What is (will be) BottomButton?

BottomButton is a project focused on developing a user-friendly web-based management system for educational organizations. Imagine having a blog, social network, and bulletin board all wrapped up into a cohesive package.

The idea for this project came to me when I saw the need to draw these three dynamic web elements together for the Lutheran Campus Ministry website. With the understanding that our LCM was in need of a good web presence and communications platform, I started writing the basics of an organizational management platform and wired in WordPress and phpBB to fill in the gaps. This time, however, the blogging and message board capabilties will be integrated features with the package, not just extras that have been “glued on”.

What are its uses?

The package will be usable for all sorts of organizations, from our LCM group to the school’s basketball team. If there is an organization that needs a system to communicate, publish information, and build a community, there is a use for BottomButton.

Why not use the “glued-together” package?

Although there are packages out there that could be used together to make a decent platform, they don’t play as well together as one running an organization would need. For example, Wordpress and phpBB both have excellent features; but in order to have users to have access to both parts of your website, they would have to have separate accounts for both the blog and bulletin board, or the administrator would have to rework the packages and databases so that user data is shared. Having a common theme across the website with the organization’s insignia would require developing separate themes for each part of the website.

Other packages, like Drupal, are better suited to a wide-range of functions.  However, they can be too complex for organizations that have few technically-apt people.  BottomButton, above all, will be designed to be easily used and documented with the average user in mind.  The basic assumptions will be that a person knows how to point, click, drag-drop, and have very basic knowledge of their web hosting service.  Everything else will be automated as much as possible.

If you have noticed, I am using WordPress to document my travels through the project.  It is an excellent blogging package, and it will do what I need it to in terms of putting up stories about the development process.

What can we expect BottomButton to do?

The BottomButton package will include these features in time:

• Blog Engine
• Discussion Forums Engine
• Pluggable tools / themes
• Site-wide themes
• Site-wide user profiles

What is expected of BottomButton.org?

This website will, over the course of the project, document the process of building such a package. I hope to include some tutorials and explanations about how certain elements of BottomButton are assembled. Furthermore, until I open-source the project, it will house project files as they are constructed.

Open-source the project?

Absolutely! Many great things have come from open-source applications over the years. I plan to use a GPL license of some sort and put the project on source forge — but only after it’s matured a bit. For now, I’ll be working on the system behind closed doors.

When will it be complete?

That’s a great question — one to which I don’t have a ready answer. If I had to guess, the platform will probably never be absolutely complete. Little features will be added and bugs removed over the course of it’s lifetime.

But, for those who wish to see some use out of the platform, I plan on having something workable for the LCM site during fall, 2008.

Can we help?

Not yet. I’ll let everyone know when / how upon reaching that bridge.