Parsley is a project to develop a free, open-source accounting system for small and very small businesses, community groups and individuals.
It will be a multi-user web application to make it easy to employ book-keepers working remotely, and will enable - but not enforce - open-book accounting
We are currently looking for partners, contributors and sponsors.
Platosys is a technology and business consultancy operated by Edward Barrow, a self-taught programmer and systems designer with a background in intellectual property.
Edward Barrow has been involved with the intellectual property aspects of the Internet for over 15 years, since it first escaped the academic realm.
Software published by Platosys is licensed under the General Public Licence (GPL); however, software written for clients is subject to the client's terms and conditions. We can advise whether or not to publish, and under what licence.
We are long-term users of the GNU-Linux operating system, which is licensed under the GPL. It has been our primary OS from the laptop to the server for nearly eight years.
Peersite is a package we have developed to help implement social market networks: social networks with integral value-trading.
We believe that the full public value of the Internet will be realised by building on its ability to expose everything to public scrutiny.
Openness is useless without authenticity. Platosys advocates the use of technology together with public understanding to help ensure authenticity
With our long experience of GNU-Linux we also provide fair-value hands-on support and advice for those considering switching from corporate-controlled software (such as Microsoft Windows/XP/Vista, Microsoft Office/Word/Excel, Apple iTunes etc) to the free alternatives such as the GNU-Linux operating system and the many varied programs that run on it and are compatible with the corporate-controlled alternatives.
We will provide on-site support to GNU-Linux users within cycling distance of our base in Brixton, south London
We produce and maintain a number of packages and APIs which we use to develop our systems. Our aim is to separate and develop these packages for release under an appropriate licence (usually the GPL). Our packages are often simple mid-level front-ends to existing open-source low-level packages, developed to give us cleaner abstractions on which to build our high-level systems.
We are first and foremost Java developers. We like Java's strict typing and object-orientation as much as its cross-platform ability, and we are happy that it is now licensed under an open source licence. But we will also develop in other languages, particularly Javascript, if appropriate to the project.
We develop bespoke systems (principally Java web-applications) using our own and third-party components. Mostly the systems we develop are custom implementations of the peersite packages.
We work mainly with the Java programming language, and we are also very happy with these TLAs: SQL, XML, XSL, MVC and CSS. All our inhouse systems (from laptops to servers) run Debian-GNU/Linux, and we use the NetBeans IDE with Sun's Java 6 JDK. Our servers run Apache Tomcat 6, and our database of choice is Postgresql 8.3
We use Subversion and Mercurial for version control, and peersite incorporates packages using a Subversion repository to handle the history of objects such as forum postings and
The first part of building a system is to have a clear vision of what the user experience should be. This requires imagination and clear thinking. From this vision, we develop our object model, which we keep as simple as possible. Objects hold and process data, and interact with each other through clearly-defined interfaces; the system we then build from the Java classes that implement our object model should then create for real the user experience we started by imagining.
We do not waste our time building function-free demos. Visual design is important, but it's only one way of looking at the underlying system, so we consciously aim to separate semantics from presentation
We try to develop to the latest open standards. We do not support broken web-browsers such as Internet Explorer 5 or Netscape Navigator; Opera, Firefox, Safari and IE7 all now fully and correctly support the xhtml1.1 and css2 standards. Our software is developed and tested only on POSIX-compliant servers; however, all the usual dependencies (java, Tomcat, Postgresql, Subversion) will run on Microsoft servers so our software should require a minimum of tweaking. However as we do not have access to any Microsoft machines we are unable to offer any support for this.
We try not to infringe copyright in software or in content. We prefer not to support monopolistic corporations and therefore do not knowingly use any Microsoft code on any of our systems, and we are increasingly wary of Google.
We aim to be as open as possible in all our business dealings. Parsley is being developed to support open-book accounting and as soon as practical our own business accounts will be handled by Parsely and viewable by all.
We get excited thinking about the potential of the network.
The Internet opens office doors, filing cabinets and boardrooms. Organisations must learn to work under much greater potential public scrutiny. In the new era, transparency is a business asset and confidentiality a conflict of interest.
Traditional approaches to building consumer trust, such as the careful cultivation of brand loyalty, are easily subverted by imitation and forgery, and have been undermined by years of valuing brand over substance.
Technology now offers a new approach: trust through transparency. Organisations confident enough to open up their inner workings to customers and to the public will earn and deserve trust built on foundations far more secure than shallow branding.
Free and Open-Source Software, liberated but not necessarily gratis, is leading the Open Revolution and epitomises the motto "trust through transparency".
Platosys develops, uses, champions and supports free software in business and at home, on the laptop as well as on the server, and promotes Free Software in the local community.