Nemasket Technologies

I’ve been using open source software for many, many years now. The very first project I ever contributed code to was MRBS – the Meeting Room Booking System.

I’d been tasked by my manager to find a web based system that in-house engineers could use to book time on the company testers. With each machine costing potentially over $1M there weren’t all that many to go around. In pretty short order I came across MRBS which I think was originally forked from WebCalendar. It was real close to what I needed but not quite there. I felt that it needed some work in the navigation area. I added much of the top navigation panel that contains the search box, Help, Report, and some variables to easily customize the tool for your site. I wrote the “Help” page which still has my name in one of the example FAQ style questions. MRBS has been running for years without problem.

I’ve been on the MRBS mailing list for years. The traffic is steady but not overwhelming. Not so long ago, I saw a question posted from a familiar looking name – somebody from my town I was familiar with but had never met. He was having trouble with a client’s MRBS install and the list wasn’t helpful because it was obvious from the error messages that the tool had been customized. I contacted him and ended up getting the work subcontracted to me and made a few bucks. In fact at the moment I am writing a backup utility for the same customer and field a support call or two every other month or so.

It was this gig that made me decide to branch my small business out to include open source application support, PHP, perl, MySQL, and other technologies. Thanks Tony.