The ultimate bonsai software........ maybe? - Development, Volunteers, Feature Requests, & More

Stillwater

Mame
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One thing that is missing in this hobby is good software for managing trees and keeping records. There are a lot of "apps" that do a little of this, and a little of that, but no single piece of software that covers the plate. We as a company are hoping to make giant leaps towards solving that problem in 2019. We have had a lot of in house discussions on what this software would look like, features, layout, workflows, ect. and even developed a tiny piece of software to help us out around our nursery just to test a few concepts, but now it's time we think bigger and make something for everyone.

Nobody likes reading giant walls of text so we are going to keep this first post brief, and focused just to get things started, as it is not possible to edit posts on the forum, you will have to browse for subsequent posts for more info as this progresses.

For now we want to get some community input and open a dialogue to make sure this happens.

In the event that this thread gets some traction, to ensure it can be navigated easily we would like to ask that every post in reply to something specific be labeled with a header. For example, if you are wanting to make a feature request please make the first line of your post "FEATURE REQUEST", if you are wanting to volunteer please make the first line of your post "VOLUNTEERING" if you have a general idea then start with "IDEA" ect. you get the point.

Now that all of that is out of the way, onto the software:

Main Functions:

1) Allow the user to keep a running timeline with photos and notes of their trees.
2) Allow the user to set reminders for the tree
3) Make each tree its own entity within the software allowing the user to scroll through the history on a timeline of the specific tree to see past photos and notes
4) Integrate barcode (CODE 128) compatibility for easy scanning of a tree to both input new info about the tree or pull up past info about the tree by using your smartphone or other camera enabled device.
5) Allow exporting of tree information from the database (if you sell a tree to someone who uses the software, you can give them the history of the tree to keep with their records )
6) Display a historical gallery of images of the tree for the user to be able to review progression
7) Be cross compatible across windows, android, and apple.
8) Ability to be stand alone, meaning no need for internet connection and having the ability to store data locally.

Possible other features:

1) A searchable database of insects and pests to help aid in tree infestations
2) A searchable database of plant pathology factors to help aid in tree health issue diagnosis
3) Ability to share trees with other users.
4) Encrypted (sha-256B) artist signatures for verifiable evidence a specific artist or professional has worked on the tree ( IE, if John Naka had worked on your tree, he could have digitally signed it as a piece he worked on, locking in the provenance long after his passing)
There's more but we just wanted to get your wheels spinning for now.

Now on to the hard part............


We have had talks with several software development firms that work with java / javascript, Node .js & Mongo DB (the language this app will be coded with), and as we already knew from having your tiny app built, software development is expensive. which leads us to a crossroads.

WE WANT TO MAKE THIS SOFTWARE FREE FOR EVERYONE, FULLY FREE, FOREVER, AND FURTHER MAKE IT OPEN SOURCE.

The cost of hiring a company to develop the software outright would be equal to the annual salary of 4 of our employees. Most developers bill out at around $40- $85 an hour. Although we're going to foot a lot of costs, we're not willing to lay anyone off just to give away free software. so we have to open a dialog about the rest of the funding.

Our options:

1: Crowdfunding -- Pro's it would allow people to contribute to the development costs, and we could maybe give away beta tester versions of the software to contributors, Con's: we hate handling other peoples money, crowdfunding can be a nightmare, and who knows if any money could be raised

2: Volunteers -- Pro's it would be easier if there were a few software developers in the bonsai community that wanted to give away a bit of their free time to help with coding, Con's: a timeline to completion of a beta version would be hard to estimate as you cant hold someones toes to the fire if your not paying them, and... we have never worked with a repository in that fashion before so there might be hurdles we are unaware of right now.

3: Just pay for the software development then charge people for the software -- Pro's, we cant think of any, Con's as the development costs are 6 figures, and we have no idea how many people would want to purchase it, we would have to charge around $500 or more per license for the software. further, it negates the free and open source concept that we want to keep with on this software.

4: Your idea goes here -- Pro's / Con's


That's it for now. We just wanted to open the dialogue to see where it leads. Please keep in mind, we run a bonsai nursery, we are expanding in a huge sense (10 acres), with far more trees than I care to admit to. It is a huge time commitment. That means that I / we very seldom have time to sit down behind the internet box and browse around. With that in mind, please don't take offense if it takes a few days or even a week for us to check back in here. Rest assured eventually we will read through everyone's ideas, comments, and feedback. Even the trolls... and once the ball gets rolling on developement we will make sure someone at the nursery has the job of keeping the interwebs updated on progress at least once a week.
 

eryk2kartman

Chumono
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Great idea guys,

I really like it, using some diary software for the moment but all is all over the place.
Being able to categorize trees is very important, you should have an option to bunch them together, for example - desert trees category or something, maybe a bit of care guidance for each wouldn't harm.
Like pre-set values for each type of tree, being able to build your own care database is important too.

I only have a 1 ask - PLEASE MAKE PC VERSION not only android app. not using samrt phone and not have any intention to do :)

Best of luck with the project
 

M. Frary

Bonsai Godzilla
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I use my little old brain to keep track of my trees.
It's all part of being connected with them.
 
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