Open Source
"Hey look! A bandwagon! Let's jump on it!" No, that's not why Passageways has started an open source project. The reality is that we just wanted to deliver more.
It was pointed out at PowWOW that any company who has happy customers has a sales force equivalent to the sum of its users. For Passageways, we strive to have all 28,000+ of you telling everyone you see how much you enjoy working with us. If we take that same mentality, and apply it more directly to our platform, you come up with open source.
Over the years we've created some modules that might be for demo purposes, or that add some small, but useful functionality to your portal. Things like our RSS Module, or the Rolodex Module. The problem was that we didn't have a good place to host them and keep them up to date. That changed when we started preparing for this year's PowWOW where we planned to actually code with the developers present. We needed to put that code somewhere people could get to it after the conference. That place, is Microsoft's CodePlex, an open source community like SourceForge, but aimed at .NET development.
CodePlex gives us source control, including integration with TFS. It lets us track issues. They let us add developers, like you, to our project so that we can collaborate on the project, they even provide us with a forum to collaborate on. The benefit to you is that
It was pointed out at PowWOW that any company who has happy customers has a sales force equivalent to the sum of its users. For Passageways, we strive to have all 28,000+ of you telling everyone you see how much you enjoy working with us. If we take that same mentality, and apply it more directly to our platform, you come up with open source.
Over the years we've created some modules that might be for demo purposes, or that add some small, but useful functionality to your portal. Things like our RSS Module, or the Rolodex Module. The problem was that we didn't have a good place to host them and keep them up to date. That changed when we started preparing for this year's PowWOW where we planned to actually code with the developers present. We needed to put that code somewhere people could get to it after the conference. That place, is Microsoft's CodePlex, an open source community like SourceForge, but aimed at .NET development.
CodePlex gives us source control, including integration with TFS. It lets us track issues. They let us add developers, like you, to our project so that we can collaborate on the project, they even provide us with a forum to collaborate on. The benefit to you is that
- You get to see our code, which is a great way to learn how to develop your own modules to run on the portal
- You get free stuff. Stuff that's helpful or stuff that's fun, and stuff that Matt makes in his free time will probably find it's way up there too. We already have one customer who has shared a Yahtzee module (thanks Sean!) for you to enjoy.
- You get to own it. Since it's open source, that means you can add a feature at any time. If you find a bug, you can fix it right now.
So if you're a developer, a portal admin, an advanced user, or just a portal enthusiast you need to go to our project at http://www.codeplex.com/passageways/. For those who have something to contribute, or want to get their hands on the source code, just drop Passageways a line and we'll get you set up post haste!
Follow Up:
One "missing" feature is the ability get email notifications of new discussions or changes to the CodePlex site. Fear not! There is an RSS feed, and using a tool like RSSFWD you can take that RSS feed and have any updates sent right to your inbox.
Labels: Development
posted by Will Read - Software Developer at
6:39 PM
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