Many people have commented here at Drupal.org that they would be interested in pitching in to help fund development in some way. Many people have said things like "I have $20 for the person who...." I have long suspected that large groups of people would be able to raise significant funds through small donations and that this could have a major impact on the direction of software development.
To this end, Webs4.com is pleased to announce an experiment in module creation. They have earmarked $500 USD for the development of a quiz module[1][2] and are inviting any interested parties to follow suit and donate an amount that reflects the level of interest in seeing this module get written. The module will be released under the GPL and will be hosted here at Drupal.org as a contributed module.
The discussion on the module's architecture and features is still open, so please read the specification[1] carefully and offer your feedback, either here or on the Webs4.com site. I am also interested in hearing your feedback on the topic of using donations as a vehicle for funding open source development.
[1] http://www.webs4.com/quiz_module
[2] http://drupal.org/node/15934
cheers,
Robert Douglass
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visit me at http://www.robshouse.net
Comments
a few suggestions
RE: a few suggestions
1) the taxonomy system allows you to pick multiple topics so I don't see this as a problem. A flat list may work in some cases, and in those the categories can be set up appropriately. In some cases though, hierarchy is important. Take a long book, for example. A teacher may want to administer a quiz based on each chapter as reading progresses and then a quiz on the whole book after it has been read. In this case the hierarchical taxonomy would be ideal; a term for the book and a term for each chapter. I trust the taxonomy to meet all our needs here. There are, of course, useability issues with the taxonomy module in general - it is not always for lesser-talented users, but we will hopefully benefit from any general improvements to Drupal here.
Your next two points have been noted and will be added to the spec.
Thanks!
- Robert Douglass
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visit me at www.robshouse.net
ahhhh!
1) Okay. It was just the specification wording which implied a singular choice. I would change it to "Pick one or more topics" and revise appropriately just for clarity.
Will do.
- Robert Douglass
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visit me at www.robshouse.net