2008Q3 Grant Proposal: Hotel Perl
Fri, 01-Aug-2008 by
Alberto Simões
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* **Author:** Cristina Nunes
* **Title:** Hotel Perl
* **Synopsis:** A website where Perl mongers can: (i) register and submit their vacant space to receive other Perl mongers traveling; (ii) search for a place to stay at another Perl monger's; (iii) announce they're looking for a place to stay at a given city/country (so that people who aren't making their spaces public can still invite them over; this is to make the website useful for people who don't want to open their doors to just anyone they don't know)
**Author**
Cristina Nunes
**Title**
Hotel Perl
**Synopsis**
A website where Perl mongers can:
* register and submit their vacant space to receive other Perl mongers traveling
* search for a place to stay at another Perl monger's
* announce they're looking for a place to stay at a given city/country (so that people who aren't making their spaces public can still invite them over; this is to make the website useful for people who don't want to open their doors to just anyone they don't know)
**Benefits to the Perl Community**
Better interaction between Perl mongers.
Cut expenses when attending Perl events like conferences, workshops and/or social/technical monger meetings.
Bring the Perl community closer together by allowing more and more Perl mongers to attend venues by cutting expenses on lodging.
**Deliverables**
Functionalities:
* register
* invite a monger (to join the website)
* personal profile
* submit a space
* search for a space
* request a space
* accept/reject a request
* review a space
Tasks:
* define necessary services for the project to start (web, smtp, database)
* repository (git)
* define paths
* define and implement DB model
* authentication
* invites
* profile edition
* adding and editing spaces
* search
* submit request for crash-space
* moderate request (refuse/accept)
* submit reviews
* accept/reject space reviews
**Project Details**
The project will be developed using Catalyst and Template Toolkit, with a MySQL database beneath it all.
Estimated Project timings:
Tasks:
* define paths - 1 day
* define and implement DB model - 1 day
* invites - 1 day
* profile edition - 1 day
* adding and editing spaces - 2 days
* search - 2 days
* submit request for crash-space - 1 day # with all the intricacies of making the request get to the proper people
* moderate request (refuse/accept) - 1 day
* submit reviews - 1 day
* accept/reject space reviews - 1 day
After all these tasks are done, the project would be usable. While there are other functionalities that can (and probably should) be implemented, these are the tasks that would be covered by this grant.
**Project Schedule:**
Work has already begun (the database and the workflow are already defined, and a few things already work, but there's still a long way to go).
I can begin working on this project as soon as a grant is assigned to it (if one isn't, I'll do it eventually anyway, but it's going to take considerably more time for me to get to it; from personal experience, I'd say a year or so, as money-making activities always show up and stand in the way).
Work will be mostly done during weekends, which means that in theory it should take 6 weeks, but let's point that to 8 weeks, because there's always the unexpected weekend family activity showing up.
Project start: the weekend after the grant is assigned
Project end: two months later
**Biography**
I'm a Perl monger from Lisbon currently working for Booking.com.
I have almost 10 years of experience with Perl (my language of choice), and I also have strong experience with both Catalyst and Template Toolkit, the tools being used in this project.
I have worked in several areas, ranging from ISPs to Search Engines, and I've also done a lot of web development. The fact that I've never settled for the knowledge I had and pursued conferences and training have made me a better Perl programmer throughout the years (meaning I actually have years of Perl experience and growth, and not just a few months of Perl repeated all over again for 10 years).
I have given a lot of thought to this project (I've been meaning to do this for over a year now), and I've discussed it with several people (including people who would actually use the system and benefit largely from it), which means I already have a lot of feedback on issues and concerns to be addressed, and this will surely contribute for the success of the project.
I also have the mentoring of José Castro, TPF's Community Relations Leader, and given that this is a project for the community, I cannot think of a more appropriate mentorship.
**Amount Requested**
3,000€ (euros)
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Comments (10)
Full disclosure: I'm a member of the Grants Committee.
Concentrating only on the amount requested for the moment:
The original Call for Grant Proposals for this quarter specifically listed the range $500 to $3000.
According to google's currency converter, the requested amount for this proposal is approximately $4,650 at the moment.
I've recommended to the rest of the committee that we should be more explicit in future CFGP, and say "USD" to avoid any confusion.
See the note regarding grant funding amounts.
Regards.
There are several existing services which could be adapted for this purpose. This service would only benefit a small group of people, and those people don't really have a problem finding space without the service.
I agree with the anonymous poster above me. It may be nice, but really not worth that much money.
Hi, Anonymous.
Could you please mention these services that could be adapted, and perhaps detail a bit more on how, exactly?
As for the "small group of people", it seems you're referring only the a small set of people traveling around the world (a group of which the size you may be underestimating) and forgetting about the benefits to the local communities from having these very same people come to their groups and give talks for free.
This year alone, the Perl community in Portugal has benefited a lot with talks from Jesse Vincent, David Fetter, Yuval Kogman, and Adam Kennedy (and we're still half way through the year).
Considering the dozens of people who have attended these talks, which would be way more regular with the existence of this project, I strongly disagree with your argument.
But hey, you might want to refute what I'm saying... Feel free to.
I question whether this site would actually get used.
Why couldn't we just use couchsurfing.com (for example) and agree to tag our profiles with a "Perl" keyword?
I question whether this site would actually get used.
It is true that one cannot predict how many people would actually end up using it, yes.
Why couldn't we just use couchsurfing.com (for example)
Because that would never happen.
I can speak for myself. I have absolutely no interest in using couchsurfing or anything like it.
However, if there was a website that I knew would just be used mostly by Perl Mongers (because you had to be invited in to join), I would definitely join.
I'd rather like to see TFP money go into the direction of Perl development not website development. It also seems somewhat expensive for me ($4600 for 12 days) considering the rates of other hackers. Sorry.
Sorry but I don't really see any benefit to this.
The objective of increasing the number of Perl Mongers who give talks at other groups is of course a good one.
However the benefit of this project seems to be based on an assumption that the reason people are not visiting other groups is because it's too difficult to find somewhere to stay.
But surely just emailing groups you would like to visit and asking if anyone has a spare room would have the same end result?
I don't see why having a website to structure this process is going to make any difference to the amount of people actually making trips.
Nice to have but I agree with FAGZAL - perl dev should be highest priority task.
