[Web Comm] Web Committee Chair

[Arnulf Christl]

Frank Warmerdam wrote:
> WebCom / Board,
> 
> Daniel Brookshier has left CollabNet for a new job, and while he is
> interested in some participation in OSGeo he won't have time for much
> work due to his new responsibilities.  So the Web Committee will be needing
> a new chair.  I also think this would be a good time to try and 
> re-invigorate
> work on the Web Committee if we can.
> 
> In discussions at the face to face meetings in San Rafael it seems unlikely
> that we would be renewing the CollabNet contract past this January.  So 
> going
> forward, I think WebCom ought to spend less effort wrestling with 
> particular
> features based on the Collabnet platform, and more on informational content
> for the web site since the content can move to a new platform easily, while
> the detailed integration work will presumably be left behind.  (stuff 
> like the
> RSS feed for instance)
> 
> While we will be assigned a new community manager from CollabNet, and I
> would like them to be active on WebCom, I think it would be best to have
> someone not from CollabNet as the WebCom chair since a big part of it's
> mandate will relate to the transition off the CN platform.
> 
> I have been in contact with Jason Birch, who has been a very active
> contributor to the web committee and he has indicated a willingness to
> chair the committee.   Jason obviously will need lots of support, and he
> indicated he would like to see a representative from each OSGeo member
> project on WebCom if possible.
> 
> If anyone has suggestions for other possible chairs for WebCom or other
> input they would like to provide, please reply to this message!  Lacking
> additional feedback I'll likely propose Jason for the committee chair 
> position
> at the next board meeting (one week today).
> 
> Best regards,

Hi,
i want to propose reconsidering (as discussed at the f2f meeting) to 
join WebCom and SAC to form InfraCom (Infrastructure Committee). Less 
people can do more work. Or was it vice versa...

I checked on some of the activities related to WebCom by re-reading the 
corresponding Wiki pages. Spawned from VisCom Targets (last edit April 
2nd) a lengthy list was put together addressing site foucs at
http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/WebCom_OSGeo_Site_Focus. This is 
valuable work that has not been continued there (last edit April 3rd) 
possibly due to VisCom taking over some of the related work. It should 
be moved to VisCom completely.

There are two different lists of Web Site Committee Members. I guess the 
Owner and Co-Owners list on the static page should be updated:
https://webcommittee.osgeo.org/

http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/WebComTODO has not seen an edit as of 
March 20th, so the todo list is either stable or deprecated. Anyway, as 
one of the first committees to get active it is time to clean out the 
WebCom Wiki pages anyway.

{{The idea is that Wikis run through cycles of disorder and pruning. 
After stuffing all sorts of content into a Wiki more or less aimlessly 
at one point it has to be consolidated by deleting, redirecting and 
merging pages. This point has come for WebCom (...and probably the rest 
of the Wiki should follow soon).}}

This organizational effort also needs to be exerted on the general 
structure of the OSGeo web site and that of the sub domains. Some time 
ago we have gone through the main entry points of osgeo.org to make sure 
that there are not too many dead mailing lists, a short description of 
each project, etc. I would again suggest to make this a regular policy 
and to assign it to a single person (or two). Do I hear volunteers? It 
can be done in turns but on a regular basis.

SAC
The current state of SAC is not transparent, the Wiki pages and the 
mailing lists are dead. The latest Wiki edits by Frank suggest some 
points that make a lot of sense:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php?title=Infrastructure_Working_Group#System_Administration
Requests for status reports went unanswered. What is the formal process 
to be invoked by the board once these kind of things happen (or rather 
do not happen)? Yes I know, I am a pain. Should I go to the IRC and talk 
to people instead of complaining here?

Knowing that there are highly competent people at work they must have 
produced really cool results by now. Someone will just have to clobber 
this information out of them. Otherwise (they are not done yet) they 
will need support by other techies. The last date that I have in mind is 
mid of May. I can just repeat the offer that we can jump in any time on 
anything.

I would be prepared to spend time invigorating this new committee and 
help getting the SAC infrastructure to run. I believe that very capable 
people are involved already and presume that the lack of visibility of 
progress results from simple overwork and missing time. That said, I am 
not overworked and don't miss any time at all. :-)

Best regards,
Arnulf.