Hello,

I've started this thread to talk about what motivated us to create our
projects, the broader goals we're working to achieve, and the methods and
tools we've employed within our virtual spaces here to get things done.

It's clear just from browsing the site that people have a lot of different
goals for their OpenPlans projects, and have their own unique ways of using
OpenPlans.  When you visit the OpenPlans site homepage, the objectives of
recently updated & newly created projects might range from coordinating
staple purchases from local producers in
Italy<http://www.openplans.org/projects/retegaslazio>to advancing
progressive politics in
Canada<http://www.openplans.org/projects/the-thinking-group/summary>...
to developing
community marketing materials for an open source software
project<http://www.openplans.org/projects/plone-marketing>... to
acquiring
a .NYC top-level domain name for New York
City<http://www.openplans.org/projects/campaign-for.nyc>
!

I'm really excited to talk more with other OpenPlans members and hear how
and for what purpose they're using OpenPlans projects.  It's my hope that we
can use the experiences of OpenPlans members and their projects to inform
the long term development of the project, both by strengthening the
software's support for the use cases of projects that have found success,
and by highlighting those success stories here, on the site itself.  That
way, we can draw attention to individual projects, improve the software
platform, and build up a knowledge base all at the same time -- and produce
some helpful tips and lessons for new OpenPlans members and their projects,
while we're at it.

In the short term, I think a great way to get the conversations going would
be to share some individual perspectives -- whatever you have time for --
on:

 * What were the motivating factors // real-world needs that led me to start
my OpenPlans project and/or participation?

 * What did I hope to accomplish with my OpenPlans project?

 * Was I working alone, or did I have a team with me working in my OpenPlans
project space?

 * Was the project intended for an ongoing long-term collaboration, or was
it focused on a specific event or initiative?

 * Which OpenPlans tools (wikis, mailing lists, task management, blogs,
project summary, contents..) were used in the project?  How extensively did
I use them?  What did my project use them to do?

 * How did it all work out?  Was using OpenPlans helpful in supporting my
efforts and objectives, and to what degree?  Why or why not?  If it wasn't,
was OpenPlans *lacking* something I needed critically, or did it *do*
something that hindered my efforts?  If it was, were there any specifics I
could point to that OpenPlans really helped with?

(I'll hold off on answering my own questions here, at least in the very
beginning; my experiences as an OpenPlans member are probably pretty
atypical since I'm one of its software's programmers, and I don't want to
muddle the conversation.)

I'm looking forward to hearing about your experiences!

-Ethan

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