For mutual understanding...

Assalamo Alaikum!

While I am not happy with the features of this blogging service but till I find something else (Orkut is on the top of my list right now), I will keep posting here to remain in touch.

I emailed a quick list of things to do yesterday via email, which I am also posting here below for reference. But the main point in this post is to bring us all up to mutual understanding of how I see work to proceed on this project.

I am not sure how much you guys are aware of the philosophy of open source/collaborative development mode? Idea is to maintain list of things to do, set some targets and volunteer for things one can do best. So the initiative doesn't remain with a single person. This is how people have built and maintained systems like Linux, MySQL, PHP and scores of other amazingly complex products.

My taking the role of team lead doesn't mean that everything automatically becomes my onus. I would expect self-initiative from the team. To begin with, please feel free to think about and add to the list of things to do I posted - or at least comment on it. Well, it is perfectly ok if you really think there's nothing to comment on it, though!

Farhan, I didn't receive any acknowledgement from you on this list. I need to know what and how much you will be able to contribute? Especially on item#2.

Also, please express your availabilities and time that you may be able to spend during the coming month? Let's officially put the start date to Monday, Feb 11, 2008.

I can put 2 hours daily during week days and 8 hrs on the weekends.

Here's the list of things to do from my earlier mail:

1) Get product details from Anees sb. Irfan & Imran: this Sunday after confirming with Anees sb. on phone. Imran pls call and confirm Anees sb. I will create a n excel template to fill in during the meeting.

2) Create and apply customized template/theme Farhan has already done some work on this but we need to have a few options to choose from. We will also need to take pics of bottles (real good ones).

3) Setup/Verify payment modes/methods
osCommerece provides many many payment options. What needs to be done is to explore all these to see what methods are more applicable to us. Imran or Farhan, pls suggest who will be able to do this. I will give a briefing in person or on phone/email)

4) Define content
This includes history of perfumes, ingredients and other stuff that we want to put. I will take it up - hopefully the actual info will come from Anees sb.

5) Testing/Closed release
Once things are in place we'll need to put the site through rigorous beta testing. This is when we will send invites to people we know and give discounts and take surveys (if needed).

6) SEO
Search engine optimization is an ongoing job but it is important in the long run to make sure that our website will show up in google serach and ads etc - to attract trafic.

wassalam...