farmOS Monthly Call, 8 January 2025

farmOS Monthly Call, 8 January 2025

Ongoing notes may be kept in the comments. For general information about these monthly calls see farmos.org/community/monthly-call.

Wednesday, January 8, 2025 7:00 PM
farmos.org/community/monthly-call/join - Call Link

Agenda

  1. Community Q&A, Show & Tell, etc [5-10min]
  2. Goal setting for 2025
  3. Student project: Student project contribution?
  4. Create new wiki topic for next month from template.

Attendees

  • Michael Stenta
  • Chris
  • eddie maher
  • Fosten
  • Morgan (A.K.A. Symbioquine)
  • Paul Weidner
  • marie
  • Nick Weinstock
  • Jamie
  • Mick
  • Greg
  • Juliet N
1 Like

Goal setting notes:

  • Make it easier for newcomers to get started!
  • Challenges newcomers face:
    • Hosting
      • There are a lot of ways to install it. “Here is one recommended way/walkthrough/etc.”
      • Example for how to set up automated backups.
      • One recommended database to use.
      • Include database in example production docker-compose.yml
      • Create an official farmOS “OS” for VMs/Raspberry Pis/etc
      • Provide Raspberry Pis that you can purchase and just plug in!
    • Getting started
      • Picking conventions
      • How to use farmOS
      • Reporting
        • Current UI basically just exposes the database, no way to do real “reporting” (inventory, activities, organizing events)
      • Setting up initial taxonomies
      • Importing data from other sources
      • Understanding the limitations of farmOS (expectations vs reality)
      • Walkthrough tutorial / setup wizard
      • Region/application specific modules (eg: Ireland has specific requirements)
      • Guidance on what a good structure would be for taxonomies, land assets, etc
  • Meeting users where they are
    • Demos at conferences (eg: Oregon State Small Farms Program)
    • Social media outreach
    • Word of mouth
    • Farmers want to farm, not use tech
  • Create “beginner issues”
  • Sponsored coding sprints
  • Monthly “tune up” days (bring your issue, people will be available)
  • Brainstorm things to spend our OpenCollective budget on
    • Compensating for community blog posts
    • UI/UX/design work
    • Sponsoring booths at conferences
  • Community blog posts
  • Learn more about non-profit and cooperative structures

Chat Transcript

https://farmos.discourse.group/t/farmos-monthly-call-8-january-2025/2179
 
11:00

Greg says:
Definitely not semantics! 
11:11

me says:
Ha! 
11:11

me says:
Debatable... 
11:12

Jamie says:
+1 for more recommended pathways/configs/etc 
11:12

Paul Weidner says:
Re: development vs business needs:

What is the best way to collect these needs + ideas? Are community calls + forum working? 
11:13

me says:
It's only \"definitey not semantics\" if you assume the pessimistic viewpoint that in practice the development conversation wouldn't be user/outputs oriented. 
11:13

Jamie says:
is this point on DB choice still a relic of the long-ago switch from MySQL to Postgres as the default (a la Docker) or recommended? 
11:15

me says:
We should make the docs more opinionated about Postgres by default IMO. 
👍
11:15

Jamie says:
farmOS Live CD! 
🔥
11:15

Jamie says:
is it worth unpacking user segments? so far this is mostly ppl interested in self-hosting, but wondering about Farmier and how things like Paul's Tugboat demo facilitates that 
11:18

me says:
Would need pre-rolled backup/update mechanism. 
11:19

me says:
rPi needs SSD not SD card 
11:19

Jamie says:
heck yea for preroll backup! 
11:19

Jamie says:
is it still an obstacle to deal w/ reverse proxies, DNS, etc even with a farmOS Live Flash Drive / CD? 
11:22

me says:
Definitely Jamie 
11:22

me says:
Lots of potential challenges 
👍
11:22

Greg says:
Yes on yutorial, based on application imo 
11:25

Jamie says:
onboarding: big obstacle! 
11:25

Jamie says:
I was holding back from the big D word: DESIGN! 
11:29

Jamie says:
+1 for taxonomy starters! 
11:32

Jamie says:
or \"taxonomy packs\" you can add and customize any time 
👍
11:32

Paul Weidner says:
I imagine a dedicated call for beginners/new users, or even a 1:1 onboarding would be very useful. Similar to what commercial products might offer.

.... but I don't want to volunteer anyone to support this 😃 
11:37

Michael Stenta says:
👍 
11:37

Jamie says:
I've always loved Paul's Tugboat demo as a \"first look\" at farmOS w/o any tech background, with options for \"Crop\" or \"Animal\" a demo base

https://farmos-demo.rootedsolutions.io/
 
👍
11:38

marie says:
short video walk through?
mini game/modifiable use cases with feedback? 
👍
11:39

Jamie says:
Paul, maybe instead of volunteering yourself (or someone else), our Open Collective could sponsor someone to do it? 
🔥
11:39

Paul Weidner says:
\"FarmOS Ambassadors\" - would formalizing (but not restricting?) this role in the community help? 
❤️
👍
11:39

Jamie says:
a lot of what we're discussing is the kind of stuff I'm also trying to address w/ Runrig, but don't wanna get too self-promote-y 😅 
11:44

marie says:
pay-it-forward system... someone volunteers time to help you on-board, then you promise to volunteer to help a new comer in the future... ? 
11:45

me says:
Top search results for \"runrig\" seem to be a band. I assume you're talking about something different Jamie? 
👍
11:45

Jamie says:
https://runrig.org/
 
👍
11:46

Greg says:
Ibstill think finishing the templates feature would be really simplifying and powerful.  Would love to see those things get done and out 
11:46

Fosten says:
something we talked about before… an “education partner program” for onboarding teachers/classes/schools who are interested in contributing to the project 
❤️
11:47

Jamie says:
+1 Greg... I think there was an old thread on the forum that discussed the same idea as \"presets\" 
11:47

Greg says:
Yes presets basically 
11:49

Michael Stenta says:
https://farmos.discourse.group/t/student-project-contribution/2154
 
11:49

Greg says:
Love yhe idea of connecting with universities... Farmos is such a great potential program to contribute to! 
❤️
11:49

Paul Weidner says:
I had 1 entire year to do that in my CS program... wow! 
😂
11:52

Jamie says:
direct link to Marie's presentation slides (PDF):

https://farmos.discourse.group/uploads/short-url/jDLW6tyZUHt5j6GVxciXoS45q0T.pdf
 
👍
11:53

Michael Stenta says:
Basically trying to do the same thing you are Nick 😃 
11:53

Jamie says:
love it! 
11:57

me says:
👏 
11:57

Jamie says:
yea, LiteFarm is great at channeling student contrib into good sustainable code 
❤️
11:59

Nick Weinstock says:
I have to run. good to see everyone in the new year 
👍
12:02

Jamie says:
I was thinking of Ankita Raturi, too, or @Juliet who's here 😉 
12:02

Fosten says:
idea: farmOS becoming a Google Summer of Code mentor project.  GSoC hasn’t published their 2025 timeline yet, but now would be the time of year to plan the application 
https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/timeline
 
12:04

Greg says:
that would be awesome Fosten also 100% 
12:04

Michael Stenta says:
Good idea Fosten 
12:04

Paul Weidner says:
10 weeks is very fast and FarmOS/Drupal requires a good amount of onboarding. I think I would recommend building code that is somewhat external to the FarmOS server & interfaces via API - great option to build custom reports, custom imports, etc! 
👍
12:04

marie says:
YAY! 
12:04

marie says:
my info: 
atsaasan@occ.cccd.edu
 : ) 
12:05

me says:
Or maybe scaffold some of the boilerplate bits around a specific bit that needs development (in certain cases) 
12:05

Greg says:
+1 Paul I think maybe like Grant focusing on things like Vue or JS they're likely to be more successful.  There's work there too if they want to do it 
👍
12:05

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1 Like

w/r/t today’s call and @marie 's post about Student projects

At the very end of the call @paul121 raised a good point in the chat about the Drupal learning curve, and that external tools that work w/ farmOS might be better than an actual farmOS module. That made me think back to @Farmer-Ed 's NodeRed tool, which he mentioned earlier on the call, which imports taxonomy terms into farmOS based on an outside institution’s classifications and criteria. Maybe it’s unhelpful since Eddie has already built it, but seems like a good example at least. My ears also perked up when I heard about FiberShed’s involvement, b/c weren’t they participating in some OpenTEAM / Wolfe’s Neck projects, or am I imagining that? B/c that could open up pathways for separate student projects to potentially improve on each other, if there was some way farmOS data could be imported/exported and passed back and forth with the tool FiberShed wants built. Maybe that’s a stretch, but it does seem like there could be other non-profit orgs, who also farm or work with farmers and would make a good partner, rather than a small/for-profit farm, since they’d be more likely to have dedicated staff that can work with the students, especially during planting season. And there are other such orgs who’ve collaborated w/ farmOS/OpenTEAM in the past, whether I’m correct about FiberShed or not.

3 Likes

my only requirement is that an end user be available to evaluate the prototypes and do validation testing during the time… maybe 2-3 hours a week for 5-6 weeks when they are in the think of things. the ask is that they install and use the prototypes, and give timely feedback. this must be an actual human end-user (not a persona or representative) who is doing this. i can send lemons and oranges and baked goods as bribes… but it would ideally be someone who wants the feature/module and also has time to futz around with it, which is often a big ask.

3 Likes

The LMS (learning management software) has feature Scorm this is a packaged data will be interoperability with any LMS software.if may create like this it may standard for FMS.

2 Likes

If I have time I can join for testing.

1 Like