Sunday, February 1, 2009

On the precipice of chaos

One of the things I have talked about before is how much paperwork Doug generates. Every program has it's own set of reports. Some are incoming status reports of how things are progressing, and some are outgoing status reports of how we are directing funding or applying for new or updated supports.

Either way, we end up with a lot of paperwork. Allison is the consummate organizer, and we have several nicely categorized binders of stuff. It's all accessible and at our fingertips, and we (or at she) can pull out virtually any document within a minute or two. It has been very successful so far - as when we are at a meeting and a doctor asks about what another specialist said in their last report, we can pull it out of the backpack and provide instant information.

Except we're outgrowing the binder system. They are full to overflowing, and getting really really heavy to carry around. I don't think the system can handle too much more "growth". I feel the need to modernize.

I want to be able to scan and store all of the paperwork electronically. We'd archive the paper copies, and just go to appointments with the laptop. Ideally, I'd like some sort of document management system that would convert the paper to pdfs, and then index them by content so that we could search for files either by categories and dates, or by the contents of the files themselves. And, as more and more people request copies of files, I'd like to be able to track who has been given which files. Data privacy is very difficult to achieve retroactively.

I'm sure that such an application exists, but I've got a few new hopes as well. I'd like to be able to have it :
- store contacts and appointments
- link contacts and appointments to the reports and paperwork in the document manager
- not store things in proprietary formats - 10 years from now, I may need to get at the data without the applications
- be open source applications - I can't afford to maintain a multi-million dollar application for this
- be able to redact files so that I can give different versions of reports to different people depending on their needs

And then - being a dreamer - I have visions of something like this being made into a free distribution. A free, open source software package designed to run on a cheap laptop (like the EeePC) and made available to all of the others who find themselves in the same boat we do.

So, if any open sourcer's want to flex their skills on building a distribution, talk to me. I'd be happy to provide vision and direction to the process...