We have our first project!

[richard]

The DataPortability Technical Blueprint is basically a collection of
specifications, with each specification describing how to correctly
develop one of the pieces of a DataPortabilty enabled website.

The specifications are not introductions or tutorials. They are sets
of rules about how things should be done. They are not user friendly -
they're not supposed to be.

The idea is that what we build here will become a user friendly, how-
to guide that can be used along with the specifications. We will build
something according to the specification, hold it up as an example,
explaining how and why things were done in the way that they were, and
in the process, build some really cool stuff.

The first specification has just been released for public review - the
DataPortability Discovery Specification.

This means that we have our first project!

We're trying to grease the wheels a little on this first project, and
make it as easy as possible for developers to become involved, and for
this reason, over the next couple of days we will also be posting how-
to guides on:

- setting up a development environment under OSX Leopard
- setting up a development environment under Windows Vista
- and, how to work with open source projects using SVN.

This is the beginning of something very cool, and I'm really looking
forward to watching it come to life.

[Jon]

This is great news. I know everyone is anxious to get started.

[richard]

I thought I should post just to let you know that I have almost
finished the first project outline.

Thanks for bearing with me on this one.

Unfortunately the early stages of a project as large as Practical
Portability necessarily involve bottlenecks tied to the guys doing the
initial work, and family life doesn't always respect deadlines. My
wife has been in and out of hospital over the last couple of days, and
my time has not been my own.

I'm excited about what we are doing here though, and have been hearing
really great things from others watching our progress.

I also had to take a little time away from the first project outline
tonight, in order to put together an initial blog post at
http://practicalportability.org/ I found I was spending more and more
time fielding questions about PP, and less and less time actually
doing anything towards kicking off PP. The blog post will hopefully
ease this a little, by providing me somewhere to redirect attention.

I hope to finish the outline tomorrow, and to begin the supporting
wiki pages soon after. The project outline will provide enough detail
to begin coding though, and Jacob will hopefully begin pulling
together some initial magic. I get the boring stuff and he gets the
fun stuff :)

Anyone interested in getting involved in either piece is welcomed. I
don't expect a hell of a lot of interest, as the kickoff stuff is the
really boring stuff, but it's always worth asking...

Richard