It's looking like there's already a ton of interest and excitement pertaining to install profiles and distributions. As Drupal groups seem to be an ideal platform for collaboration, I'm thinking we should continue to figure out/define some best practices or rules of the road pertaining to keeping the communication open while keeping the signal to noise ratio high.
I'm assuming there are no clear answers or set guidelines, but here are some questions...
Is it suggested that there be a separate group for each type of distribution (like DupalEd)?
What about a site whose main differentiator is the content that's put on top. For instance a newspaper/magazine, social network, or blogging style install profile could be part of many different 'topic/niche based' distributions (arts/music, education, business, etc.). Would it make sense to create a working group for each of these types of generic profiles (blogging install profile group; newspaper/magazine install profile group; social network install profile group), or collaborate within a pre-existing group? If you decided to create a separate group, what do you call it? And what about all the issues and elements that make up any profile or distribution (rambled about that here). What are some ways to maximize open communication and participation without having to send the same message to every group you think may have an interest?
Instead of rambling on aimlessly (oops - too late), here's a real example:
I've been working on sort of a mashup between public broadcasting network and a hyperlocal citizen-journalism/media site. Specific content aside, I'm hoping my efforts, in collaboration with other like minded folks, can lead to the creation of a multimedia rich, newspaper/magazine style distribution.
Where should the collaboration take place? If creating a separate group, what should it be called? What are some suggested guidelines for open and effective communication and collaboration?
I'm assuming there are much better ways to set this one up, but hopefully there are some good points for discussion.
Comments
Well...
Regardless, I think I've found my new, favorite group.
[Edit] Whoops! Fat fingered THAT one all to heck and breakfast. Was reading this in the newspaper group.
Not sure about groups...
I'm not sure about groups, but I do think each distro clearly needs a project on drupal.org after reading Dries comments. With that will of course come an issue tracker for bugs and feature requests, which can be a good place to divide up discussion of individual features or issues. Whether or not we need a group for each distro on groups.drupal.org, I'm not really sure. Some things that you can get here are macro discussion about direction of a project as a whole, and polls for testing the waters with new ideas or different approaches.
So what are the issues most relevant to creating a distro? Overall I think a group and a project would probably be the best option as that is how I see it setup for some of the other major projects (CCK or Views for example).
Does anyone else know of any issues or uses that I haven't mentioned here?
-mikey p
Set up a project on Drupal.org? Where?
I was thinking pretty much along the same lines - still unsure if there are any best practices in how to set it up. Do you set up a project over at Drupal.org similar to how you'd do the same for a module or theme (http://drupal.org/node/7765)? As far as I can tell, there isn't any sort of category set-up for and install profile and/or distribution. Can anybody provide some insight?
Gus Austin
Director of Chaos and Confusion
PepperAlley Productions
What am I trying to do with Drupal?
Gus Austin
..
The infrastructure list had lots of discussion on this in early November. http://lists.drupal.org/private/infrastructure/ has the archives but they are private (unless you join the list, which is easy).
The points you raised are valid and were considered. I believe the general consensus was something like "we should probably support distros in at least some way with Drupal.org infrastructure including issue tracking (more likely) and some CVS support (optionally) and some download/bandwidth infrastructure (maybe/maybe not).
Feel free to continue providing your thoughts here and/or on the Infrastructure list. Since know you want to build a distribution profile - can you provide some more examples of what features/support would be useful to you? How would you like Drupal.org to help you in making your distro? Do you feel any higher standard should be held for distros beyond the current module maintainer application (e.g. requiring a certain number of people to sign up as a maintainer)?
--
Knaddison Family | mmm Beta Burritos
knaddison blog | Morris Animal Foundation
We need to open things up
Appreciate the insight and advice, Greg. As I just commented to Derek, I think we need to ramp up the discussions and debate to a more open, public forum. A few quick answers/non-answers to some of your questions (in no particular order) to start...
Re: Particulars about the distribution(s) I'm hoping to make a contribution (not mine, but the communities)... As I touched on in the orginal post, I think Drupal Groups should be a great forum for discussion, but it may help to devise some sort of system.
Looking forward to continued discussions and collaborations as we move into the new year!
Gus Austin
Director of Chaos and Confusion
PepperAlley Productions
What am I trying to do with Drupal?
Gus Austin
Not much luck on the infrastructure list
I've tried to pick up the conversation over on the infrastructure list (I'm a bit frightened to tread there...). I'm still a bit in the dark where these discussions should occur (the groups, various lists, etc.) and how resolutions are made (does some sort of issue or feature request need to filed?).
As well built, well maintained profiles/distros should have a lot of value to the community, I'm hoping that the Drupal Dojo Group will be a good place to discuss and openly collaborate.
http://groups.drupal.org/node/2208#comment-6011
Gus Austin
Director of Chaos and Confusion
PepperAlley Productions
What am I trying to do with Drupal?
Gus Austin
two tips
Gus - I admire your persistence on this issue!
Basically what I've noted is the following process:
So, if you have a distribution ready to go then go ahead and write up a post of what you'd like to have for support to the infrastructure and/or devel list and then sit back and watch the sparks fly. By the time it's done - you'll probably have a decision :)
--
Knaddison Family | mmm Beta Burritos
knaddison blog | Morris Animal Foundation
+1 to this
There are no install profiles OR distributions. No action needed. Make an install profile, it's not hard. Then let's talk.
I'll be working on a simple corporate site one here: https://svn.bryght.com/dev/wiki/CorporateSiteInstallProfile (now out of date since I stopped to get changes into Drupal 5 that will make it easier to create install profiles using simple cut and paste of the default profile -- check Drupal 5.x dev release to kick the tires).
Gather the troops, write some documentation, plan out some of the things you see me starting to list on that Corporate one. Configure and test on new installs. It ain't glorious, but that's how it happens. Don't think there is much else needed at this point. Distributions will grow from install profiles. Start small. Test with real sites/customers, iterate, etc.
Ditto on this
I'm doing a fair amount of planning and experimentation, and working with other interested folks from the community, using both 4.7 and 5. But, until there is a release for 5, this is all speculative. As I see it, there is a lot of testing/documentation/infrastructure decisions that need to happen prior to a release.
And, as always, the quality/needs of the site (as reflected in the install profile) need to come first -- when those issues are sorted out, it will be easier to build the infrastructure to support it, because we'll actually know what we're supporting :)
Cheers,
Bill
FunnyMonkey
An install profile/distribution dojo?
Thanks all for the advice! I'm going to update my test site to 5.0 and kick the tires a bit. Having said that, I'm by no means going to be able to create something that's useful to the community alone (think this is fairly ambitious?). What I'd really like to do is create a space where anyone interested in learning and/or working on this type of thing (profiles/distros in general) could collaborate and share ideas. If that seems like there would be enough shared benefit/community value, possibly we could create our own dojo?
I made a similar mention within the Dojo Group. Would love to get some additional thoughts on this idea.
Gus Austin
Director of Chaos and Confusion
PepperAlley Productions
What am I trying to do with Drupal?
Gus Austin
save a group
no need for another group. this post is already in http://groups.drupal.org/distributions, which is where this conversation and dojo activity belongs.
glad to see the excitement around profiles.
Totally agree
I don't think creating a new group for each and every profile and distro would be the most efficient way go. On the other hand, I fear we'd lose some of the Dojo energy and excitement if we kept all conversation and activity within the working group (whatever that may be). If there are ways to thread the discussions together (possibly using group vocabularies and/or site tags), maybe that's something to explore? All this is somewhat related to what y'all were talking about here:
http://drupal.org/node/106626#comment-186020
Gus Austin
Director of Chaos and Confusion
PepperAlley Productions
What am I trying to do with Drupal?
Gus Austin