To waste money or not to waste money (developing)
I am considering the feasibility of paying one or more persons to do the following:
1. Improve the music app (inc. by having back end conversion from various file types to mp3, search functionality, browse by genre)
2. A content management system for my site to enable me to manage member and third party created mp3s, pdf, word docs etc
3. A document viewing system to link with the CMS;
4. Print on demand (for the books)
5. Ecommerce shop.
Seems to me that Drupal could already take care of 2, 3 and 5 of the above (note: I am a complete novice when it comes to actual coding but i can cut and paste widgets as good as the next man). There are also various other open source PHP ecommerce sites which you could use for item 5 (OSCommerce, Zen, webasyst and in development: Magento).
Given that Ning intends to open up its API to enable easier modularisation and add-on (I assume as per Drupal and other open source communities) my question is.
How much of the above is it worth me doing on my own, how much is in the Ning wishlist pipeline (and for when) and would it make sense for likeminded owners and developors (e.g. with similar wishlists) to work with Ning in private forums/groups to ensure we can create something that works and that can then be passed on to the wider community?
I just don't want to waste money and time trying to build any additional functionality on my own if it is going to happen in the next 6 months or if the way in which it could happen will significantly change based on NING's dvelopment map. Likewise I don't want to leave Ning because I think it, its people and its approach is unique.
I know you guys and gals at Ning have to firefight so much (which you do very well) that it leaves little time for some of this other stuff but it would be good if some time could be spent in the developer forum (or one of the Ning Maestro's could be dedicated to the developer forum) as I sense any queries are picked up sharpish in the creator network but the more detailed stuff here is overlooked.
Looking forward to comments and input....:)
1. Improve the music app (inc. by having back end conversion from various file types to mp3, search functionality, browse by genre)
2. A content management system for my site to enable me to manage member and third party created mp3s, pdf, word docs etc
3. A document viewing system to link with the CMS;
4. Print on demand (for the books)
5. Ecommerce shop.
Seems to me that Drupal could already take care of 2, 3 and 5 of the above (note: I am a complete novice when it comes to actual coding but i can cut and paste widgets as good as the next man). There are also various other open source PHP ecommerce sites which you could use for item 5 (OSCommerce, Zen, webasyst and in development: Magento).
Given that Ning intends to open up its API to enable easier modularisation and add-on (I assume as per Drupal and other open source communities) my question is.
How much of the above is it worth me doing on my own, how much is in the Ning wishlist pipeline (and for when) and would it make sense for likeminded owners and developors (e.g. with similar wishlists) to work with Ning in private forums/groups to ensure we can create something that works and that can then be passed on to the wider community?
I just don't want to waste money and time trying to build any additional functionality on my own if it is going to happen in the next 6 months or if the way in which it could happen will significantly change based on NING's dvelopment map. Likewise I don't want to leave Ning because I think it, its people and its approach is unique.
I know you guys and gals at Ning have to firefight so much (which you do very well) that it leaves little time for some of this other stuff but it would be good if some time could be spent in the developer forum (or one of the Ning Maestro's could be dedicated to the developer forum) as I sense any queries are picked up sharpish in the creator network but the more detailed stuff here is overlooked.
Looking forward to comments and input....:)
Views: 163
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Brent Deverman on
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Hi, any news on this? What did you decide? I'm trying to integrate with drupal as well.
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