[consulting] Reverse Bounty: og2list - mailing list support for Organic Groups

[Zack Rosen]

(Cross-posted on Drupal.org[1])

Og2list is an add-on module for Organic Goups[2]. It will provide  
full blown mailinglist support for groups created within a Drupal  
website. You can see a demonstration of early og2list functionality  
in this screencast[3]. We hope to add og2list support to  
groups.drupal.org[4] when development work is complete.

Implemented features that need to be tested and debugged

* Subscriber management through Organic Groups
* Email sending and recieving to subscribers synced with Drupal.  
Content posted to groups is sent out to subscribers, replies sent to  
lists are posted as threaded comments and new threads can be  
initiated via email. Currently only supports EXIM mail environment.
* Mailinglist import script. Currently supports Lyris

Features in active development:

* Administration of mailing lists through email commands.
* Sending of file upload links for file attachments on Drupal nodes.
* User selectable list options, including to not recieve email and to  
choose the mail format (text or HTML).
* Ability to disable mail sending and receiving for a group, with old  
mails sent after a group is re-enabled.
* PostFix support in addition to EXIM.
* Robust re-threading of out-of-time messages.
* Parsing of multipart MIME mails.

Future development (not covered in this bounty)

  * CiviCRM integration that will enable users to email CiviCRM groups.

We think og2list will be a very important contribution of critical  
functionality to the Drupal project. While we are living in the age  
of "Web 2.0" web-application innovation, most collaboration that  
takes part in online communities is still facilitated through  
mailinglists. Properly integrating mailinglist functionality inside a  
Drupal platform will allow communities to leverage the best of both  
worlds; the timeliness and convience of email based collaboration  
combined with powerful features only avaliable through the Drupal  
platform.

We need $7,500US to complete og2list functionality and battle test it  
to get it ready for prime-time. CivicSpace Inc has managed and  
developed the functionality so far and will complete the development  
work and testing with funding in place. A grant from the IRDC has  
gotten the project very far along but we need partners to help carry  
this project through to completion. If you are able to contribute  
please contact me: zack [at] civicspacelabs [dot] org.

[1] http://drupal.org/node/59785
[2] http://drupal.org/project/og
[3] http://www.archive.org/download/organicgroups_og2list/ 
drupal_og_og2list.mov
[4] http://groups.drupal.org

-Zack