all for it (technically, I’ve customized this website against what was the default setup), allowing users to customize their view too much wrecks the end users experience with the product. If I where to design something and allow others to theme it and change things within the system, people start to complain because it gets bigger, slower and harder to deal with. Take Mambo, for instance. While I like it, its just too big. There are features out the Ying AND the Yang. There is so much to customize within the software its hard to get a grasp on what you’re really customizing. After you’re done customizing it, you don’t touch half of the application, just the content features. Too much bulk for what it does in the end. Unfortunately, from what I’ve read, it suffers from this in the end by becoming slow and bogged down on busy sites.
It gets more complicated than that. The end users often complain as well. When you give someone the ability to change a menu around, what may work for 90% of the people out there will undoubtedly be changed by someone that things they have a better spot for said item. If I put a log out button at the top of every page in some application, what happens when someone buries it in a pop-out Java-Script menu?
Theres just a lot to take into consideration. I think I’ll start the planning of the application for now and start design once I get the RBE up to release .5, or what I would consider, Beta. We’ll see. Now - what to name it?
-Update: 30JUL05
I’ve been thinking about this new app for awhile and its got me pretty excited to say the least. The names I’ve thought of so far are:
The Mercury Connection
Digital Mercury
For those that don’t get the usage of Mercury, he was the messenger for the roman gods. I can’t just call it “Mercury” because there are loads of software companies out there that have also seen the connection. Now, since the Romans and Greeks where pretty close, there is always the Greek name for Mercury: Hermes… Somehow I just don’t like that.
