[OOTB-hive] Status update

Mon Aug 4 07:33:57 BST 2014

Dear bees,

It was rather long vacation after we discussed our activities last time.
But I think that if we want the Order to be alive, then we should start
doing something for it. I volunteer to take the initiative and be the one
who writes this long message. Sit back and read.

1. Our Website

In the beginning of the last week I discussed the idea of making a website
with Ole, Boriss, Lanre, Douglas and Martin in IRC. As the result I tried
to implement the first version of our simple website, that should be
published before the Office Hours (August, 15) after we will discuss all
issues and complete it.

The link to the current version of the website: http://ootb.ossportal.org/

After we agree on the final version of the website, it should be moved to
http://orderofthebee.org/

Please take a look at the website now and only after that continue reading.
:)

1.1. Platform

At this moment it's plain HTML. We can move it to Drupal, but it means we
need a database and all. We created an organization at Github and created a
repo for a website. While we use plain-text HTML it's easier to manage a
content in this way.

If we agree on the current design, I'd like to store "members" list,
"add-ons", "system integrators" lists etc in JSON and use AngularJS to show
them on the website. It can be done easily. And in this case one day we may
use Alfresco as a backend. But as for now I don't see anyone who is ready
to configure it ASAP.

Now it's a single-page website, and we should think about the place for
collaboration and posting a content.

For example, list of ideas for new addons and list of addons that are under
development now should be done in a Wiki style. Can we use Alfresco Wiki
page for it as it was with Hackathon projects?

List of system integrators, success stories and add-ons can be done with
AngularJS+JSON. In this case I'm ready to do it. If we want to use Drupal,
then who can do it?

1.2. More info about the Order

Should we mention somewhere that "we just start working, so don't worry
that there is no content"? :)

Should we add a section for Doug and other Alfresco, Inc managers? Most
probably, it's worth telling that:

- we are not strange guys who forked Alfresco Community to become a
competitor and try to sell own services
- we don't want to entice Enterprise customers to our side
- there are a lot of small companies who will never buy Enterprise
(especially using new pricing) and who are not interesting in Cloud
offering, and we want to help them, because Alfresco doesn't want to do it
- so Alfresco Inc. should like us and allow us to use their logo and
"Alfresco" word :)

1.3. Content

Let`s discuss the content of the website. If you want to add more words or
a full new section, or just to review syntax errors, please do it. I'm
thinking about moving "Activities" section above "About" one, but still not
sure about it.

1.4. Contact

Is it ok not to have a contact form on the website? I gave links to the IRC
and to the mailing list. Should we add a contact form that will send a
message to the mailing list automatically?

People will want to send requests to add their addon to the list, to
publish them as verified system integrators. Do we want to see all these
requests in a public mailing list? If I were a Systems Integrator
representative, I would be afraid of giving contacts of my customers in the
public mailing list.

I think that many of us have their private mail servers. For example, I can
create an account in my Zimbra that will automatically forward such
requests to the list of our private addresses of people who will be
responsible for the requests processing. So the request will not be visible
in the history of our Mailing List.

2. Social networks

2.1. Github

As I already told before, we created a Github organization to use it for
our public repos. Now we have a repo for the website. Any ideas for what
else we can use it now?

2.2. Twitter

We should give people a chance to follow us. Someone can open the website
and see that we are just starting and have nothing to show. They should
have the ability to get updates from us. It would be great to publish news
somewhere. Like "Check a new add-on in the list", "We created new
'showcase' instance" etc.

I registered account @bee-order at Twitter. We can select another one if it
is available.

3. Logo - survey

On the website you see a bee as a logo. It's a sample. We have more ideas
for the logo. Please, vote for the one you like at
http://www.rationalsurvey.com/s/12185. Survey will be closed on Saturday.

4. Members

4.1. Who are the members?

I added the information about all people who sent at least one message to
this mailing list. If you don't want to be published as a member of the
Order, please reply to this message. If I forgot someone (and I'm sure I
did), please don't be offended, just reply this message and tell that you
are in.

I added Richard as a "Candidate". On the one hand he is our contact in
Alfresco and active member of the community. On the other hand he works for
Alfresco and cannot be a member as far as we are "independent". Richard can
become a "member" after he leaves Alfresco Inc. ;)

Joking aside - here we are to discuss the positioning of the Order. Can we
take Alfresco employees to the Order if they are active in the community?
What is the selection criteria? Fedora / Red Hat experience shows that it's
ok to have vendor employees in the community. However, it also shows that
it's really bad if the community is silently dominated by vendor employees.
May be we can have two explicit sections in 'Members' area - 'Independent
members' and 'Alfresco Inc employees'.

4.2. Info about members

I added photos and links to the social networks for all members. It would
be great if we can write 5-6 words about ourselves to denote our position
in the Order: what we do? for what questions are we the best contact? Now I
added such a description only for Richard.

Then please review the list of your accounts in social networks and modify
it if needed.

4.3. Invite

After publishing a website it will be easier to explain who we are to other
people. At this point we can start inviting people to join us. It looks
especially important to get some members in the US, since we have only Jeff
there now. Any ideas on who we should invite? I thought about inviting all
community stars (2013, 2014?), but these people are selected by Alfresco
Inc. I'm afraid it's not that good if we position ourselves as independent
group.

5. Activities. Next steps

I added 6 activities to the website. We discussed all of them except
"success stories" before.

The website is just the first step. Who is ready to work on these
"activities"? I can think about list of Addons, SIs and success stories,
because they relate to creating a list of criterias for requesters, to
publishing on the same website and to googling a lot.

Who is ready to work on the first activity? It's very important but looks
very difficult for me. And what about Alfresco OOTB edition? Who is ready
to update the text on the website for this point and start working on it?

Please reply to this email to confirm you are in. All your ideas, comments,
actions are welcome.

Sincerely yours,

Oksana
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