Hi everyone. I've had some recent discussions with Chris and others about the desire to revamp the LADrupal.org site. Let's open it up general discussion.
A little history here: JP got the domain and set something up on Dreamhost. I had set up LADrupalCamp.org for the first DrupalCamp in LA. Meet-up members asked for a sandbox site and we set one up on Ourmedia's servers (thanks Outhink Media!). JP asked me to take over hosting and the two domains now point to same place. Crystal (thank you!) created a one page design concept and some graphics that I wove it into a Drupal 5.3 wiki distribution profile with a zen based theme and there it sits today.
So the big question is: what would you like to do with respect to LADrupal.org? Chris has written up some suggestions that I will ask him to post and there are some great ideas in Starbuck's recent posting.
Do we still want a sandbox for members? Have our needs changed? What can be done on GDO that we don't need to worry about or can just aggregate. Who want's to volunteer to work on the site? Anyone interested in a weekend retreat to work on this at the Ojai Digital Dojo? I was thinking that this could be the basis for a fun event; kind of like a code sprint in paradise :)
Comments
LADrupal.org refresh notes
Hi folks. I'm going to paste my general notes here and I'm down to hear from LA Drupal members who have attended at least one meeting or plan to.
LADrupal.org 2008 Refresh Ideas
Focus: NEWS & UPDATES DESTINATION. The site is meant to compliment our GDO site and give props to our wonderful members by highlighting them, keep folks informed, point people to learning materials and training, pump the job market here in L.A., and be a destination site that exudes a welcome feeling to our new members.
Features & Areas: REP SPONSORS, DONATORS & CONTRIBUTORS, FIRMS & FREELANCERS. PROVIDE LEARNING GUIDANCE (LINKS), SHOW OFF OUR EVENTS & COMMUNITY, VIDEOS, PHOTOS, and Drupal BOOK REVIEWS y LA Drupal members.
Note to current members: There will be an more visible platform for those who are official Drupal Association Individual Members ($35) or Organization Members ($116) - it's really cheap and LA Drupal will be providing more exposure for those who are badged... so go get yours already.
Proposed Sections:
About LA Drupal
LA Drupal Member Blogs (up for debate, we can also aggregate a users feed)
News (aggregated from GDO/LA, some blocks/areas of Drupal.org news, Drupal Planet)
Contact
Links
Downloads
Events & Meetings
Sponsors - current sponsors and sponsorship levels/info.
Chat (embedded IRC like DrupalChat.net, and of course info links to the Drupal.org IRC guide).
Newbie Guide & Learn Drupal (links to docs/articles/videos)
Donating to Drupal (info/links)
Jobs (feed from GDO/LA's jobs)
Volunteer info
Local donators & project contributors - a.k.a. "Badged Folk", module developers, project maintainers, docs team members, etc.
Present (to us) - speaking info. (alternate link to volunteer info)
Books/DVDs (links, images, ratings from group members)
Feeds (our list of feeds, just to summarize)
Photos (Flickr, how to tag for LA Drupal on Flickr and other photo services, etc.)
Videos (YouTube channel/tags/playlist, links)
Local Showcase - works by LA Drupal members (links, maybe a thumbnail)
Local Association Community Leaders notes/news/wiki
Group Discounts & Fun Stuff - I have official discounts from book publishers but cannot post publicly the special code(s), so a members-only bit of content makes sense so everyone can get up to like 35% off popular books.
Member Interviews - Yup, you or your team will get interviewed too. Pictures optional.
Some Wishlist Items ... some may mean a D6 migration (from 5.x)...
Drupal.org SSO (This is the best and most important piece I think to reduce double account registrations).
OpenID ? - For those OID heads?
Feedburner ? - For feed metrics
Google Analytics - so we can have real numbers for sponsors
XML sitemaps - for SEO goodness.
Flickr - photos. yup, photos.
E-mail Newsletter -Weekly/Bi-Weekly/Monthly (automated or we don't do it)
Better/Expanded User Profiles - languages you know (code and speaking), personal/biz link(s), skills (CSS/PHP/etc.), and if you're donated to Drupal, if you're a contributor or on an official team (like docs or testing), links to your community modules, etc.
Now, no where did I mention dropping the current content, because I think we can stay on D5.x or upgrade with the right local people coordinating the migration together (before the beers). Some ideas above may seem not fully baked, so speak up and we'll iron out details here (and on IRC) to keep our LA Drupal the galactic user group its known for.
Also, our GDO page/site is getting better! (Thanks to our member MediaDoneRight) So, we must make sure we're using GDO's features to the wall. Serious. We use up everything in GDO's power then add a couple new flavors and some toppings over on our LADrupal.org site.
...
Okay. These are my goals and ideas. What's yours? Questions? Comments? Criticisms?
P.S. If there's typos or something sounds un-English-y it's because I'm falling asleep... but... must... get... post... sav...
Chris Charlton, Author & Drupal Community Leader, Enterprise Level Consultant
I teach you how to build Drupal Themes http://tinyurl.com/theme-drupal and provide add-on software at http://xtnd.us
Do we still need LADrupal.org?
I hope the subject of this comment isn't too provocative, but I felt like the question had to be asked. LADrupal.org was originally built when GDO was just a River of News. Now that GDO uses OG Panels it seems like most of Chris's proposed sections could be done right here. For the things that cannot yet be done on GDO, it could be cool to work with Moshe to get those features implemented. That would also be a way for LA Drupalers to give back to the entire community, by improving GDO for everyone.
My other thought was that having one site makes things easier for users. If I want to post an announcement or event should I post on GDO or LaDrupal.org or both? If I want to see what's new in LA do I visit GDO or LaDrupal.org or both?
To answer quickly
My plan is news/events would be posted on GDO, and nobody would miss anything if they only visited LADrupal.org.
In terms of helping with GDO, I agree. I also know things take resources (time/people/money). I was really serious on using GDO to its fullest. It's not only useful but it's our group "home" and I'm interested in helping and would like the GDO team to contact me and local LA Drupal members they know to see what can be done.
LA Drupal doesn't mind being a guinea pig. We're trend setters by nature. ;)
Chris Charlton, Author & Drupal Community Leader, Enterprise Level Consultant
I teach you how to build Drupal Themes http://tinyurl.com/theme-drupal and provide add-on software at http://xtnd.us
Not provocative at all
Like I indicated, one of the things we need to do is figure out the right balance between GDO and LADrupal.org. Perhaps we can get everything we need from OG (I doubt that, but let's see).
Another thought is that LADrupal.org could strive to be more cutting edge than GDO since it can probably upgrade way sooner than GDO (e.g., OG is just now in RC2).
--
Markus Sandy
http://apperceive.com
http://ourmedia.org
LADrupal under attack
haha. sorry, couldn't resist the similarity between this thread and my earlier post re: gdo/SoCal.
as jcruz points out, this is another example of confusion created with group sites with overlapping information and purpose. where does one go for information, where to post, and how to contact others? it all seems to be a it of a mess.
in my mind, the advantage of a refresh of LADrupal is our ability to sort out the mess. we have control and aren't limited by gdo. if we need to, perhaps we can build the customizations that could be used by gdo as jcruz suggests. LADrupal can be turned into both a learning tool as well as the hub, sooo assuming we decide to refresh LADrupal.org ... I'd be most interested in:
what are your thoughts?
--
mike stewart { twitter: @MediaDoneRight | IRC nick: mike stewart }
It is similar
Just a reminder that this conversation forked from a specific point in a comment from the thread you mention. So there should be some degree of similarity.
This discussion seems more appropriate for the LA group. The other main difference is that the original thread was a (self-proclaimed) attack to shut something down, whereas this is a call to discuss our options with regard to opening something up :)
Here's a wild idea: how about a Drupal 7 sandbox for folks to play with?
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Markus Sandy
http://apperceive.com
http://ourmedia.org
lol. yes it was all in good fun
I think a Drupal 7 is an EXCELLENT idea! it allows us to test Drupal 7 in non critical environment and provides real world bug checking... granted, there is a small, but a realistic security issue in testing a pre-beta version of Drupal. - it also could prove a maintenance headache in some areas during upgrades... but I'm up for the challenge.
My only concern would be if it goes down &/or doesn't function for some reason, it could send an unwanted message to noobs about drupal's reliability - so a highly visible disclaimer of sorts would be imperative.
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mike stewart { twitter: @MediaDoneRight | IRC nick: mike stewart }
A lot of potential but...
With the right amount of love and attention a stand alone site should only add value to us as a group, as individuals, business', and to the Drupal community in general. The aforementioned posts make a pretty solid case for pimping out our site (I could add to that list) without duplicating/stealing thunder from our Drupal group.
Having said that, what we're talking about is a very ambitious project and poor execution and/or neglect could do more harm than good. LADrupal and the Drupal Dojo (where there are a lot of parallel discussions) serve as great examples of what a small group of time strapped volunteers can do. Taking things to the next level and continuing to raise the bar is going to take a lot of time, coordination, and a 'consistent' effort.
A stronger LADrupal.org could open up a lot of opportunity and untapped potential. Getting there will take some serious commitment and resolve to some complex (controversial?) discussions and issues.
Gus Austin
PepperAlley Productions
Gus Austin
How about LA Drupal focusing on .. LA ?
Geography means almost nothing on the internet these days. However, I'm in SoCal (Mission Viejo) but not LA, so in some ways geography does play a small part in making an LA site/group less important in my life than a SoCal group. Not employing programmers' logic here, that implies an LA group should provide more value to LA people than it does to me. If the content there is the same sort of generic content an angelino can get from somewhere like drupal.tv (a dead site owned by these guys) then in my mind it's a candidate for a derez. So if you're going to do something with LADrupal.org I think it should strategically be oriented toward becomming a home for current and potential LosDrupalinos (groan). Tactically, sure it can be a testbed for the next core, for RC mods, etc. I'm focusing on the practical aspects of a website being more about content than about the technical aspects of its presentation. That might help put some spin on whether the site will live at all, and if it does what the focus will be, compared to how it's built.
So what IMHO should a site called LADrupal showcase?
1. Drupal-based websites whether or not the authors consider themselves to be a part of the D-community.
2. Profiling local talent to attract local business and municipal decision makers in need of site design and maintenance.
3. References to local businesses who may not have sites of their own but they want a web presence. Invite them to setup a page at LADrupal where they can blog about this week's sale or next week's menu. By bringing business to the site and visitors to the business, the site is inherently drawing attraction to itself as a methodology for site development that can be used elsewhere. And of course some of these business people might actually want real sites of their own once they get a taste of their own pages. That spawns off subdomains or completely separate domains. (A business model we're developing around Drupal here is doing something similar to this with local DreamHost.com.)
4. Get local people to congregate F2F. If we had other Drupalers who were about 15 minutes away, we'd be spending more time with them these days than anyone. An hour with someone in a coffeeshop (dare I suggest Starbuck's? ... no relation, really...) would be much better spent than an entire evening butting heads with some theme that doesn't behave here or there. Local get-togethers don't need to be a production, they can be as simple as two people doing an impromptu, or several people agreeing to get together once a week for nothing other than to discuss technical issues. A monthly meeting is good for a larger SoCal audience because, in part, it's less participatory and more for taking in information that being heavily involved in solving detailed problems. (As I write this it occurs to me that any of these meetings can be almost as productive in virtual space, with dimdim and other similar products, but you get the drift...)
5. For blog, forum, and any other community site areas, these should be places for people to discuss the specifics of something that's going on in realspace, the rest of us are merely voyeurs unless we have something to contribute. Again, if someone just wants to post a general question to peers and experts, there is a worldful of other venues for that. In this area we should be able to see individuals progress and sing praises of new local customers - it's the sort of "local dude(tte) does good" info that motivates other localites, and doesn't mean much to someone on the other part of the world - or even way down here in MV.
That's enough out of (what's with this guy and ordered lists?) me. Thanks for the soapbox.
+1 for the addition of business related function on ladrupal
I agree with a lot of what Starbuck says. The features he suggests are things that would NOT work well on gdo, but would serve very well to help the growth of the drupal community in the Los Angeles area. It is unlikely that businesses would ever post anything on g.d.o because it is basically a technical forum, and that scares them off. Using ladrupal.org as a showcase and business networking site makes sense to me. We can, as Mike mentioned above, use feeds from g.d.o to keep ladrupal up to date with discussions and event info. Can we also create a feed from the ladrupal showcase that displays thumbnails from the local works to display them here on g.d.o as they are posted?
I'll try to come back later and offer more feedback on how I think ladrupal.org can be improved/revamped later...
yes
I'd like stuff like that. Hope a lot of folks attend the LA Drupal website volunteer meeting this week.
Chris Charlton, Author & Drupal Community Leader, Enterprise Level Consultant
I teach you how to build Drupal Themes http://tinyurl.com/theme-drupal and provide add-on software at http://xtnd.us
LA Drupal volunteer meeting today! 1pm PST
For those interested in helping with LA Drupal's website, please make sure you "signup" (click the signup button) on this event page: http://groups.drupal.org/node/13669
The meeting is TODAY (Wed.), at 1pm PST.
Chris Charlton, Author & Drupal Community Leader, Enterprise Level Consultant
I teach you how to build Drupal Themes http://tinyurl.com/theme-drupal and provide add-on software at http://xtnd.us
site goals/outline on wiki
LADrupal.org site notes have been moved to a Wiki page - http://groups.drupal.org/node/13776
Chris Charlton, Author & Drupal Community Leader, Enterprise Level Consultant
I teach you how to build Drupal Themes http://tinyurl.com/theme-drupal and provide add-on software at http://xtnd.us