chasers-announce — CHASERS announcements

[Chasers-announce] New CHASERS mailing lists

[Kenneth T. <ken...@gm...>]

Hello folks.  To help facilitate what I hope and believe will be 
newly-increased efforts to improve and disseminate CHASERS, I've created 
two new mailing lists.  One is for technical development efforts 
(chasers-devel), and the other for documentation discussion and issues 
(cleverly named chasers-documentation).

Creating these lists will provide for more specialized discussion among 
subscribers, while allowing those with only a more general interest in 
CHASERS to be spared the gory details.

Subscription to these new lists is of course open to anyone with an 
interest, and also entirely optional.  I would certainly hope, though, 
that at the very least Jonathan, Sarah, Jessi and Nathan will all end up 
as subscribers to chasers-devel.

It will be no surprise to anyone that there is plenty of room for 
CHASERS improvement--it's a target-rich environment!  The general areas 
seem to be:

        increased ease of installation and configuration
        improved documentation
        elimination of legacy code
        enhanced documentation
        increased and more flexible functionality

I've been thinking about this recently, and am working on a list of 
near-term items that I think would be relatively manageable.  I'll try 
to post it shortly (to chasers-devel), and would love to hear other 
people's comments and ideas.

I'll mention one item now, though.  It would be nice to get some of the 
improvements that have been made more recently at DESC incorporated into 
the next release.  Ones that come quickly to mind are the calendar 
repeating events (and child-child-tables) and file attachments.  There 
are likely others that I'm either forgetting or unaware of.  If someone 
at DESC could pull those patches at some point, it would be very 
helpful.  We'll also need to figure out how to keep DESC and public 
versions of CHASERS in sync, but that's a discussion we can have on the 
devel mailing list!

That's about it for now.  After a nice long break, I'm planning to 
devote some significant time and energy towards CHASERS efforts, and am 
excited to be doing so.  I hope some of you still retain CHASERS 
enthusiasm, and want to continue on the never-ending quest for 
improvement!  Hope y'all are doing well!

Ken

[Chasers-announce] CHASERS officially released as Free and Open Source Software

[Kenneth T. <kt...@de...>]

I am happy to say that Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) 
officially released CHASERS as Free and Open Source Software yesterday.  
I've included the announcement text in this email, and it's also 
available online.  Many thanks to everyone who's helped with and 
participated in this project!

Ken

http://www.desc.org/chasers_release.html
http://prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-30-2008/0004895149&EDATE=#

September 30, 2008

*FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT CHASERS,
SEE http://chasers.desc.org/ <http://chasers.desc.org>

DOWNTOWN EMERGENCY SERVICE CENTER RELEASES CHASERS, FREE SOFTWARE FOR 
HOMELESS SERVICE MANAGEMENT AND BEYOND*

Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) is pleased to release its 
CHASERS application as open-source software. DESC uses CHASERS to store 
and manage information about clients, services and agency operations.


Created by DESC, CHASERS is both proven and a work-in-progress, and has 
been under in-house development for approximately five years. During 
this time, CHASERS has been in continuous use, and now contains 
information on over 70,000 clients served by DESC. Key features include 
web-based access, client and staff management, reporting, permission and 
access control, electronic logs, collaborative caseloads and real-time 
notifications.


"CHASERS has become an integral tool in DESC's ongoing work to serve the 
sickest and most vulnerable homeless people in our community," said 
Executive Director Bill Hobson. "We are pleased to release this software 
to the community, and hope it will become useful for other oranizations 
as well."


As used at DESC, CHASERS is built entirely on Free and Open Source 
Software. In this configuration, there are no software or licensing fees 
involved, allowing CHASERS to be used to its maximum potential. One such 
advantage is that every staff member has an account, without additional 
cost.


"DESC has benefitted greatly from the use of Free and Open Source 
Software, and from assistance from free software communities," noted Ken 
Tanzer, DESC's Director of Information Services. "I'm very happy that 
DESC is in turn contributing to the pool of free software. At the same 
time, other organizations have expressed interest in CHASERS. With this 
release, these organizations can begin determining whether CHASERS can 
provide value to their operations."


CHASERS was designed for flexibility and adaptability, and modified 
versions are used for fundraising and volunteer management, and to 
manage data for a research project conducted in cooperation with the 
University of Washington's Addictive Behaviors Research Center and 
funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. A demonstration version is 
available online.



*ABOUT DOWNTOWN EMERGENCY SERVICE CENTER*


DESC is the most comprehensive provider of services and housing for 
chronically homeless adults in Seattle and King County, and has received 
numerous national and local awards. DESC's services include shelter, 
housing, mental healthcare, addiction treatment, and employment 
services. Last year, DESC served over 6,700 individuals and moved 605 
men and women off the streets into permanent supportive housing. DESC 
currently provides 650 units of housing, with another 130 units in 
development. Increasingly, housing development is at the center of 
DESCâEUR^(TM)s mission "to end the homelessness of vulnerable adults."


*INTENDED AUDIENCE AND FUTURE GOALS*


At this stage, CHASERS will be of interest primarily to organizations 
with at least some level of technical expertise. DESC is interested in 
collaborating with other entities in the service delivery, funding and 
technical support communities to continue to expand the functionality of 
CHASERS, create documentation and increase the ease of installation, 
configuration and maintenance.



*DISCLAIMER*


CHASERS is provided entirely as-is, and DESC makes no representation 
regarding the usability or fitness of the software for any particular 
purpose. Entities that choose to use CHASERS do so entirely at their own 
risk, and DESC will under no circumstances be liable for any damages or 
consequences, direct or indirect, in connection with such use.


*FURTHER INFORMATION*


For further information about CHASERS, contact:


Kenneth Tanzer
Director of Information Services
Downtown Emergency Service Center
515 Third Avenue
Seattle, WA 98104
(206) 515-1519
kt...@de...
chasers.desc.org <http://chasers.desc.org>


For further information about DESC, contact:


Nicole Macri
Director of Administration
Downtown Emergency Service Center
515 Third Avenue
Seattle, WA 98104
(206) 515-1514
nm...@de...
www.desc.org <http://www.desc.org>