Monday, August 24, 2009

चला गणपती आले

स्वाइन फ्लू आहे आणि विधान सभा इलेक्शन पण आहे। आता मिडियावाले स्वाइन फ्लूच्या बातम्या कमी देतात आणि इलेक्शनच्या जादा। चौकात सभा सुरु आणि मास्कही वाटतात। आज काय बीजेपी उद्या राष्ट्रवादी। एकीकडे गर्दी करू नका सांगायचे अणि दुसरीकडे मोठे प्रोग्राम लावायचे। फ्लेक्स तार आता कुनाचेही लागतात। एका बाजूला गणपती बिचारा खरा भक्त शोधतो। आपण आपले ऑफिस गाठायचे अणि संयम सोडायचा नाही।

Friday, August 7, 2009

Kanitkar Kulkvrutant charter 01

KANITKAR Kulvrutant

Project name:

Kanitkar Kulvrutant version 3.

Prepared by:

Maheshwar Kanitkar

Modified date:

8/7/2009

MDR Owner:

NA

Organization:

NA

E-Mail:

mrkanitkar@gmail.com

Phone:

91-9850438590


Revision History

Date

Revision

Revised by

Comments

Reviewed by

Aug 6th 2009

0.1

Maheshwar

Very rough draft.

Jayant Kanitkar

Aug 07th 2009

0.2

Maheshwar

Updated as per comments from Jayant

Table of Contents

Introduction 3

Background. 3

Challenges. 3

Solutions. 4

Approach. 5

Cost implications. 6

Recommendation. 7

Project maintenance in future. 7


Introduction
This document provides information about proposed genealogy project. It’s all about people who carry surname as Kanitkar & Satkar.

Scope

Analyze the requirement and understand need for next version of Kanitkar Kulvrutant. Some discussion around the technology to be used for the project. Identification of challenges, tasks at high level. Discuss proposed solutions. Cost estimation at high level. Maintenance of project once completed. Identify people who can contribute. Decide Schedule & timeline of project delivery.

Intended audience

All people who want to contribute towards successful delivery of project.

Background

Kanitkar Kulvrutant 1st edition was published around 1948 and 2nd edition was published on 26th January 1988. In last 21 years, world has changed in big way. The Marathi society has undergone many changes. The rituals have changed; some new things are becoming rituals. In early days, most of Kanitkars were living in Kokan region in western Maharashtra, later they moved to many parts of India. In last 21 years, now we have many people who moved out side India. People from different Gharana are now living far away from the origin, but still they want to reunion, get connected and keep in touch. There are many ways one can create and maintain “Links” between people. We need to find best possible way to get connected very fast and can enable to keep in touch in better way.

Challenges

Few challenges are

  • Getting passionate & committed team members who can contribute
  • Data management-- Reaching out to people: Collecting new & accurate data, Editing: manage, organize, review the data
  • Time, Money, resource and people getting engaged.

Solutions

We can use traditional way of collecting all info in paper forms, organize it manually and publish it in book format. We can also use modern technology like computer based genealogy software. The computer based genealogy software can help us to reduce the time in data entry, organizing data, find duplicates and provide required reports. It will also enable us to benefit from best practices used globally in area of genealogy. There are two type of genealogy software programs, desktop based and web based.

Desktop based software programs are matured enough, they have grown to version 7. The most of desktop programs are developed for USA or Europe culture and they are not available in Indian languages as well. Desktop programs enable us to publish website as output but these are static pages, which is similar to publishing book in e-book format or paper format. These programs are property ones, so one can not modify them to match requirements.

Web based programs are available in two ways, one as web service – web sites and other as web application. There are companies who provide web service and do charge per account/ name in family/ usage. These services are costly and there is risk of data to be hacked / sold to third party. These services are again well tuned to American / Europe culture and languages. They don’t offer data in Marathi / Hindi/ Indian culture. Web based genealogy applications are still evolving, they are next generation solutions. Web based applications provide facility to enter, manage, update the data from anywhere in world. It also eliminates need to publishing editions as data will be live & updated. It provides option to publish book, links to other web presence of individual like blogs, family albums, twitter, faceboook etc. It enables individual to update his/her data. The site admins have full control to secure the data, privacy of individual, allow updates from individuals to get in main db. There are many features available.

There are two solutions which can be considered http://kulvrutant.com/ and http://www.phpgedview.net/
Kulvrutant.com is developed by Pune based software team lead by Mr. Ravi Oak. It’s based on php & my sql.
The software is not open sourced but it’s customized to Marathi, Indian culture. It supports traditional features of Kulvrutant. It lacks advance features and any international standards for maintaining genealogical data. It costs around 25 K INR.

PHPgedview is open source web based genealogy application. It is built on PHP and mysql. It supports most of American, European, East Asian languages. Since it uses UTF-8 format, it has in built support for Indian languages like Marathi, Hindi and Gujrathi. To enable user interface in Indian languages one need to carry out translation and save it. Google provides translation for Hindi, Gujrathi and other languages. We may need to find simple way out to get it in Marathi. It allows keeping / typing names in multiple languages like English, Marathi and Gujrathi. It has some security features and privacy options. Maheshwar has carried out poc of this tool. Maheshwar found this application as easy to manage, customizable. It’s free as well.


Approach

Here is proposal.

Tasks

  1. Identify people who want to sponsor the project

1.2. Form sponsor board

1.3. Form the TIGER team who will contribute, drive the project

1.4. Identify all tasks with WBS – work break down structure and assign Owners – F1 DRIVERS

1.5. Put up all data on sharepoint for tracking – (Maheshwar will own)

1.6. Put up Kanitkar.com for deployment – Jayant will coordinate.

1.7. Put up web based meeting like – web ex, net meeting and calling bridge for people to discuss issues.

1.8. Put up mail alias to communication and set up meeting schedule for tigers and sponsors (if different)

1.9. Define time line for delivery.

The sponsor team needs to decide whether

  1. we need to go with traditional approach as publishing 3rd edition in paper book format as end goal

1.2. Use desktop genealogy application and publish static website and paper book

1.3. Use web based application, create and launch interactive website, also sponsor web site maintenance in coming years, publish Kulvrutant in paper format for reference for people who do not have net connectivity.

Once we decide the option, we need to customize the application to meet our requirements. We need to come up with requirement document and changes to be done in website. We also need to decide on number of languages to be supported and possible implementation of it. Once we customize and localized the application, we need to carry out small cycle on data entry and security testing. The data must be secured enough. We can then launch application on dummy server and start data entry from 2nd edition. In phase of data entry, we can plan campaign to contact people and also design & finalize forms to be filled in by people. Once we get data entry done for 2nd edition, Tiger team needs to review the data and validate.

Now we need to decide whether to allow data entry to individuals or collect forms and update it internally. We can allow people to update info online and after approval in system it will go to final database. We also need to plan for back up policy for data. Once data entry for 2nd edition is done, we need to rush to people and get all new data. We can plan small get together at places like Pune, Mumbai, HYD and Baroda which will increase awareness and also help to get data fast. We can keep forms with temples at Guhagar, Ambejogai, which will help.

Time line:

Web application poc and customization should not take more than 2-4 weeks. Data entry should be done in 4-6 weeks. We expect it to be done by third party data entry vendor. Review & validation of data can be done in 3 weeks post completion of data entry as we expect review will go in parallel with data entry.
New data collection may take around 4-12 weeks. Data entry of new data should finish in 2 weeks + from last week of data collection as data will not be huge and will come in pieces. Data review and editing all data should be done in 4-6 weeks. Converting data in book format & editing for book may take 4 weeks.
Paper book printing, CD burning, website launch will take around 4 weeks. With all possible delay, project should able to finish in one year.

Cost implications

Following would be items.

  1. cost of licenses if buying commercial application

1.2. Cost of data entry vendor in phase I (data entry for 2nd edition) and phase II – data entry for new updates.

1.3. cost of form printing

1.4. cost of taking/collecting / converting pictures in soft copy format

1.5. cost of consultancy if we take help from genealogy experts

1.6. cost of communication bridge – telephonic

1.7. cost of mailers by post

1.8. cost of travel – local (if not self sponsored)

1.9. Cost of paper and cd material for publishing book/ cd.

1.10. cost of print, publish book

1.11. Cost of ceremony for publishing book – any get together.

1.12. cost of web hosting the application in coming years

Recommendation

To form the teams and discuss various options, plan, own the tasks, decide the plan of action.

Project maintenance in future

Decide the owners.