English
Table of Contents:
1. Aim of the Project
Community supported agriculture (CSA) offers the possibility of redefining agricultural production and consumption. New projects of various specifications are being founded presently. Consumers and producers alike are discovering the advantages of regional networks, the value of direct contact, of being able to negotiate production conditions, quality and prices, as well as the commitment to cooperation based on yearly or seasonal contracts.
With OpenOlitor we support existing and particularly newly founded CSA initiatives by dismantling one major obstactle on the road to a successful and functional organisation–that of a reliable and timesaving administration. In order to manage complex structures, while simultaneously keeping risks low and preventing unnecessary administative steps, it is paramount to have a software solution that suits the goals and needs of CSA initiatives. This also applies to direct marketing with a subscription system.
2. Funding
The development of OpenOlitor in its first version costs 154’000 Swiss Francs and is co-financed by the Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG), Tegonal GmbH in Bern, Verein soliTerre (donations of members, contribution from association’s funds, private donation), Fondation Sur-la-Croix, Verein Bioabi, and Kleinbauern-Vereinigung (Small Farmers’ Association). As of July 2016 the financing gap amounts to 11’300 Swiss Francs. Further requests for financial support and call for donations within CSA initiatives are pending.
3. History
The initial idea to develop a web based administrative platform for CSA initiatives came from soliTerre. Since its formation, Verein soliTerre in Bern has been working with an access admin tool developed by Mike Beyer. This tool, successfully tried and tested for the first five years of SoliTerre, became the conceptional basis for OpenOlitor. Concededly this admin tool is neither extendible nor online accessible. Since it cannot be passed on to new and other CSA initiatives, soliTerre and Tegonal GmbH started looking into alternatives.
The liaison between Tegonal GmbH and Verein soliTerre has been strong since the formation of the CSA initiative. In 2015 the team of Tegonal GmbH therefore agreed to collaborate on the development of OpenOlitor and provide substantial in-house efforts. It was clear from the beginning that the new admin platform should be constructed in such as way as to be accessible and practical for as many parties as possible.
A request for financial support was filed with the Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG) in the fall of 2014. A few months later, unrelated to the request of soliTerre, Verein Bioabi put in a similar request to the FOAG. In the course of a joint meeting it became clear that the preparations by Verein soliTerre were so advanced that it made more sense to continue working together on the basis of soliTerre’s ground work. Verein Bioabi therefore withdrew its financial request. Instead, soliTerre, Bioabi and Tegonal GmbH founded Verein OpenOlitor together in the fall of 2015, with the aim of developing the platform OpenOlitor.
4. Organisation
Verein OpenOlitor was founded for the development and maintenance of a web based administration platform for CSA initiatives. “The association has the purpose to formulate and advance the the open source software platform OpenOlitor for the facilitation of regional community based agriculture initiatives and other forms of marketing agricultural products.”1
The association wants to organise all users of the platform OpenOlitor across countries, so that joint decisions regarding the further development of OpenOlitor become possible. The president of the association, Claudia Schreiber, is a board member of the CSA -Verband and Verein SoliTerre and as such has been an active participant of the regional community supported agriculture for many years. Verein OpenOlitor is in close contact with CSA initiatives in Switzerland and abroad, and acts as an interface for community supported agricultures.5. Moduls
The first version of OpenOlitor will cover the following technical requirements, subdivided in different modules:
- Core functionality and master data of the CSA initiative
- Membership administration, accounting
- Delivery schedule and invoicing
- Ressource planing and evaluation
- Organisation of work shifts
6. Participation, International Cooperation
On OpenOlitor-Wiki we describe in detail how it is possible to become active in the shaping of OpenOlitor.
Verein OpenOlitor met with representatives of GHS GmbH (Germany, Ireland) for a workshop in Basel in June 2016. The GHS GmbH had made broad conceptional preparations for the development of an administrative tool (suunu, or CRP project). During the workshop it became clear that both partners fit together technically and in regards to the concept, and are willing to work together to distribute the application for community supported agricultures in the European Union. In a next step, the platform OpenOlitor will now be tested by GHS GmbH in Germany and Ireland. GHS GmbH will then determine what alterations to the platform are necessary for initiatives in Germany and Ireland. A further step will be the implementation of these alterations and the programming of further modules which respond to the needs of the initiatives.7. Demo, Test Website
The present development status is published automatically and can be tested here: wwwtest.openolitor.ch.
This site includes the newest changes to GitHub. Entered data may be altered or deleted without warning.
8. Roadmap
After the release of a first version the roadmap is defined by Verein OpenOlitor, as well as the attached CSA initiatives and further users of OpenOlitor. In a first pilot trial, soliTerre and Bioabi started using the platform OpenOlitor in May 2016. In the fall of 2016, the CSA initiative Pflanzplatz Dunkelhölzli registered well. Until the end of 2016 two further CSA initiatives are looking to join the project.
9. Contact
Further informations and details can be requested via the following email address: info [at] openolitor.ch
10. License
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see www.gnu.org/licenses/.1. „Der Verein bezweckt die Erarbeitung und Weiterentwicklung der Open Source-Softwareplattform OpenOlitor zur Förderung der regionalen Vertragslandwirtschaft und anderen Formen der Vermarktung von landwirtschaftlichen Produkten.“ ↩