A Webportal for its users

[Arria Perreault]

One of the most important project of this term is the Webportal. You were recently asked about a design for this website. We have also to think about the content. As PIO, it is my job.
A website should correspond to the expectations of the users. That's why I ask you today: WHAT DO YOU EXPECT AS INFORMATION ON THE CDS PORTAL? WHAT DO YOU NEED AND YOU NEVER FIND?
Please, don't send concepts, structures, ... What I really need is the list of the information you would love to read on this portal.
You can answer on this thread or send me IM.

With all these informations, I'll try to propose a usable structure to navigate through the site and I will submit it you.

Thank you in advance.

NB: we are a small team working on the project. When the hosting and structure will be ready, we will need to involve more people to prepare the contents. We will need volunteers...

[Jon Seattle]

I will just link to the following:

http://forums.slcds.info/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1291

And since I am not allowed to continue to participate (I have been told, in spite of all my work), I wish you luck.

[Arria Perreault]

Jon,

thank you very much for your proposal. It seems very complete and useful. You did a great job.
My idea was to get lists of topics for the portal. I intended to structure this list.
Anyway if I don't get many inputs or new ideas of topics, I will not do the work twice, to get a quiet similar result.
We can take your proposal of the architecture of the information and go deeper in the structure. I really would like to work with you on this part of the project, which is under my responsability as PIO.
I will not misunderstanding about this project: the current team is an executive team. We are comitted by the Chancellor to work on this project. Mizou is responsible for the design. I am for the information architecture. Alex and Cindy are also involved. For our subprojects, we can work with other poeple or ask the whole community for inputs. The executive team is responsible for one thing: the portal must be a reality. To succeed, we need collaboration. At the end, we will also request citizen to prepare the contents.
I am personnally happy if I get inputs, proposals and collaboration

[Jon Seattle]

This is a clear example of what I was talking about. The "executive team" was selected how? Was there anything like an open evaluation of skill and available time?

Last term Pel was nominated to be the "executive" on this project. Now, I know enough about Pel's situation to know that its not his fault that he did not have time to do much. I have a stack of messages I sent him and got no response, but he has been very nice about apologizing, and he really did have a good reason.

Its just very unfortunate if projects are allocated based on who is buddies with whom. If this was not the case, why was there no public announcement and evaluation of qualifications? And is there some kind of magic that makes some people "executives" and others, well, working stiffs?

[Mizou Vavoom]

Hi Jon,

Thanks for your structural design, we will take it into account at out next meeting.
You have a query in your post:
"This is a clear example of what I was talking about. The "executive team" was selected how? Was there anything like an open evaluation of skill and available time?"
The 4 members of the Web development team are as follows: Arria, Alexicon, Cindy and myself, Mizou.
So as to clarify my position:
How was I selected?
I teach web design for an Irish training organisation (FAS) and work for the HSE, the Irish Healthboard organisation.
I was appointed to work on this team because of my experience with web design in the last 8 years.
My particular skills in webdesign are design and translating the design into html or xhtml and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
As regards CSS, I continually learn new techniques and codes, my information comes from http://www.sitepoint.com
As regards 'time', I have that and may I add that I have already spend a lot of hours in the last month on the design of the CDS portal.
These designs (.jpg) have been published online already and for the moment it has been just for our team in order to discuss it further.
The link to these designs will be revealed when the designs have enough substance to involve the rest of the community.
Designing a webpage is a process which usually involves a good few drawing sessions before it has the right substance.
At the moment there are 6 designs online, the first one dated 5 th of March, the last one 21 March.
I hope, Jon, that this brings clarity to your query,

Mizou Vavoom

[Jon Seattle]

I hope, Jon, that this brings clarity to your query

Thanks Mizou, my point was not that the people on the team are unqualified (I think they probably are), but that the selection process was closed to others, apparently, outside of a small circle of friends. There are others who are equally qualified, or who have other skills that may be necessary for building a portal.

In my case I have an MS in Computer Science (form NYU) and over twenty-five years of experience in developing applications for education and online media. My group at Northwestern creates portals and content management applications for online journals, image galleries and repositories for classroom use, writing resources for university students, and sites for research groups. I also develop a collection of open-source Flash-based tools allowing users to view and annotate high resolution images, audio and video streams (including synchronized transcripts) via the web. In addition to top level HTML, Javascript, CSS, SQL, and Actionscript 3 (Flash / Flex) programming skills, experience with open source portal packages (that we use for our work), I also develop server-side web software in Python, Ruby, Java, and several more researchy languages like Common Lisp and Scala.

I also got the project started by helping to write the bill (passed by the RA) requiring that a portal be built, voting for it, volunteering to work on it, and getting the initial analysis, including community input done. Perhaps it is because I am a social democrat in the CDS (and a "liberal democrat" in RL US political terms and a strong supporter of my congressional rep: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Schakowsky for calibration with european politics) that I am disqualified. CSDF is not the party in power, so perhaps we don't get to participate. Perhaps its (more likely) that I just don't have the right set of inside contacts in the current CDS administration. In any case, after spending a very frustrating time trying to get this project started, I am no longer making myself available to help.

[AlexiconKurka]

The web comity team consists of the exec body (Chancellor, PIO, event manager) plus the specialists needed on every phase of the development. It is obvious that Mizou was more qualified than Jon to assists us with an attractive design. Jon we are only now coming close to a point that we would appreciate a volunteer with technical skills like yours. IM me in world.

I am not allowed to continue to participate

Arria is asking everybody to participate in this thread, what do you mean?

And is there some kind of magic that makes some people "executives" and others, well, working stiffs?

The Chancellor is chosen by the RA and he/she chooses the other officers. No magic Jon. It's the CDS.

projects are allocated based on who is buddies with whom.

One of the important factor for my choices is maximizing the chances for harmony in the group. It might look like buddies for outsiders, I suppose it means that the choices are fine. So far so good.

Although quotes like these reflect more one's own ideas about oneself, I wonder if incorporating a confrontating mentality will enhance the harmony of the team. I you are looking for more reasons why you are not in the initiating kern already, you'd better look in this direction Jon, rather that exploring political or personal speculative scenario's.

[Beathan]

This looks like a good project -- but it was news to me. I do not remember any mention of this in any session in the RA.

I see that it is set up as an Executive project. That is probably OK -- but I do want to know whether it will be a budgeted item. If so, RA guidance and approval will be necessary.

To that end, and to build bridges I have burned, I am going to propose to the RA that we appoint Jon Seattle as a Special Legislative Liaison to this project. My concept is that he will not be on the Executive committee -- which is already appointed by the Chancellor -- but he will be an outside observer to report back the RA on the nature, progress and likely costs of this project.

Beathan

[Sonja Strom]

Beathan, this project was discussed in the RA meeting of February 24.

You can see it in the transcript here http://www.aliasi.us/nburgwiki/tiki-ind ... 24%2C+2008
especially right near the end.

[Beathan]

Ah, yes, at the end of an overlength meeting. I must have been fading out.

I still want some RA interaction and oversight, given the budgetary concerns on this project.

Beathan

[Cindy Ecksol]

One of the important factor for my choices is maximizing the chances for harmony in the group. It might look like buddies for outsiders, I suppose it means that the choices are fine. So far so good.

I will just comment here that I definitely don't consider myself a "buddy" of anyone on the webportal team. Alex invited me in because I have useful skills. In fact, he hardly knew me at the time, and I'm only now just getting to know him, Arria, and Mizou and learning how they work. As Alex says, if he's chosen such a team and we are looking like "buddies" it's because he did a good job of assessing which people with the proper skills would make a good team. Rather than throwing stones at him, I'd say we ought to be giving him a pat on the back for getting the project rolling in a way that might have a good chance to succeed. There's plenty of vigorous debate among team members on design issues, but rather than creating drama, I'm confident that we're zeroing in on a design and implementation plan that will be both effective and efficient.

As for the budget issues, those are still being worked out. I don't think anyone plans to actually DO anything that costs real money without approval from the RA, but just as the Guild needs information to make a solid proposal for the new sim design and time to work it up before presenting it, so too this webportal working group has information to gather and some work to do before presenting something to the RA. Patience and civility are required here: no one is doing anything that has not been authorized by the RA, and when the proper time comes a proposal will be made so that the RA can comment, request changes or additions, and eventually approve a plan to move forward.

BTW, the rule of thumb on projects of this type is that if less than 70% of the total project time is spent on planning, probably not enough planning has been done for the the project to be a success. So this "quiet phase" is very necessary to the success of the project.

Cindy