[libreoffice-website] Re: What's the official policy about the LibO website: Drupal or no Drupal?

Hi all:

Le 2010-12-15 18:01, David Nelson a écrit :
> Hi, :-)
>
> There is also the question of who would administer a Drupal site. I'm
> not currently aware of any candidates with the right profile, unless
> Christian was willing to do it.
>
> Administering one of TDF's Web resources requires a lot of technical
> knowledge and experience. It's not the same as simply setting-up a
> site, theming it, installing a choice of modules and away we go.
>
> The code base behind the website is managed via a TDF-managed git
> repository. You can't just tweak and edit files on the server. The
> admin has to have the knowledge to be able to configure site modules
> in a way that properly interacts and works with the server and other
> TDF resources possibly affected. Christian will be able to tell you a
> lot more about those technical aspects.
>
> The admin has to be someone known and trusted by TDF and Ooodevs De,
> because he/she will have access to important project resources. Even
> if one found someone from outside with the necessary knowledge and
> experience of Drupal *and* of system admin, that person would still
> have to go through at least the "qualification" period (currently
> stated as 3 months in the soon-to-be-applicable community bylaws [1])
> before being a possible candidate.
>
> > From the past discussions of Drupal, I'm not aware of any candidates
> for the job - unless Christian himself were to take on the task. By
> candidate, I mean someone with the necessary technical qualifications
> *plus* the motivation, desire and long-term commitment to steering and
> handling the changeover, and to dealing with the site administration
> on an on-going basis.

I believe that Michael has proven his abilities at creating as well as 
showing excellent skills at managing what is shaping up to be both a 
great community and product site. I don't see why he would also not be 
considered along with Christian as candidate to admin the site. We 
should never rely on just one person to admin/manage a site as it leads 
to problems with replacing that one person should they no longer be able 
to fulfil their responsibility.

I also believe that Michael will have at this point the required 3 
months period to fulfil the bylaws as a possible candidate. I am sure 
this is quite evident to all by the amount of support and participation 
he has brought to the project.

Clearly, Michael has shown and proven his motivation for the project as 
well as determination at details with regards to openness in his 
approach to constructing a TDF/LibreOffice solution (as demonstrated by 
the Drupal wiki pages: 
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Website#The_LibreOffice_Drupal_Project). 


> In addition, before being adopted as LibO's new CMS, a
> fully-operational, full-featured demo has to be offered for *thorough
> prior evaluation*. It's not enough to be evangelizing Drupal and
> saying it *can* do this and it *can* do that. It has to be proven and
> concretely demonstrated that it's a superior choice and that TDF/LibO
> really *needs* it. True meritocracy is supposed to be the driving
> force behind this project.

Quite right. The Drupal TDF/LO site is being constructed and people are 
participating in its construction. Roles/tasks are being requested and 
placed on the wiki page 
(http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Website/Tasks_and_volunteers as well 
as 
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Website/Drupal_Strategy#Further_Core_and_Structure_Development). 
We have also had some offers of help from one  Drupal website design 
firm. We are also fortunate with having as TDF/LO member and Drupal 
members, Andrea Pascetti, who is also quite active in the European 
Drupal scene as well as Michael Wheatland who is our lead Drupal site 
builder. As well, let's keep in mind that Drupal in the largest CMS in 
the world, and, the likelihood of finding members well-versed in its 
operation on our membership list would be quite high. Invitations to 
local language groups has/are been made and accommodation for language 
barrier will be made. The Drupal dev team should make use of all talents 
of our membership regardless of language barriers.

Content on the Drupal site has not been provided as we have all been 
busy readying different aspects of the LO project. What content on the 
site was only provided as examples. But yes, as you say, a 
"fully-operational site" would be necessary to evaluate. This would then 
require content on the site, which will therefore have to occur in order 
to better exemplify it capabilities.

> No official decision has yet been taken by the SC/BoD (i.e. via a vote
> that complies with the community bylaws), so Drupal is presently a
> possible choice for consideration, but not more. You only have to read
> the SC meeting minutes [2] to be clear about that:
>
> "vote if to start with Silverstripe or Drupal
> result: 6 for Silverstripe vs. 2 for Drupal ->  2/3rd majority for Silverstripe
> reason to vote for Silverstripe was in most cases that a fast go-live
> is expected and that there are people to do administration and take
> care about content
> reason to vote for Drupal was the higher flexibility (and therefore
> better long-term solution) as well as having several people with good
> knowledge about drupal
> suggestion is that the website team should do some more planning, what
> we need regarding website, additional services, and see how this can
> be achieved with drupal. We see the need of a more sophisticated CMS
> in the future."
>
> Let me say that it's not that I'm against the adoption of Drupal per
> se. But I think that it would have to be proven that it's in the
> community's interests, and I would not like to see the project
> bulldozed through hype, disinformation and hypothetical claims.

Strange, I have not seen any cases of "bulldozed through hype, 
disinformation and hypothetical claims" used in any of the communication 
from the Drupal team. I would certainly not want to be part of any team 
where this would take place without proper redress. I, for one, would 
certainly like to be informed of any such claims if you or anyone else 
has any such information.

The Drupal team offers, as according to the SC decision relayed to the 
members of the TDF/LO 
(http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.documentfoundation.libreoffice.website/592), 
an alternative to the Silverstripe solution to be ready within the next 
6 months. As per the discussion at the Oct. 27th meeting (see voice 
recording here: 
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/TDF/Steering_Committee_Meetings#Minutes_2010-10-27 
as the written notes are not that complete regarding the Drupal 6 month 
requirements), the SC would like to see Drupal plans, guidelines, site 
structure as well as analyse the needs of the community in order to 
facilitate group participation on the site. The bulk of this has been 
done by the Drupal team.

If you have followed the threads the major concerns about the CMS' is 
with regards with the localisation and translation facilities within the 
website structure. There will be the possibility of using the Drupal 
translation facilities in a very structured way (static pages and 
wherever the translation is optimal) and the localisation teams will 
certainly be accommodated with tools necessary to complete their task 
conveniently -- the consultative process will best determine their 
needs. Language groups will additionally have full control over their 
Drupal website pages. We will need to discuss whether we, as a group, 
will want a homogeneous approach to the construction of the page 
structure within the language group sites -- again, through a 
consultative process.

Members of the team have been participating in different lists and 
monitoring the requirements of different groups and trying to find 
solutions that are acceptable to these groups. Research into appropriate 
Drupal extensions/modules were then made and implementation of these is 
on-going. You can see this progress here: 
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Website/Drupal_Modules.

Taking a sober look at the Drupal site, it is already quite at an 
advanced stage considering the very few weeks it has been worked on. It 
has been remarked on quite a few occasions by TDF/LO members as to why 
content could not be added to the Drupal site already and go with it. 
For those unfamiliar with the site you may see it here: 
http://www.libreofficeaustralia.org/forum/community/documentation/test-team-forums.

As you can see, the Drupal site may in fact be in the members' and 
community interest as it is quite a flexible CMS as well as having quite 
a multitude of modules and most importantly to the TDF/LO a large 
community pool of help resources if called upon. Again, finding members 
adept at running Drupal sites across all language memberships is more 
likely than any other CMS.

> [1] http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/CommunityBylaws
> [2] http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/TDF/Steering_Committee_Meetings#Minutes_2010-10-27
>
> David Nelson

Cheers

Marc


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