[drupal-devel] Contract Module

[Kieran Lal]

On Jun 6, 2005, at 10:40 PM, Nathan Wheatley wrote:

> Hello World,
>
> Just wanted to run an idea past a few of you for a possible  
> contrib. module for Drupal.
> I do freelance design work for people all around the world, and the  
> major problem I find is that there is no way to 'sign off' on the  
> work I am asked to do. What I propose is a 'contract' module.
>
> Using this, a specialised node, accessible only to select users  
> (the creator of the node, and any other person involved in  
> 'authentication' of the work) would be created. This presumes that  
> the other parties involved are members of the Drupal site, but I  
> feel that is a small requirement/ dependency.
>
> Then, all parties (including the node creator) would digitally sign  
> the node (or... its attached file). I imagine the use of MD5, or  
> SHA-1, as they are quite standard (maybe MD5, as it is already used  
> by Drupal). I think that ALL parties should sign it because the  
> client or the employer (node creator) may wish to change things,  
> or, re-read the contract/ agreement.
>
> This is how I see the process:
> document being signed -> hash function -> hash of document ->  
> private key (users password) -> encrypt file -> digital signature.
>
> This would be done for each party involved. Like the attachments  
> are shown currently, the module could also show who has signed the  
> document. Notification could also be given to ALL parties when the  
> document has been signed by everyone.
>
> I know nothing of the processes used to do this, so if I am wrong,  
> or there is a better way to do this, I would really appreciate it.  
> I'd also love your feedback.
>
> I really need this module, but unfortunately don't have the coding  
> experience to make it happen, so, after the details have been  
> sorted out, I will post a bounty for it's development. I would then  
> release it under GPL, back to Drupal of course :P
>

This is  a great idea.   I am not sure how much effort you want to  
put into this but I would suggest you do some reading on Sense and  
Respond business models.  The short of it is that businesses are  
designed to build big structures and optimize their processes.  But  
now they need to focus on rapid adaptation and tools  like this are  
exactly what they need. I tried to get a project funded to do this  
with Instant Messaging at IBM a few years ago but it didn't happen.

But the idea of adaptive micro contracts in a distributed online  
community is truly innovative and worth doing.

Let me know if you want to chat.

Cheers,
Kieran


> --
> Kind Regards,
> Nathan Wheatley

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://drupal3.drupal.org/pipermail/development/attachments/20050607/3e9f5bdb/attachment.htm