I have only been getting into becoming a DJ for less than a year. So I quite remember the first days of trying to figure out where to go what to do and how it all works. Obviously finding DJTT was the best thing that happened along the way.
However while I appreciate this virtual community I really wished that there would have been some way to physically meet with like minded people. I seized the opportunity of being a web developer and started emailing with Ean. Coincidence enabled us to meet in Berlin last May and then again in late September, where we discussed the idea of a google maps application where all the DJs of the world could register.
Things ended up being delayed on either my or Ean’s side a few times, but thanks to having a “hackday” budget at my employer (if you need web application development in Switzerland .. we are the best, not kidding) and finding 2 motivated co-workers we put together the initial framework for an application. I refined things a bit more over christmas break. There are still a few things that need to be coded but right now the key thing is to get feedback on how it should all work.
Ean has been kind of slumped with Midi Fighter and NAMM. So we decided that there is actually no point in keeping this secret and trying to design the silver bullet between the two of us, when there is such a great community that we can tap in which will become the core of the user base for this application.
I have put together a short screencast to demo the current state of the development:
The key questions are therefore:
What are the kinds of fields you would want to see stored for users, events and stores?
Should we even have stores and/or events on there?
By what would you want to be able to filter the markers on the map?
How should users authenticate? Facebook connect? Forum login? OpenID?
How should content be maintained? Should anyone be able to fix event or store? Only the person who created it (there should then probably be some way to notify that person)?
Obviously this application if successful might bring with it additional things people might want to see, like comments and such. But for now we should KISS.
So some URL’s that you might want to look at (especially if you are the developer type):
Current state of the development:
The current database structure (might be a bit cryptic for some of the you):
FYI: The entire app is coded in symfony 1.4 using the Doctrine 1.2 ORM and YUI for javascript love.
Well the primary thing I need is just feedback. Since its now 2010, we have a new hackday budget for this year and I have reduced work hours to just 28 hours a week. So I should be able to get this to a useable version. I just need to know the answers to the above questions, so that I dont have to change everything because people want this or that.
Okee… Just another idea… Hook this up to GPS coordinates of your cellphone? (Go.walla or something a like? If you want to transmit/publish your GPS, than have your cellphone ‘publish’ your coords to the worldmap. )
well there are various services like google latitude that provide these sorts of features .. and i even already added it to the nice to have section on the google code site a few weeks ago
I would prefer to use my town and not my address (as a option).
I will not use facebook. sry
Maybe if you do get integrated with djtech tools forum, if you can get stuff from that database, you could get our existing location data. There could be a check box on our user cp options right where we enable our show location in forum option, it would say “show me on da map yo”
basically it will do a google map search with what you entered. if you just enter a city it will put you more or less in the middle of the city. if you then hit save, it will save the marker in that position and it will save the address as what you entered. only if you start to move the marker around will it automatically compute the address. so yeah .. you dont need to give away your exact home address
there could be a way to integrate with the forum db. its obviously a bit more work, since for facebook integration i can just drop in a plugin.
What are the kinds of fields you would want to see stored for users, events and stores?
Name, styles (that is for events and djs), type of event (session/live act), maybe some picture, and contact info
Should we even have stores and/or events on there?
Yes.
By what would yo
u want to be able to filter the markers on the map?
Dj/event/store, style(techno/house/prog/etc)
How should users authenticate? Facebook connect? Forum login? OpenID?
I’d say facebook because nowadays everyone has facebook… but maybe leave another option jut in case.
How should content be maintained? Should anyone be able to fix event or store? Only the person who created it (there should then probably be some way to notify that person)?
Admins (of course), and the owner for instant changes. The rest of the people after moderation of the owner, or in case the owner doesn’t appear in x days the work goes to the admin.
i know the following is a bit cryptic, but i guess i didnt make it clear enough. i would also like to hear what should be storable for each type (users, events, stores):
please have a look and tell me what attributes you would like to see.
yes .. the plan is to host it on DJTT. however we are hoping that it will be much much much bigger than the DJTT community. as such we will need to make sure that the general masses feel like they can adopt this without being sucked into the DJTT community.
that being said we might decide to not even advertise the DJTT forum based login to the rest of the world. Aka the rest of the world just knows how to login via Facebook, but all people on DJTT know that they can also use their Forum. I will not however bother to make it possible to use either or for the same account. If someone decide to migrate to the Facebook login, then they can just email me and I will fix it in the DB manually. this will also make it easy to get a bit of a critical mass from DJTT people. that being said, i would probably want to skip having to extend/integrate the VB forum profile, so this would just be the login (maybe even provide single sign on so that if you are logged in on the forum or map .. you are also logged in on the other side) what do you think of this approach?
the key thing is that obviously developer time is limited, but also the more complex you make something, the harder it becomes to use it and support.
I think SSO (single sign on) would be a good step, plus it would save you the trouble of having to store profile information (for example) as you could just link back to the VB profiles (because they’d have to exist for a given event on the map to be posted in the first place, and the user viewing it would have to be logged in also)
If you need any help I’m happy to lend a hand too (am a PHP/MySQL developer)
i was hoping for a bit more feedback and more people exposing omissions in my concept. like currently my concept didnt even mention how to actually contact people on the map (which is obviously the key goal of this app). as such i realize i probably also didnt do a good job explaining what i was looking for.
so how about a different approach: maybe 2 or 3 have time to meet and chat about this on skype or IRC. with a more interactive discussion we can maybe figure out a proper concept for the entire app .. or at least figure out better questions to ask the community.
so any volunteers for a 1 hour chat sometime next week (ideally CET evenings … but i can probably also accommodate a US friendly meeting time if necessary)?
)
)
)