Compost is an easy web-based way to grow consensus with your designs. Upload designs and allow your clients to annotate, rate and discuss. Easily revise comps based on feedback and get approval.
Compost is currently in version 0.8beta. Coming-soon features include email notifications, project searching, and an iPhone application.
Compost is free software, released under GPLv3. You have the freedom to:
- - use the software for any purpose
- - change the software to suit your needs
- - share the software with your friends and neighbours
- - share the changes you make
Getting Started
You can download the latest version of Compost here. Follow the README instructions to get Compost up and running in seconds.
If you have any suggestions or problems, be sure to drop us a line.
Compost Versus Alternatives
Compost differs from most feedback systems in that it is completely free and open source. Here is a chart that compares some popular feedback systems to Compost.
| |
Compost |
Getsignoff |
backboard |
redmark |
Concept feedback |
Notable |
ConceptShare |
| Web-based |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Any type of design |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| Ability to annotate designs |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
| Comment on annotations |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Create Revisions |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
| Change the look and feel of the site |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
| Unlimited clients, projects and designs |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
| Free |
Yes |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
| Open Source |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
No |
| Each project can have multiple reviewers |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Clients can rate designs |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
| Permissions-based projects |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
| iPhone App |
Coming Soon! |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
Participate
If you’re handy with PHP, jQuery and Code Igniter we encourage you to become a committer! Help us move Compost forward and give back to the open source community.
To get started, visit the project at Google Code – there you can familiarize yourself with the issues, checkout the source code and browse changes. You will need to be a member of the project to commit any changes – to become a member, send an email to gavin.blair at rtraction.com and I’ll add you as a committer.
If you’re not a coder you can still help out by testing Compost and providing feedback.
Coming Soon
Very soon Compost will have an iPhone app, drag-and-drop design ordering, and email notification options. What features would you like to see in Compost? Leave a comment below or at our feedback site.
gavinblair
As someone who loves to help others,
Gavin is not easily ruffled. Poorly designed software is one of his few pet peeves, and we can count on Gavin to find solutions and make improvements in all kinds of applications. In his own words, he likes to "fight the good fight for quality code." He loves food and finding adventure in the kitchen, cooking with his wife. On one occasion, the combination of a white-hot skillet and no ventilation led to so much smoke they had to stop, drop and roll - but did end up eating "the best blackened catfish po'boy you can imagine."
Drupal and Wordpress are two essential tools in any web developer’s backpack. Both open source content management systems allow the developer to rapidly design and build fully functional websites, however each has its own benefits for you and your client. Here are six questions to consider when deciding which one to use for a project.
Read the rest of this entry »
gavinblair
As someone who loves to help others,
Gavin is not easily ruffled. Poorly designed software is one of his few pet peeves, and we can count on Gavin to find solutions and make improvements in all kinds of applications. In his own words, he likes to "fight the good fight for quality code." He loves food and finding adventure in the kitchen, cooking with his wife. On one occasion, the combination of a white-hot skillet and no ventilation led to so much smoke they had to stop, drop and roll - but did end up eating "the best blackened catfish po'boy you can imagine."
Whenever your browsing the web I’m sure you’ve run into many websites that have horrible loading times. If your sites are slow this can impact your customers and your business.
Here’s some helpful hints to get you headed in the right direction:
1) Host any dynamic website on apache whenever possible – it will run fast and handle heavy loads with ease
2) Use tools like YSlow from Yahoo! to get suggested speed fixes on all your sites.
3) Build caching into your custom web sites and utilize caching in any existing frameworks when provided.
4) Take the time and energy to go through both your apache httpd.conf and your php.ini (if applicable) and verify you only have necessary features enabled. Adding extra bloat to your server will slow it down – and make handling heavy amounts of traffic more difficult.
5) Monitor your log files for software bugs and when you’re content with a running site – disable all non-critical logging as the server error logging can cause some delays.
6) Use the built in apache benchmarking tool called ab – you can’t go wrong with this tool.
7) Get in touch with a Professional for some additional tweaks, testing and benchmarking. Typically a small investment can leverage large gains in performance.
Starting with the suggestions above you should be well on your way to reducing your page response times by at least 50%.
Developing a good backup strategy requires thoughtful planning, from the selection of devices to the determination of backup schema and other logistical issues. Each step must be carefully analyzed in light of such factors as staffing, technical expertise, and budget. We’ll take a look at these factors and break down the requirements of a successful backup strategy.
read more …
Shawn Adamsson
One of the original three founders of rtraction, Shawn describes his role as being a "cat herder". He ensures all of the work is done on time, on budget and spends a lot of his time facilitating the dialogue between clients, coders and the creatives. Shawn’s approach to life is based on the belief that it doesn't matter what you're doing if you enjoy the company of the people you are doing it with.
from Lifehacker: “It’s known that most spam (particularly malware such as keyloggers) originates overseas (Estonia, Moldavia, China, Poland, etc.) By blocking email from most of the undeveloped world, I’ve successfully reduced spam by 95 percent in the past year. In Outlook, click Actions > Junk E-Mail > Junk E-Mail Options. Click the International tab, then the Blocked Top-Level Domain List button. Now select the countries you wish to block.”
Very handy little tip.
Shawn Adamsson
One of the original three founders of rtraction, Shawn describes his role as being a "cat herder". He ensures all of the work is done on time, on budget and spends a lot of his time facilitating the dialogue between clients, coders and the creatives. Shawn’s approach to life is based on the belief that it doesn't matter what you're doing if you enjoy the company of the people you are doing it with.
“If Microsoft Windows ever notifies you about a weak signal, it probably means your connection isn’t as fast or as reliable as it could be. Worse, you might lose your connection entirely in some parts of your home. If you’re looking to improve the signal for your wireless network, try some of these tips for extending your wireless range and improving your wireless network performance.”
Very straightforward advice for people new to wireless.
read more…
Shawn Adamsson
One of the original three founders of rtraction, Shawn describes his role as being a "cat herder". He ensures all of the work is done on time, on budget and spends a lot of his time facilitating the dialogue between clients, coders and the creatives. Shawn’s approach to life is based on the belief that it doesn't matter what you're doing if you enjoy the company of the people you are doing it with.
“Enterprise wireless LAN security is a persistent concern for every system administrator and CIO. Threats from both within and without the enterprise threaten your data each and every day. This download gives you the basic foundation you need to secure your enterprise wireless connections by detailing security protocols such as the Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol (PEAP), the Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol (LEAP), Cisco EAP-FAST authentication, and Microsoft IAS RADIUS. The guide also walks you through the configuration of these authentication protocols so you can properly implement them in your enterprise.” (registration with TechRepublic required)
read more…
Shawn Adamsson
One of the original three founders of rtraction, Shawn describes his role as being a "cat herder". He ensures all of the work is done on time, on budget and spends a lot of his time facilitating the dialogue between clients, coders and the creatives. Shawn’s approach to life is based on the belief that it doesn't matter what you're doing if you enjoy the company of the people you are doing it with.
“Following old-school backup routines for data backup could put your business at risk. To avoid disaster, you need to think about what data you need to recover—and how quickly.
When it comes down to the nitty-gritty details of backup, most small-business owners (along with most individual users) have a less-than-solid grasp on the reality of their backup needs. This knowledge gap should come as no surprise, since the path of least resistance is to follow the tradition of daily backup, rather than taking the time to examine one’s workflow and determine real needs.”
read more…
Shawn Adamsson
One of the original three founders of rtraction, Shawn describes his role as being a "cat herder". He ensures all of the work is done on time, on budget and spends a lot of his time facilitating the dialogue between clients, coders and the creatives. Shawn’s approach to life is based on the belief that it doesn't matter what you're doing if you enjoy the company of the people you are doing it with.
“Wireless networks, like their wired counterparts, rely on the manipulation of electrical charge to enable communication between devices. Changes or oscillations in signal strength from 0 to some maximum value (amplitude) and the rate of those oscillations (frequency) are used singularly or in combination with each other to encode and decode information.”
read more…
Shawn Adamsson
One of the original three founders of rtraction, Shawn describes his role as being a "cat herder". He ensures all of the work is done on time, on budget and spends a lot of his time facilitating the dialogue between clients, coders and the creatives. Shawn’s approach to life is based on the belief that it doesn't matter what you're doing if you enjoy the company of the people you are doing it with.
“Over the last ten years, our world has become interconnected in ways not previously imaginable. Today, for instance, people in Spain, the US, and Brazil can find out simultaneously that soccer-star David Beckham has switched teams. Small companies can now affordably be spread across the globe, and big companies can now have inter-office collaboration on a daily basis. But all of that interconnectedness relies in large part on our ability to protect the networks that create those connections.”
read more…
Shawn Adamsson
One of the original three founders of rtraction, Shawn describes his role as being a "cat herder". He ensures all of the work is done on time, on budget and spends a lot of his time facilitating the dialogue between clients, coders and the creatives. Shawn’s approach to life is based on the belief that it doesn't matter what you're doing if you enjoy the company of the people you are doing it with.
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