ACTIVITY and VOLUNTEERS
We have a two-edged sword –
It has been difficult to attract appropriately skilled and motivated coding volunteers. We need MORE suitably skilled volunteers to help in the code development
The history of other open source projects reveals that the successful projects were all built initially by a very small closely knit group of dedicated volunteers working towards a very clearly defined aim.
Once the core of the application is stable then it becomes sensible to widen the size of the team.
PROGRESS
YES, We are progressing, but at a slower pace than we would like
Recently we have refined a number of the database design aspects as we work on the implementation of HRE features.
Java code is being built to manage the operations on the database through a well defined set of Java classes (API) such that the database engine is independent of the Java code.
We now have over 9,000 lines of Java code supporting 25 windows of the user interface (GUI) under test. Many of these have been proof of concepts that can be used as the basis of creating other similar windows.
Like TMG there are many database tables that provide dictionaries of option values and their default. There are over 100 database tables that contain settings or templates, etc. At this point we have about 4GB of definition data loaded into the initial HRE database.
As soon as we complete an adequate sub-set of the settings and field defaults we will be able to work on the database actions and the display of user entered data. The initial target is the definition and use of TMG-like Tags and TMG-like Name Styles for Persons and for Locations and the simple display of that data.
We will use a similar database initial-loading process to convert the TMG US Sample project to a sample HRE project. This process will then be refined for the importing of any TMG project.
MANAGEMENT
WELCOME to new HRE Board Members
BOARD CHANGES
In the last few months 3 members of the original HRE Board have, for quite different reasons, made it known that they would like to retire from the Board. Each has made considerable contributions to the creation and management of the project:
Retired Board Members:
- John Lucas (USA), long time TMG User and retired employee of a number of US computer companies, who helped in the early project planning, but after moving house and for health reasons felt that he should pass his position to someone with more time. His role on the board was to question the expectations of others and to bring back reality. John still provides some Cloud space for HRE management.
- Elmar Toime (UK), again a TMG user, as a consultant and board member of a number of companies spread around the globe, always found it difficult to join the Skype-based Board meetings as he was often in an airport or on a flight to the next location. In spite of these activities Elmar managed the financial and legal reporting aspects of the company.
- Michael Maggs (UK), again a long term TMG user, a retired Intellectual Property Lawyer has some family issues that meant that he did not have the time to commit to HRE. Michael has acted, and will continue to act, as the maintainer of all the intellectual property agreements associated with volunteers and other corporate entities. Michael built the HRE website and will continue to maintain it.
New Board Members:
- Terry Dansey (UK), is a long-standing TMG user. He has a background in IT and is heavily involved with one of the Livery Companies of London,whose archives hold historical items back to 1501. He is interested in HRE as a way to build a network of information that shows the interrelationships between objects rather than just a catalogue of each object. Terry has taken over the finance and reporting aspects of the HRE Company.
- Bruce Fairhall (Australia), a long standing TMG user. He has been involved in the Sydney TMG Users Group for many years in a number of roles and in the past has been involved in the introduction of computers into New South Wales schools. In this role he had been involved in ensuring user documentation detail was appropriate for the user population.
The current HRE Board members thank John, Elmar and Michael for their important contributions to the HRE Project
NEXT OBJECTIVES
- LOAD the settings for Name Styles and create the ability to enter Person and Location Names
- IMPORT Person and Location Names from a TMG project and be able to display/edit those names.
VOLUNTEERS
It is very difficult to find and keep suitably skilled volunteers. PLEASE RESPOND if you have Java programming skills and time to help.
History Research Environment 