On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 10:49 AM, Eric Hunting wrote:
> Congratulations. How much space do you think you have for subletting?
A little under half of it. Apparently I'm not supposed to be spewing
forth details (actual numbers), since it "doesn't exist" quite yet.
;-)
> providential. If the lab is more public and the space small, perhaps
> vending machine operators for a snack room would be appropriate. After
Yes, I think a few snack machines or other vending machines are
planned. The other day, fenn suggested a vending machine for baggies
of small parts, but that's somewhat another issue.
> that, the most likely is some small business where the owner may be
> using the lab tools part time. If you are getting a high-fallutin' net
> connection (my term for bandwidth above DSL) to the lab, server bank
> space is another possibility that can also defray the net access costs.
Right. I suspect that if if we host websites, some people would be
interested in some virtual servers, dedicated servers, or free shared
web hosting accounts, simply because it's a super awesome initiative
to be supporting, for those not able to physically make it down here
to play around with the (physical) tools.
> OpenProject (the open version of MS Project) might be a good place to
> start with management software. Project management packages seem to
> vary now between continuous interrupt-driven task and contact
> management -which is probably more appropriate to your needs- to the
> more traditional Gantt chart based serial project management more
> suited to contracting and construction. I tend to favor the Mac for
> this category of software because it suits the user interface better
> and results in more intuitive programs, though some are overly dumbed-
> down.
Hm. Okay. I haven't considered it like that- the spectrum of
interrupt-driven task management versus jobs/contracts management.
I've always had a fondness for hierarchical outliners to help manage
my (massive) todo lists, but on the other hand, too much time spent
managing these todo lists can go in the wrong direction very quickly.
So that has to be watched out for. I've been meaning to send out some
notes on a project templating system that would be like 'autotools'
except integrated into the shop's system, such as for ordering parts
when supplies get estimated to be low (or noticed to be low), or for
keeping track of the numbers of used hardware and such, or for
spawning new projects and typical project management tools like
calendars, contacts, todo lists, source files, etc., which might be a
good way to integrate all projects under one roof, though that might
stiffle spur of the moment things that still need to be integrated
despite not being "a really big deal". Hm.
> Lightweight bookkeeping should be sufficient for this, but they have
> become overspecialized in their models and can sometimes be tough to
> adapt. I can't recommend the most popular one myself; QuickBooks. That
Yeah, I'd like to keep bookkeeping fully automated via software, to
the greatest possible extent. I'm sure there's some open source
equivalents of QuickBooks or something else. Worst-case scenario, I
end up finding myself programming a database app, not a big deal
though.
> Bookkeeping systems with inventory management features tend to manage
> inventory in a very minimalist way, treating it like an 'account'
> associated with specific suppliers. Makes sense for businesses with
> few inventory items in small volumes you need only track by name and
> where someone wants to look at it more in terms of cash flow analysis.
> But it's useless for a complex inventory with more data associated
> with each item. A more dedicated inventory management system makes
> sense when you need to handle larger numbers of items and track their
> physical locations, with more complex information stored on each item
> such as multiple suppliers, pictures, tech reference material, catalog
> descriptions, etc., where more than one person is interacting with the
> inventory, and where you have to plug-into Point-Of-Purchase. PoP/
> Inventory are commonly bundled together. Even if you're not actually
> selling anything, repurposing PoP to track 'check out' of materials by
> patrons might be a smart idea for automating inventory management and
> keeping tabs on who is using what and when. Library systems also have
> potential like this, but don't understand consumables. In this case
> bookkeeping is dealing with inventory only in terms of supplier
> invoices under a generalized AP (accounts payable) inventory category
> which can be processed independently of inventory management itself.
Library systems do souond to be about the right model here. Some
OCR/scanning equipment and ability to print labels wouldn't hurt
either. I wonder if anyone on this list, running other fablabs and
such, have any experience with particular management styles? Smari
mentioned a few weeks ago not sweating the small stuff, and making it
up with a 10% markup on the big stuff, are there any other ideas to
look into?
- Bryan
http://heybryan.org/
1 512 203 0507
