About

At launch, Regarding Tomorrow is just a hobby site.  No business model, not too many plans except waiting to see what direction the members take us.  It's on the list to form a small business and incorporate to some level.  From there, I'm trying to understand the benefits and limitations of non-profit status (if it's approved, which isn't a guarantee).  The primary focus so far has been getting things up and running.  2013 is for getting started, 2014 is for getting to the next level of logistics.  If anyone has experience they are willing to share, please feel free to contact me at regardingtomorrow@gmail.com.

A Brief History of the Project
The Regarding Tomorrow project goes back to the mid 2000's.  I wish I could remember what seeded the idea, but it's a bit too far back for me to recall.  I do remember the 'aspects of humanity' list started growing around that time, as a way of cataloging each scene's scope.  It took awhile for the list to grow to maturity, but once I had what felt right I started looking for a vehicle to build around it and offer some community aspect.  Myspace and a few other social sites existed at that point, but Facebook was just forming.  

Around that time, open source projects like Joomla and Drupal were starting to gain traction.  Each version showed great promise as a way to provide free platforms for myriad ideas.  This was before Facebook was a blip on the radar, so I hadn't really grown to understand the concept of social networking outside of the obvious.  I eventually decided on Joomla and read through the entire list of modules available at that time, identifying what each offered to the project I had envisioned.

I think it grew a bit too large, by the time I identified everything I wanted.  The project had taken on new direction with social being more important than before.  I started building the structure and gave up after a month of consistent crashes in which the databases would corrupt from some module screwing everything up and making me start from some past point.  It became pretty clear these CMS offerings weren't really mature enough for the needs of the project and my limited time and knowledge of how to hunt down error codes.  I gave up, deciding to watch for a better opportunity.

That opportunity came in 2009, when I discovered Tikiwiki and built the first full version of the site.  It was a good amount of work, but eventually failed.  While Tikiwiki was an amazing product, containing most everything I needed in the base install, it just wasn't polished enough for some of the feature I felt I was missing.  Also, I started a new job that year and found my time limited.  I was forced to let it still fallow while I worked on a major Drupal project for the university.

The Drupal project helped me realize how powerful Drupal had grown in those years.  Suddenly, the project seemed conceivable with every element and feature necessary to offer both a usable platform and excellent community network.  I was sold and only needed some time to get going.

In Fall 2011, I had learned enough working with Drupal 6 (though I wound up using Drupal 7) to kick things off while I was on family leave and before my wife went back to work (giving me a month of stay-at-home daddy time, which is pretty amazing to experience).  I found a few days in which I couldn't possibly get any momentum on my writing and I just jumped into things with both feet.  Two weeks later, I had cut down to a short list of features I still needed to enable.  Unfortunately, testing would eventually show it was a very, very, very incomplete list.

Still working over the holidays, I realized I needed help.  Not just the scattered, sometimes elusive support from the forums, but some real-time support.  So I posted on the Drupal site for help and had a few emails that day.  I worked with the first responder and finally had access to two important things: someone to research how to connect the dots on the really complex features I wanted to include and some just in time training.  I spent a total of $290 and was able to work through and learn how to install so many features before life caught up and I had to change my focus for awhile.  But the truth was, I was burned out.  After I went back to work, I'd kept hammering away in between work, spending time with the baby, taking care of the house and all the myriad errands life could throw at me.  

Oh, and we decided to move - internationally.  That kept us a bit busy as well.

Back in Virginia, the move kept me from the project longer than I hoped. A bit over a year before I could really get my head back in the game.  And getting your head in something this complex - both the project scope and the Drupal work - does take some time and effort.  But it worked.  All the effort was paying off as the hours built towards a fully fleshed site with the bells and whistles we needed.

Also, facing some complex issues, I went back to hiring some support.  Another few hundred dollars (I've assigned past Christmas and birthday money to the project) and we're closing in on the end in July 2013.  Should get beta invites out well before the end of the month.