[Leaplist] Fwd: Can kids volunteer for install fest

[Gavin Baker]

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John Simpson wrote:
| On 2008-03-01, at 1518, Robin (Bartow FL) wrote:
|>
|> One person needs/wants multiple notifications multiple days in advance.
|> Another person needs/wants a different number at some different interval.
|> Well, good luck making everybody happy.
|
| many of us have PDAs, or "smart phones" of one kind or another, which
| have calendars and alarms built into them... program a reminder into
| that device. that's what i did when i started coming to LEAP meetings
| (before it became second nature.)
|
| and almost all of us have at least a basic cell phone which can receive
| SMS messages.
|
| most of us have a machine (or ten) running linux, BSD, OSX, or some
| other "real" operating system, which runs 24/7, and is capable of
| sending email. why can't people who want their own custom reminders,
| just create "at" jobs on their own systems, to send reminders to their
| phone, whenever they want?
|
| $ cd ~/reminder
| $ cat message
| The LEAP meeting is 3/20 at 7pm at DeVry near
| Millenia Mall. http://www.leap-cf.org/
| $ at 10am 2008-03-17
| at> cat message | mail 4075551212 at cell.carrier.xyz
| at> {CONTROL-D}<EOT>
| job 3 at 2008-03-17 10:00
| $ at 1230 2008-03-20
| at> cat message | mail 4075551212 at cell.carrier.xyz
| at> {CONTROL-D}<EOT>
| job 4 at 2008-03-20 12:30
|
|
| all you ned to do is make sure "atd" is running on the system, the
| "mail" command on the system is capable of sending out email (you may
| need to configure a smarthost or something like that) and you know the
| email address which will forward to your phone as a text message (or as
| normal email, if you have a higher-end phone.)
|
|
|> How about an email auto-responder with details of what, when, and where.
|> Query it at your leisure, and to your hearts content.
|> I recommend just before you begin transit to the meeting place.
|> If there is a change, hey, your up to date as quick as email.
|
| IF the user remembers to ASK if there have been any changes.
|
| the point of a list is that it's a "push" system. if there are any
| changes, the list owner can send out a message to everybody, without the
| subscribers having to somehow "pull" information to "check" for changes.
|
| the whole idea of an alarm or reminder system is that the system should
| asynchronously interrupt you, not just put information somewhere and
| expect you to constantly check back for new changes.
|
|
|> Or an email alert to anything that is not already expected.
|
| like the existing list?
|
| i don't see the mechanism as the problem- the list is a way to send
| plain-text reminders on a fixed schedule, and that's fine. the
| discussion, as i see it, is more about the timing of those reminders
| than anything else.
|
| i agree that four days in a row is probably not best- for regular
| meetings i would suggest 10am monday, then lunchtime on thursday itself.
| and for installfests, i could see 10am monday, then lunchtime on friday.
|
|
|> Or a voice announcement (sound file) at a URL.
|
| see above, where i explained the difference between the user having to
| "pull" changes, and the list owner being able to "push" changes.
|
| as for the sound file idea... why complicate it more than it needs to
| be? plain-text email gets the idea across quite well, without somebody
| having to record a sound file, upload it to a web server, or anybody
| else having to download and listen to it.
|
| of course, if you're doing reminders for yourself, and you find this
| easier to deal with (i.e. if your phone automatically plays sound files
| which are emailed to it, for example, and you want your phone to
| asynchronously speak the reminder) then you can certainly set up your
| own reminder for it. (don't get me wrong, it's a cool idea... i just
| don't see it as a realistic option for everybody on the list, and the
| list needs to be usable by the maximum number of people.)
|
|
|> Or a .mobi compliant URL.
|
| again, why complicate it more than it needs to be? any telephone with a
| browser will also be able to receive email or SMS, and both of them can
| be reached via plain-text email.

These discussions are really interesting to me, since so much of what I
do is organizing people. Can we shift the discussion toward making a
decision? I'm not sure how things in LEAP are typically "done", but
preferably something can be decided prior to the next board meeting
(apparently a month from now).

I wonder if we can't develop an app that offers flexible, user-defined
notifications -- or if such an app already exists. By that, I mean the
user indicates the desired number and frequency of notifications, and
the desired delivery method (email or SMS). For instance:

- - only email me when something changes
- - email me a notice 1 day in advance
- - email me daily reminders 4 days in advance
- - email me 2 days prior, and text me a reminder the morning of

(For our purposes, I'm assuming SMS subscribers have an email address
form -- e.g. subscriber at wireless.att.net -- which receives SMS.)

This might seem like overkill for LEAP, and it probably is. I'm just
throwing it out in case someone feels ambitious, or someone finds a
program already developed. This would be a really useful tool for many
community organizations. (It seems like an improvement over the mailing
list announcement, which is basically the electronic equivalent of a
paper newsletter.)

Absent a user-defined notification system, I think there just ought to
be an announcement list (one informative email per event), and an RSS
feed with the same content. I think these will be a help in getting the
word about LEAP events to people who haven't been involved before. And I
know there a number of Linux users (plus untold numbers of Li-curious)
in the area who've never been involved with a LUG here, so there's lots
of growth potential, if we organize useful events and promote them.

- --
Gavin Baker
http://www.gavinbaker.com/
gavin at gavinbaker.com

Don't worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will worry about itself.
~    Matthew 6:34
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