Introduction

Sanjha Choolha : sān-jhā choo-lhā

n. A communal kitchen popular in the villages of Punjab

If you have worked in non-profits, you would have also felt that there are times when we cannot properly utilize the manpower available in enthusiastic volunteers. Sanjha Choolha aims to be a system to solve this fundamental problem.

Key Concept

The key concept behind the system is that of a term we coined, an

Acton: act-on

n. Fundamental unit of action

The idea is to post actons on a system, and allow people to easily search and volunteer for them. One constraint will be that each acton has an upper limit on how much time it is expected to take.

This system helps people to contribute towards a common goal by signing up for and completing concretely defined tasks with clear requirements of time and skills.

What YOU can do

Well, a lot, actually. For starters, how about "starring" this project using the star icon on your right. Also,

• Visit our Initial Thoughts Wiki Page and post a comment to let us know what you think.
• Visit our Hello World Issue and star it. Or post a comment.
• Visit our blog and follow us on google friend connect there.
• Have a look at the mockups, and let us know what you think.
• Browse the issue list and see if something interests you. Or propose a new one.
• Let us know if you have one or more of the skills in the section below.

Skills Needed

This is planned to be a project for the google app engine, but nothing stops us from porting it to other platforms. For now, the skills needed are:

• Database Design
• CSS based Webpage Design
• Expertize in JavaScript libraries and framworks such as jQuery and Dojo
• Templating expertize in Django
• Coding for the google AppEngine (different from Google Apps) in Python

If you are interested, drop a line to animesh @ gmail.com

(Note: Yes, We have looked at issue-tracking systems such as Bugzilla and Trac, but found them ill-suited for this more general form of collaborative work. Specifically, they do not allow easy searches based on "expected time" and "skills", which is very important IMO in non-profits. Also, we are looking for something that runs on the google appEngine, so that it is free and scalable.)