[OSGeo-Discuss] Proposal to find an alternative to Collabnet

[Mateusz Loskot]

Aaron Koning wrote:
> Most of the discussion on this issue has been around a web site / CMS
>  for project developers, but I want to mention the other side. If we 
> think about OSGeo.org as the front door to The Open Source Geospatial
> Foundation, the look and feel of the site becomes really important.
> Right now it appears that OSGeo.org is setup to accommodate
> developers and keen users, which is an important goal. However, if
> OSGeo wants to appeal to a wider audience, I believe that the website
> must become clearer to navigate and read.

Hi All,

If you don't mind I'd like to address to what Aaron said above.
>From developer point of view I'd say CollabNet is usable and functional.
With only one qualification, I prefer Trac as a bug tracking system.
But I'd say it's less important issue for targeting wide audience.

I'd follow Aaron and repeat his words about the website is "the front
door to the OSGF".
Here, I'd like to call Mozilla website(s) as IMHO very good example of
how to meet a wide variety of users needs well.

"The front door" is simple and clear for everyone:
http://www.mozilla.org
>From this level it's very easy to get to main chapters:
- general foundation info - http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/
- developer central - http://www.mozilla.org/developer/
- projects list - http://www.mozilla.org/projects/

All main chapters follow the same consistent style what is important.

Next to them, Mozilla has a corporate website used to popularize Mozilla
products in simple and readable way for common users:
http://www.mozilla.com/

IMHO Mozilla Foundation worked out very good and professional
presentation of its activities and products.
And I think it could be a good examplar for OSGeo.

One word about keeping OSGeo projects lined up.
I'd not expect that all projects will follow the same guidelines
and conventions (e.g. coding style), even because of technical
limitations and differences of used dev environment, languages, etc.

But from developer's position I'd expect that all projects will be
organized simlarly, so it will be easy to navigate and familiarize with
them fast.
In example, SourceForge.net hosts thousands of projects but user
need to visit only one of them to know how to:
- checkout sources from the repository
- read, post, search mailing lists
- report a bug
- request a feature
- or even guess the URL from name ( "My Favourite Poject" ->
http://sf.net/projects/myfavouriteproject)
etc.

Regarding the "CB or not CB" question, from the philosophical
and - I guess - also economical point of view, I'd prefer to use
Open Source Software as the OSGeo platform, if there is any
available. If there is no such Open Source platform, then
"look and feel" consistency is more important for me.

Best regards
-- 
Mateusz Loskot
http://mateusz.loskot.net