Future IT tools
There's a lot of great things going on on the 'net.
This page attempts to collect stuff possibly relevant for use at Homebase, but not yet ready for consumption.
Address books
No new invention really, but not yet implemented at Homebase, is the use of LDAP-based address books.
LDAP means the information is available directly from within several existing applications including many major email programs.
Scheduled for october 2005 a long overdue project is to not only offer a directory of the Homebase members, but also read/write access to personal and shared address books. Currently the aim is to integrate with an updated version of HORDE - the web application currently used for IMP (Internet Mail Program).
Word processing
AbiWord has a plugin in the works for collaborative editing, possibly getting included in version 2.6. The application is Free Aoftware and seems available for all major computer systems today.
The communication is XMPP - better known as the chat system Jabber.
Sketching
Development versions of Inkscape integrates inkboard - collaborative sketching!
The communication is XMPP - better known as the chat engine Jabber.
Internet phone
When Homebase got Internet access in the fall of 1996 the excuse was to cut phone bills after the shocking experience of sending team 3 to San Francisco while maintaining the free use of phones for students. Since the rules of phone use has changed and (with the notable exception of a ISDN-based videophone sponsorship from TeleDanmark) IP phones have not yet entered Homebase.
JonasSmedegaard has not given up, however, and work on IP phone systems based on Free Software and Open Standards are reaching a usable state.
While peer-to-peer systems like iChat pose a heavy burden on bandwidth, the aim is to setup a "switchboard" with a "phone number" for each Homebase member, which also makes it possible to bargain directly with providers of conventional phone lines to connect those. Imagining calling for free between Homebase and KaosPilot/FrontRunner outposts throughout the world, and for only local cost from those outposts to local-to-Denmark destinations...
Also, video phones are possible within same framework. This has extra bandwidth requirements, however, so if too popular may need to get restricted somehow (or bandwidth raised, depending on budgets).
Blogging
Zulma has worked on web collaboration tools, possibly including a blogger tool, for the Kaospilot school.
Generally for Homebase is work on adding blogger tools as well, including a "planet" - a "collector" of several blogger "feeds" into a group blog page.
Kiosk machines
When Homebase was started in the summer of 1996, the KaosPilot school considered computers for students part of the school budget. This has since changed, and the most recent of machines bought for students are collecting dust as too old for interesting work.
Both those and similar machines at the FrontRunners can now have a new life as so-called "thin clients" - keyboard and screen linked to a newer central machine running all the applications. The system is running Linux and is an old invention - the new thing is Linux now becoming user-friendly enough to be of practical use, relaxing the dependency of an own machine for school use from requirement to recommendation.
Personal profiles
Each user has an account. When address books works, each user can maintain their own contact info, for the organisation to use. Ideally, each user can also mark which parts of their own info is confidential, and which is to be public available.
Most members of Homebase (all current KP staff members and recent KP students) have had their face photographed. These photos can be simplified and converted into X-Faces, usable with Thunderbird and other email tools.