Dear archinectors, I am starting up a little project involving other architects, and need to find a website where we can share common files (images, documents and drawings), have message boards and make announcements. Even better would be if the website could have a public part (for publicity) and a closed part (for information sharing).
I have been looking into Google Groups Beta, which has several advantages (no fee, 250 Mb storage etc. etc.) but unfortunately everybody needs to activate a gmail account. Do you know any services similar to Google Groups, with or without fee, where you can use your own e-mail address?
a-f, Architecture for Humanity is developing a site - http://www.openarchitecturenetwork.com - with Sun Microsystems, Hot Studio and others that does just this. in addition to file sharing, project management and a resource database of materials, building codes and construction technologies it will also a potential online collaborative design tool (think sketchup). The site will also allow our organization to help initiate and support local chapters to respond to local issues within the community they serve.
We've been working on it for about 9 months and have a $125,000 matching grant to implement the system. Hopefully launching March 2007.
Thanks for the suggestions! I've started to look into Wiki's and will definately evaluate some different options (PBWikis, Wikispaces, Wetpaint etc). Now I just have to get into CSS to learn how to brush up the fairly basic layout standards. BasecampHQ also seems promising, but perhaps a bit too professional for our purpose - it just needs to be a more centralized information exchange system in comparison to e-mailing back and forth.
To put it in short, we are a group of independant designers that have been chosen to each realize a freestanding house with an "experimental theme" in the same area. The selection procedure was arranged by an idealistic and very sympathetic group of people that have made similar projects before, but because of different reasons we need to have a completely different organization this time. I hope to be able to post more about this in the future. For now, it's a bit of a mess... but fun!
Cameron, it's good to see some interesting applications of "open-source" architecture, and the new Creative Commons license is ingenious. If I understand it right, the difference between a project-management system and the open architecture network is that all projects would be open, and therefore it would be possible to exchange information between different projects? Is your target grassroots initiatives, humanitarian projects, or just any type of housing project?
has anybody used basecamp in an architecture office? I know tons of graphic and web folks who swear by it, but haven't really heard much from architects.
we frequently collaborate/send work to other offices and there have been issues trying to keep it all straight (someone does new work on an old xref or some sort). been looking at basecamp as a way to improve communication and file organization.
check out google groups beta version. we just used it and it is really cool. you can set up group emails, ftp links for file transfer and forum discussion.
a possible way???
get a website with hosting service of 25gb for $8/month. You can set up ftp accounts (private or public) to transfer files, images and drawings. Use SMF free software to make a public forum for annoucement or discussion... Then can integrate some other programs if you know CSS well to make it more polished.
please let's know how is your solution for your needs.
good luck
Oct 17, 06 9:55 pm ·
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Online collaborative tools
Dear archinectors, I am starting up a little project involving other architects, and need to find a website where we can share common files (images, documents and drawings), have message boards and make announcements. Even better would be if the website could have a public part (for publicity) and a closed part (for information sharing).
I have been looking into Google Groups Beta, which has several advantages (no fee, 250 Mb storage etc. etc.) but unfortunately everybody needs to activate a gmail account. Do you know any services similar to Google Groups, with or without fee, where you can use your own e-mail address?
get a wiki? I recommend pbwiki
a-f, Architecture for Humanity is developing a site - http://www.openarchitecturenetwork.com - with Sun Microsystems, Hot Studio and others that does just this. in addition to file sharing, project management and a resource database of materials, building codes and construction technologies it will also a potential online collaborative design tool (think sketchup). The site will also allow our organization to help initiate and support local chapters to respond to local issues within the community they serve.
We've been working on it for about 9 months and have a $125,000 matching grant to implement the system. Hopefully launching March 2007.
We are looking for beta testers later this year.
http://www.sun.com/2006-0224/ted/index.jsp - more info from Sun
http://www.ted.com/tedprize/2006/cameron.cfm?flashEnabled=1 - from TED
In the short term Basecamp is pretty good. we use it for WorldChanging.
Sun is donating close to $1/2 million in server hardware and developers so it should be fairly robust.
and integration of a new Creative Commons license for design/architecture...
http://creativecommons.org/education/architecture
Thanks for the suggestions! I've started to look into Wiki's and will definately evaluate some different options (PBWikis, Wikispaces, Wetpaint etc). Now I just have to get into CSS to learn how to brush up the fairly basic layout standards. BasecampHQ also seems promising, but perhaps a bit too professional for our purpose - it just needs to be a more centralized information exchange system in comparison to e-mailing back and forth.
To put it in short, we are a group of independant designers that have been chosen to each realize a freestanding house with an "experimental theme" in the same area. The selection procedure was arranged by an idealistic and very sympathetic group of people that have made similar projects before, but because of different reasons we need to have a completely different organization this time. I hope to be able to post more about this in the future. For now, it's a bit of a mess... but fun!
Cameron, it's good to see some interesting applications of "open-source" architecture, and the new Creative Commons license is ingenious. If I understand it right, the difference between a project-management system and the open architecture network is that all projects would be open, and therefore it would be possible to exchange information between different projects? Is your target grassroots initiatives, humanitarian projects, or just any type of housing project?
has anybody used basecamp in an architecture office? I know tons of graphic and web folks who swear by it, but haven't really heard much from architects.
we frequently collaborate/send work to other offices and there have been issues trying to keep it all straight (someone does new work on an old xref or some sort). been looking at basecamp as a way to improve communication and file organization.
check out google groups beta version. we just used it and it is really cool. you can set up group emails, ftp links for file transfer and forum discussion.
a-f the focus is on social responsive design but we are looking at opening up for a commercial app... Hopefully we will have a beta by feb 2007
a possible way???
get a website with hosting service of 25gb for $8/month. You can set up ftp accounts (private or public) to transfer files, images and drawings. Use SMF free software to make a public forum for annoucement or discussion... Then can integrate some other programs if you know CSS well to make it more polished.
please let's know how is your solution for your needs.
good luck
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