Configuring NRP

What a new network needs to do first.

Transcript

1. NRP is a very user-configurable system. The good part of that is, it’s very flexible. The bad part of that is, you have to configure it. It’s almost like programming but not quite as bad. But we are happy to help you configure it.
2. What’s user-configurable? • The home page • The organizational structure ◦ People and groups and how they are related • Resource types ◦ Products, equipment, skills, currencies ◦ Resource categories • Process patterns ◦ Patterns for how process related use cases work • Recipes for creating products and doing things • Exchange types ◦ How resources are transferred between people and groups ◦ Patterns for how exchange related use cases work • Value equations ◦ How income is distributed
3. Home Page You can change the Node Admin side now in Admin (from top right drop down) if you have permission. Pick “Home Page Layout” from the list, then “HomePageLayout object”. You can put anything in html format in the top box, and it will show on the front page. There are also optional selections for what will show below that, in 3 columns. (See next 2 pages.) We don’t have that set up in Admin yet for the work app, but hope to do so. In the meantime, you can send us html and we’ll put it there. Or you can send us content and we’ll make html. Not what we want!
4. Change it here:
5. Organizational structure This is the first set of big decisions to be made. Things can be changed and added to whenever you want, but it is good to put some thought into this up front. This defines the shape of the network. This is completely configurable: • You can define types of agents, like Person, Node, Co-op, Organization, etc. This is what an agent is. • You can define types of associations between agents. These are roles that agents can play in relation to other agents. Like Co-op Worker, Administrative Worker, Sub-group, etc. • Once the types are set up (in Admin), you can create agents and associate them. Needs a lot of fixing up!
6. Resource Types This is the second set of decisions to be made. Things can be changed and added to whenever you want, but you need to set up as much as you know up front. Help, this is just test data! Select Inventory at the top, then Resource Types. They include: • Skills (types of work) at a level you need to request people with skills. May be pretty specific. • Anything you want to log use of, like laptops or space. Or water or food. • Deliverables, at a level to define recipes (see later). • Virtual accounts.
7. Resource Type Categories It will be good to develop this a little more up front. It can be modified at any time as we know more. There are assigned to resource types to filter and to categorize for dropdowns in logging pages. You probably want to develop this more. This is a faceted categorization scheme. It can be simple or very complex. But it is good to start simple and work up as needed. It is done in Admin, choose Facets.
8. Process Patterns This is from Patterns in the top right drop down. You can set up patterns by use case (basically where you are in the app), which govern the resource types that will show up in dropdowns in logging. This takes some understanding of how everything fits together, you can start with what is there, and fix it up as we go along. At least mostly. We’ll have to a little bit up front.
9. Recipes Recipes are optional, but they make planning a LOT easier if you have work that follows a pattern. You can think about them when you start planning work and we’ll see if there are useful patterns. Recipes are done at the Resource Type level. They can be Assembly type recipes or Workflow type recipes.
10. Exchange Types You’ll need a few basic exchange types up front. Then you can define more as you use the system.
11. Value Equations You don’t need any of these to start with, although they are a part of defining a group’s or project’s governance, so it is good to at least get agreement up front on how any income will be split up, so people are not disappointed later, even it it is not in the system yet. A group or project (a context agent) can define any number of value equations for different purposes.