Re: [PLUG] The PLUG Website

["Randy Schmidt" <randy@umlatte.com>]

I accidentally hit send in the middle of the email...so here it is in one piece:

Hi,

At one of the last meetings I spoke briefly about a project I am
working on called "OSS Bee" (ossbee.org) which aims to help Open
Source Software groups cross-pollinate.

I have made some progress on it and I hope to "launch" it in around a
month with what I consider to be core features which includes:

1. Manage group information - I don't plan to be the one-stop shop for
everything a group will need, for instance, I won't be a photo gallery
or a list serv
2. Manage group meetings, segments, and locations
3. Allow users to "join" a group and provide an aggregated listing of
all of the events for the groups they belong to. I hope to have it in
the form of an ical feed as well.
4. Users can vote/comment on segments they have attended
5. Users can browse events that have happened and their related
ratings and comments and suggest that person present the topic to
another group (this is where the cross-pollination comes in)
6. RSVP to meetings whether or not you are a user or a member of the group

After the core features have been implemented and launched, I have
several other features I would like to implement:

1. Townhall meetings where there are segments that come from different
groups but complement each other
2. Robust user profiles

OSS Bee is NOT

1. The end all be all of managing everything about all groups
2. Just about LUGs

I want to launch it as soon as possible with bare-bones features and
get groups to start using it. I want to get feedback and observe how
people are ACTUALLY using the site and change directions if needed.

I hope I can get PLUG and other groups in the area using it so that it
can turn into a tool that actually solves a problem well.

I know all of this sounds very web 2.0, but I believe web 2.0
describes sites that solve a problem as simply and elegantly as
possible. Because of that, I don't find it reasonable to stay away
from something that resembles that just because it is a buzzword.

I welcome feedback, so let it fly!

Thanks!
Randy Schmidt
randy@umlatte.com

On 4/27/07, Matthew Rosewarne <mukidohime@case.edu> wrote:
> On Friday 27 April 2007 20:29, Elizabeth Bevilacqua wrote:
> > Now we'd like to move forward with developing other sections of the
> > website. For now we're just redeveloping existing sections. We're not
> > looking to do some dramatic overhaul as there is a lot of value in the
> > basic design, but there is a lot of out-dated information.
>
> Although the idea is to not change the site too fundamentally, might it be
> possible to wikify some areas?  The wiki approach would make certain
> sections, like the upcoming meetings, much easier to work with.
>
> > We're also looking for people to keep a count of how many people show up
> > at a meeting, specifically for PLUG Central. We feel it's valuable to
> > keep track and it looks good on the website to have big numbers of
> > attendees.
>
> It might be a good idea to have a sort of "guestbook" page.  For instance,
> someone wishing to come to a meeting could add their name and/or email to a
> list of attendees.  What would be even better would be a way to integrate
> this into the keysigning process, so people could attach a key and use a
> list-based keysigning process instead of the current one.
>
> > While we have this discussion open, I'd also like to welcome other ideas
> > and suggestions for static content. Just keep in mind that we want to
> > keep the site pretty basic, so web 2.0 stuff isn't really an option.
>
> Hoorah!  It's good to see *somebody* can resist the fad to make everything
> animated/translucent.
>
> Also, what is the status of that inter-group portal-ish thing that was
> introduced in the last Central meeting?  That seems like a very promising
> idea.
>
> ___________________________________________________________________________
> Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
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--
Randy Schmidt
randy@umlatte.com
www.umlatte.com
267.334.6833
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug