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Summary

So originally we were thinking, "Hey guys, I heard there was this app called Doodle. It's closed source. Let's make an open-source Doodle killer and call it Clockworks!" More recently, we've been considering what we can do to help schedule things around MIT.

We have a mailing list - if you're interested in helping design the app, just let one of the developers know and we'll add you to our mailing list, clockworks. Or if you just want to hear more about what we're up to, blanche yourself to the public list clockworks-announce.

State & History

Clockworks is in alpha phase; the most basic functions of the system are operational. A user can:

• Make an account via the online registration system
• Login to the web interface to enable poll modifications
• Create a every simple poll
• View poll
• Vote in a poll

The current implementation is in Django. There was an older Clockworks pre-pre-alpha implementation in TurboGears.

Getting started

The best way to get started with Clockworks is to get yourself added to the project, grab a copy of the code, get it running on your laptop, and then poke around the source code.

First, make sure you have Git installed on your system. You can grab it here. Verify that it installed by popping open a terminal and running git --version

Next, grab the source code. If you have Debathena installed on your machine, you can clone the source using git clone /mit/clockworks/clockworks.git. If not, you can use a dialup to get to the directory; git clone ssh://username@linerva.mit.edu/mit/clockworks/clockworks.git works well. If the clone succeeds, you will now have a folder named "clockworks". cd clockworks

Now, to install the application according to the instructions in the repository.

Once you're running, here are some paths to take:

1. Take a break and read some Django documentation to get a feel for the framework
2. Browse through the todo list, pick a task that seems interesting, and start working on figuring out how to make it work
3. Browse the source, fiddle with some variables, see what changes
4. Decide what clockworks should look like, and take off

Development info

Our Git repository is located in AFS in the clockworks locker: /mit/clockworks/clockworks.git

The repo contains a Django project.

Some Simpler Future Steps:

• Create a groups mechanic
• Enable the sending of polls to groups
• Enable poll configurations other than the current default
• Enable users to manage their polls centralls
• Add a user homepage
• Add a homepage

Potential Future Dream Goals

Doodle killer. Extra features. Pump it up.

• Better UI
• Integration
  • Basic: integration with ICS calendars, GoogleCalendar, Exchange, and TechTime (for faculty)
  • Advanced: integration with MIT's course schedules, Facebook
  • Would store persistent profiles of calendar data for users
• Automatically prioritize and schedule events for you
• Create mobile phone friendly version
• View of a single calendar month should show "ghosts" of days from immediately previous and immediately past months, to fill out all the weeks.
• Ability to convert Yes/No polls into Yes/Maybe/No polls (and vice versa)
• When setting up a new poll, ability to copy-paste the times for any arbitrary row into any number of other arbitrary rows
• "Generic week" function
  • Indicates that the response is for a weekly meeting, not a specific date.

Developers

• Paul W. Quimby
• Andrew Farrell
• Geoffrey Thomas
• Paul Baranay
• Edward Yang
• Paul Weaver
• Xavid Pretzer
• Christian Ternus
• David Benjamin
• You?