Psyvornet is a website which is created and run by, exists for, and serves the Psychiatric Survivor community (survivors of mental illness are often referred to as consumer/survivors). Some of the many components of Psyvornet include a database of mental health resources in multiple cities, forums, chat rooms, blogs, social networking, user-created photos, artwork, poetry, short stories, autobiographies, and custom-made sites including user pages and info pages of mental health resource providers. All content is written in 2 languages: Pyrenthic (a Python dialect) and Pyrentags (simplified HTML). Those users with software development skills can extend Psyvornet by adding features to existing components, or by creating brand new components. The database of mental health resources is compiled/maintained with the assistance of members of the Clerical Unit of Progress Place in Toronto, and eventually other Clubhouses in Canada, the US, and overseas.
Funding
All member organizations with more than one active user (every Psyvornet registered user logs in with an email and password) in a given 2-month period must pay a membership fee based on the no. of active users. An active user is defined as a user who logged in more than once in a given 2-month period. Membership fees are as follows: 2 - 5 active users = $10 per 2-month period, 6 - 10 users = $25, 11 - 30 users = $50, 31 - 100 users = $90, over 100 users = $150. Users can be members of zero or more organizations, and all new member sign-ups are verified by a designated employee of a given organization. An additional funding source is charging licensing fees to web hosting services which support websites (apart from Psyvornet member sites) written in Pyrenthic/Pyrentags. Google AdSense ads displayed whan a search result is clicked on provide additional revenue.
Resource Database
The database of mental health resources consists of 4 components: geography, diagnosis, audience, and service provided. Each component is a separate branch of the database tree, and can have multiple levels of sub-branches. Each node in the tree can belong to zero or more member organizations. Each organization can have one geography node (usually a city), except umbrella organizations can have multiple cities. Each organization can have multiple diagnoses, audiences (e.g. consumer/survivor, family member, professional), and services provided. The audience and service nodes can be linked, e.g. family members and support groups, or consumer/survivors and supportive housing.
Why 2 New Languages?
Pyrenthic/Pyrentags is like Python/HTML with training wheels. The developer is not faced with having to install and master numerous tools, frameworks and languages, and Python is, to begin with, one of the easiest languages to master. Pyrenthic is an attempt to make web programming more like programming for the desktop, a more familiar paradigm to most developers. One problem with JavaScript is that it encourages developers to write questionable code. Both Python and Pyrenthic have less tendency to encourage bad coding practices.
About Me
I am Mike Hahn, the founder of Treepilnet.com. I was previously employed at Brooklyn Computer Systems as a Delphi Programmer and a Technical Writer (I worked there between 1996 and 2013). At the end of 2014 I quit my job as a volunteer tutor at Fred Victor on Tuesday afternoons, where for 5 years I taught math, computers, and literacy. I'm now a volunteer computer tutor at West Neighbourhood House. My hobbies are reading quora.com questions/answers and the news at cbc.ca. About twice a year I get together with my sister who lives in Victoria. She comes here or I go out there usually in the summer. At those times I'm much more active, but most of the year I tend to lie on the couch a lot, and not be very active. I do, however, visit my brother once a month or so and belong to Out of Your Shell, a social-recreation group for shy people.
Contact Info
Mike Hahn
Founder
Treepilnet.com
2495 Dundas St. West
Ste. 515
Toronto, ON M6P 1X4
Canada
Phone: 416-533-4417
Email: hahnbytes (AT) gmail (DOT) com
Web: www.hahnbytes.com