After my disappointment with activeCollab's switch to a purely commercial model, I found OpenGoo, which was built on activeCollab 0.7.1 and now will be built on the activeCollab fork ProjectPier. The mission of OpenGoo seems ambitious, to take on the Google platform - docs, collaboration, etc. They're trying to build up from existing tools and glue them together. I think that can work to an extent, but it does put them in the precarious position of relying on many other projects, along with their updates, security, and timelines. The case of activeCollab eludes to this vulnerability, but I guess it also shows that there is some resilience in that they are adapting to another project.
At this point OpenGoo is essentially activeCollab 0.7.1 with several FCKeditor based document editors including a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation system. While this may sound mundane, it actually makes up for one of the most serious deficiencies in activeCollab, the ability to generate documents from within. Basecamp has Writeboards, and activeCollab needed something equivalent. In many ways, these tools could advance the project well beyond Basecamp.
The word processor is the most mature of the applications. It is really just an FCKeditor form, and that works quite well. The spreadsheet is very rudimentary, and the presentation system (see below) while ambitious is really just a proof of concept. I can't see actually using this tool to make a presentation, and there doesn't seem to be a way to upload Powerpoint documents and edit them in OpenGoo, or conversely download existing documents as Powerpoint. The same goes for the other editors. This will need to be addressed at some point to become a viable option.
OpenGoo has a long way to go. I had a number of difficulties getting started. First, FCKeditor is set to use asp by default. Given that activeCollab is in PHP, it seems odd to leave this as the default. It took some time to diagnose this as the source of the problem (OK, it should have been obvious when I started getting error messages about asp scripts on my Linux server). Further modifications were required to allow FCKeditor to upload files, and additional directory permissions needed to be set to allow files to be saved (initially when I tried to save files I got a message that I later translated as the Spanish equivalent to "document saved" but it didn't actually save anything).
What OpenGoo really needs is some testing and documentation, but it shows a lot of promise. If they can get out some of the rough edges, while it may not replace Google docs, it could be a viable project management and collaboration tool in the near future.
At this point OpenGoo is essentially activeCollab 0.7.1 with several FCKeditor based document editors including a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation system. While this may sound mundane, it actually makes up for one of the most serious deficiencies in activeCollab, the ability to generate documents from within. Basecamp has Writeboards, and activeCollab needed something equivalent. In many ways, these tools could advance the project well beyond Basecamp.
The word processor is the most mature of the applications. It is really just an FCKeditor form, and that works quite well. The spreadsheet is very rudimentary, and the presentation system (see below) while ambitious is really just a proof of concept. I can't see actually using this tool to make a presentation, and there doesn't seem to be a way to upload Powerpoint documents and edit them in OpenGoo, or conversely download existing documents as Powerpoint. The same goes for the other editors. This will need to be addressed at some point to become a viable option.
OpenGoo has a long way to go. I had a number of difficulties getting started. First, FCKeditor is set to use asp by default. Given that activeCollab is in PHP, it seems odd to leave this as the default. It took some time to diagnose this as the source of the problem (OK, it should have been obvious when I started getting error messages about asp scripts on my Linux server). Further modifications were required to allow FCKeditor to upload files, and additional directory permissions needed to be set to allow files to be saved (initially when I tried to save files I got a message that I later translated as the Spanish equivalent to "document saved" but it didn't actually save anything).
What OpenGoo really needs is some testing and documentation, but it shows a lot of promise. If they can get out some of the rough edges, while it may not replace Google docs, it could be a viable project management and collaboration tool in the near future.
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