[Webcom] Webcom

[Frank Warmerdam]

Jason Fournier wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 
> Just thought I'd send a message to say hi and see if I can help out with
> webcom.  I had previously been helping with the Journal but would likely be
> of better service in this area (and it looks like Tyler and Landon have a
> great team going on there now).  If you need a little background from me
> just let me know!

Jason,

A random smattering of ideas:

  * It would be wonderful if someone could do a review of our existing pages
    to find materials that are out of date or need fleshing out.  I have
    intended to do an FAQ review for some time for instance, but haven't, only
    fixing up an item or two when it becomes clear they are badly out of date.

  * I *feel* the getting started page could stand some additional work.

  * Work with the projects and end users to get more entries in the Gallery.
    Is there a way of searching the Gallery for items related to a particular
    technology?

  *  Spotlights: We had an ambition to produce spotlight posts for sponsors,
     projects, and people on a regular basis but it feel by the wayside for
     lack of volunteer(s).   There are four already up and a page about how
     the process was envisaged:

     http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Spotlights

  * I'd love to see someone review the entries in the service provider
    directory, and work to remove obvious inaccuracies, ensure they all
    have meaningful links and drop dead entries.

  * I would be interested in passing on the role of primary news editor
    to someone new.

    http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/News_Queue

On a more technical basis - assuming some PHP expertise and a willingness to
learn more about Drupal it would be nice to improve the site in a few ways:

  * I really would like to see us having rotating sponsor logos on the main
    page, perhaps even on other pages as a side box.

  * At one point a proposal was drafted for adding prioritization based on
    various factors in the service provider directory:

    http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Service_Provider_Directory

Currently Tyler is working to move the site from Peer1 to our VMs at
OSU OSL and taking the opportunity to upgrade to a recent version of Drupal.
I imagine he could use help with that, though it might require fairly
significant Drupal experience.

I'm sure Tyler would be willing to provide content update access to
Drupal if you would like to start freshing up some of the content.  I'd
encourage you to drop a line here when you make non-trivial changes.

There has also been a marketing lead effort to completely redesign the
web site front end.  I'm not honestly a fan of it, and so I'll let it's
proponents make their case.

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent