[Web Comm] Web Committee Chair

[Jason Birch]

Hi Arnulf,

It sounds to me like you're proposing that:

- VisCom takes over determining the content and audience of the website
- SAC takes over publishin this content

If that's the case, then I would prefer to re-join VisCom, because just
publishing other people's stuff without input into what should be
produced and how it should be structured on the site is not much fun
(for me).

In its present state, WebCom is moribund.  This is partially because of
communication problems, partially because of frustration with the
limitations of Collabnet and, from my perspective, because I was unable
to participate for several weeks because of other events in my life.

I am interested in continuing WebCom, but only if it has responsibility
for determining the approach taken for making the OSGeo site a
functional compass, not just determining the graphic layout and acting
as a publisher.

Jason

-----Original Message-----
From: Arnulf Christl [mailto:arnulf.christl at ccgis.de] 
Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 08:47
To: dev at webcommittee.osgeo.org; sac at sac.osgeo.org
Cc: OSGeo-Board
Subject: Re: [Web Comm] Web Committee Chair

[snip /]

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#Syste
m_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.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscribe at webcommittee.osgeo.org
For additional commands, e-mail: dev-help at webcommittee.osgeo.org