I've had a few casual discussions lately, including at the DrupalCamp yesterday, about a Drupal Australia site. I just wanted to be very clear about my position on this, and get some discussion.
I used to be indecisive, now I'm not so sure...
For a long time I haven't seen any need for an Australian Drupal site. I might be warming to the idea for a few specific features.
-- calendar/feed (which includes cross-over open source events inspired by kattekrabs list)
-- approved users can post company listing, w community moderation, to make the Drupal in Australia map more organic while still not a free-for-all.
-- dedicated tweet account for it.
My thoughts here are both "what I'd recommend" and "what I'd expect if someone else organized it".
Domain
It's important that the domain is not controlled by anyone in Australia. The easiest way to achieve this is to have the domain registered to the Drupal Association. I don't speak for the Association, but for convenience let's say that's doable.
Moderation
The site needs multiple maintainers, perhaps one per state, and at least one who has a working relationship with the Association. There needs to be an emphasis on quality information and peer review.
I am compelled to mention a situation a while back where information came out of Australia that caused the Drupal Association great angst. I'd expect safeguards against that, in the form of multiple moderators.
Design
Not Garland. It has to be unique and nicely reflect Australia.
I dislike design by committee and most people don't know how to separate personal opinion from good design. Just an example of how it might go:
-- a shortlist of (perhaps non-Drupal) designers are voted on based on reputation and work.
-- The chosen designer/company is paid for the work (no speculative work).
-- The review process is managed by 2 Australian themers, not developers like me.
-- Once the PSDs came through then it wouldn't really matter who did the cut up work.
Summary
What I would hate is for someone to embark on a Drupal Australia site without proper buy-in. This is a chance to share - or tell me what you think of what I think is important. Thanks!
Comments
drupal.org.au seems like the
drupal.org.au seems like the logical domain for such a site. I wonder if the owner cough would hand that over to the association?
Simon Roberts
Taniwha Solutions
Simon Roberts
Taniwha Solutions
Hehe. Yes basically I have
Hehe. Yes basically I have that domain registered and redirecting to drupal.org in the interest of the Association. No problems about handing it over to them.
I still can't believe
I still can't believe Drupal.com.au ranks first in Google Australia SERPs.
Can't criticise good seo!
Can't criticise good seo!
I like the idea, but should
I like the idea, but should we be doing it properly in that we have a Drupal Australia committee so that local interests are reflected, but not controlled by 1 person.
Does the Drupal Association have a policy on how country based drupal groups are run. Could we be a partner child member of the Association where we can make local decisions/collect donations (that are tax deductable) on behalf of the Drupal association, etc.
I think that if we do put something on drupal.org.au it needs to be something more offical and representitive of Drupal in Australia.
Do we want to go 1 bigger and have Drupal Oceanina and have New Zealand a part of this?
These are just some random throughts. But I think it needs to be something more official and strutured.
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Gordon Heydon
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Gordon Heydon
same opinion
Yeah, multiple moderators (I'm thinking like 5+) of a website would be a light-weight starting point to avoid over-red-taping ourselves.
I don't think the association has decided on how to do local orgs yet. I agree though, if that is possible I'd expect it to happen.
Agreed, that is sort of what I'm talking about too. For example, I wouldn't want to see Garland on drupal.org.au.
If someone started the site and got buy-in from NZ then that's feasible. But ... who can truly say they represent NZ? Political boundaries come into play too often. Eg. can you have an AU-NZ association?
This is kinda what this post is about - setting a bar. I'd be really strongly opposed to an Australian Drupal site that wasn't awesome, beautiful, and had wide-spread buy-in.
Would this replace
Would this replace groups.drupal.org for the organisation of local meet-ups? While I find some things fairly lacking here (especially calendars with RSS/iCal subscription) we do get a lot "for free". Will we be looking for people to volunteer their time to keep a d.o.a site up-to-date the day a new security announcement is made? It'd be an embarrassing and high-profile hack target if we didn't.
The three main reasons you suggest for a doa site would quite likely be of interest to other g.d.o groups — should they just be added to this site instead?
If we end up looking for Australian Drupal dev companies with good theming/design skills I know one which is pretty good (hehe cough cough :)
Another idea would be for each OG on this site to optionally have its own domain name and theme, thus appearing to be its own site whilst still being part of g.d.o.
Just some thoughts :)
Jeff
marmaladesoul.com (organisers of the Brisbane meet-ups)
Would this replace
Would this replace groups.drupal.org for the organisation of local meet-ups? While I find some things fairly lacking here (especially calendars with RSS/iCal subscription) we do get a lot "for free".
This is why I've not really cared for the idea in the past. I did find with setting up resources for DrupalCamp that I couldn't do everything on GDO. I was lucky in that it was just me organizing it so I didn't have to worry about giving other people access to my site. So, there is some value.
But there are many things you wouldn't duplicate. A drupal.org.au/forum would just water down the services here.
Will we be looking for people to volunteer their time to keep a d.o.a site up-to-date the day a new security announcement is made?
Yes, it would have to be Gordon with his git foo, or someone just as good.
The three main reasons you suggest for a doa site would quite likely be of interest to other g.d.o groups — should they just be added to this site instead?
That's great call, a very good reason not to create a site. Think something similar to source forge, if that was available there would be little argument at all.
my thoughts
not to go into anything deep online we have had simillar discussions in sydney, whilst it would be good to have a site for reasons mentioned above i belive the drupal groups page is where meet-ups etc should be keep as this is where not just people who do not know about Drupal are going to head first it is also where other drupal developers who travel around will look for meet-ups i actually meet a great friend and co-worker because when he came to oz he joined the drupal aus group and came to a meet-up to meet other drupal developers. Also i have posted jobs and found jobs through the groups site and it was always my first point of call. Maintaining the site and ensuring quality etc points that have been mentioned previously having a seperate site can be an admin pain. anyways just my thoughts and i think there is something in the drupal association etc guidelines about country groups (not sure on this point will report back if no one can remind me earlier ; )...