Drupal Learning Resource Center

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dmitrig01's picture

Edit 2 October 2008 -- this proposal is on hold until it can be clarified with regard to the questions below. End Edit

The Drupal Learning Resource Center (DLRC) will be a vibrant hub of information and exchange of ideas about Drupal.

There are two main goals of the Drupal Learning Resource Center (DLRC).

The first immediate goal is to create a freely distributed, open source digital publishing platform for teaching and learning about Drupal. The goal is to make Drupal accessible and easy to learn for individuals at all levels.

The specific features of the DLRC will include introductions, tutorials, how to's, explanations and content. Material will be featured in three forms: video, audio and text. Each of these materials will include a question and answer forum as well as a comment's section. The goal is for the resource center to be very easy to use both for contributors and for end users.

The first goal is thus to help citizens obtain information about Drupal in a much more accessible format than is possible today.

The second more lofty and even more important goal is to thus enable more citizens to participate in today's public square on the Internet. With more people able to use Drupal, more people will be able to connect and push for change. Our second goal is thus to deepen the impact of Drupal and allow more and more people to affect significant changes in a way that is both technologically sophisticated and simple.

We are quite confident that the Drupal community will respond very positively to the creation of this resource. Drupal once had a resource center (the Drupal Dojo) in which expert Drupalers were very engaged in providing content to help beginners - and beginners were very active in learning about Drupal. Over 70 lessons had been produced! However, this resource center is now defunct because the site and workflow were poorly designed, it was difficult to maintain, and didn't foster community involvement as much as it could have.

Todo items:

Based on the discussion at #drupal-dojo the following topics need to be incorporated into the proposal
a) Do we intend to build the site under drupal.org, or away from drupal.org
b) What are the benefits and complexities of each of the options from (a)
c) If we choose to build DLRC off drupal.org, do we plan incorporating it back into drupal.org and how will we do it. what are the technical complexities
d) how does DLRC fit with the new drupal.org redesign.
e) todo: answer add1sun's questions: http://groups.drupal.org/node/14760#comment-49381

How does your proposal meet the stated goals of the Knight Drupal Initiative program?: 

Our project meets the goals very well. It's main purpose is in fact to educate people on Drupal.

Here is how it meets each of the stated goals:

  • To enable more people to enter the digital conversation by lowering the technical barriers to entry -- We hit the nail in the middle of the head for this one. This is our primary goal: to lower the barrier to entry. Drupal is a very powerful platform for developing digital conversations. However, there are currently no freely available and easy to use means of learning Drupal.
  • To provide powerful tools for digital publication, free and open to all -- While the resource center is not a tool-maker per se, it provides a way for people to be able to know how to use Drupal well so that they can build powerful tools with it.
  • To encourage people to improve their communities by supporting the free exchange of information and ideas -- the resource center itself will be a community, much like the Dojo was, which supports the free exchange of information and ideas. Even more importantly, it will significantly broaden the scope of citizens who can easily use Drupal to set up other communities with Drupal sites.
How long will your project take to complete?: 

The project will take a total of 14 man-weeks spread over 6 months due to other commitments.

How will you implement and distribute your project?: 

Here is the basic schedule:

Month 1: IA, Research and Taxonomies
Month 2: Site configuration, module evaluations
Months 3 and 4: Site design and custom development
Month 5: Design implementation
Month 6: Fit and finish, testing, and final release

Here is a more detailed outline of the work that needs to be done:

Research

The project will require research about video hosting solutions and audio hosting solutions. We will research these extensively, because this is one of the most important parts of the project, so it can't fail.

There will be a comprehensive taxonomy to tag the materials, by topic ("Image Galleries", "Conference sites"), by modules (the "Views" module, the "CCK" module), and would be several things sharing this taxonomy, including forums, a pastebin, and a link repository.

Development

The development will be relatively straight-forward. Based on the information architecture and the mockups, we will discuss the site architecture and we will determine what needs to be coded.

Design

Our designer will create a logo and come up with branding - in summary he will create our online identity.
He will also create a design that fits the site, and the Drupallized version will validate as XHTML strict. It will be compatible (and tested) in IE 6+, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Chrome. The design will be released under the GPL to drupal.org, and then we will make proprietary modifications on our own time.

Testing

There will be tests written for the project to ensure the functionality works, throughout the development. The tests will be written as the project progresses to test many aspects of the project.

Team

We have an enthusiastic team of Drupallers who will be working on the project. Both Dmitri and Oleg were active in the now defunct Drupal Dojo:
Igor Gasowski (http://boldium.com/), Designer and Information Architect
Dmitri Gaskin (http://drupal.org/user/47566), Programmer and Drupal enthusiast
Oleg Terenchuk (http://drupal.org/user/78134), Programmer and Drupal enthusiast

What is your total budget estimate and how much funding are you requesting: 

1 designer times 5 weeks times $100/hour = $20000
1 programmer times 5 weeks times $100/hour = $20000
1 programmer times 4 weeks times $100/hour = $16000
Unfuddle account - $24 times funding for the next 12 months - $288

Total: $56288

Comments

Thank you Dmitri for taking

litwol's picture

Thank you Dmitri for taking the time to put this proposal in writing.

I hope other members of the community will be as excited as we are to revive the rich learning resource for drupal.


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Few questions

add1sun's picture

So, I would love some real muscle to be put behind a resource like this in the Drupal community. I have some questions though so that I can better understand the implementation and deliverable. I don't mean these to be taken as negative reactions, I just want some clarification so that this would be a strong proposal.

Where will this be hosted? Is this meant to be hosted under the *.drupal.org infrastructure? I'd like more information either way. If it is designed to go under *.d.o, then what is the plan to work with the infra and redesign teams? If it is not designed to be under *.d.o, then where will it be hosted and what will the domain name be. Who will own the domain name, who will be responsible for long term maintenance and how can we ensure that same fate that befell drupaldojo.com won't happen here?

Will there be code released back to the community from the project or is the completed site itself the deliverable? I guess I am fuzzy on exactly what the answer to the "distribution" portion of the "How will you implement and distribute your project?" question.

The website is a great idea but what is the follow through for its actual use? That is, are there any plans about how to introduce and promote the use of the site to the community? Will there be documentation on how to effectively use the site itself?

Cheers for taking this on guys! :-)

Lullabot loves you

Learn Drupal online at Drupalize.me

Thanks for suggestions & question

dmitrig01's picture

Thanks for your input.

At the moment, I don't think this will be hosted under the *.drupal.org infrastructure. The domain name itself is yet to be decided (that's something our designer will do, as he does branding/identity as well, but we might try to gobble up dd.com if/when it becomes available). I think I will hand over server credentials and domain ownership to the Drupal Association, just so that in case we go away for some reason, others will have access to it.

In terms of releasing the code, the site is the deliverable. We will release any customizations to the contributed modules, as well as any generalizable modules to the community. We do not plan to release the theme, for the same reasons BlueBeach is not released.

And, the website will be documented (but hopefully, it will be self-documenting). We will contribute resources ourselves, and we hope others will contribute too (Josh has already said he is willing to contribute some stuff).

Keep the questions coming!

Thanks,
Dmitri

Thanks for the clarifications

bonobo's picture

@dmitrig01 -- your recent comments and feedback in this have been very helpful -- thank you -- I'm looking forward to seeing the updated proposal --

One small detail:

RE: "We do not plan to release the theme, for the same reasons BlueBeach is not released."

As I understand it, the KDI supports code/work that will be released under the GPL. I definitely understand the reasons why you would want to keep the theme private, but that falls outside the scope of what KDI funds.

A possible middle ground: develop and release the theme as part of the proposal. Develop the branding separately, apart from this proposal. Release the theme with generic branding on d.o.

Cheers,

Bill


FunnyMonkey
Tools for Teachers

Interesting idea - I'll do it

dmitrig01's picture

How about developing a generic theme and "customizing" it on my own time?

We understand that ensuring

litwol's picture

We understand that ensuring longevity of this project is as important as building it. For that reason I have already begun outreach to various hosting companies for sponsored solutions. It is imperative to understand that it would be in hosting company's best interest to sponsor hardware and maintenance for this project. After all, whom the site visitors will turn to when the visitors are ready to build a site using all the skills acquired through DLRC. It is also important to note: We do not settle for any sponsored solution that does not provide for minimum of one year guaranteed sponsored service. This gives us much breathing room to find other sponsors in case a hypothetical current one decides to flake out.

To demonstrate that there is indeed movement towards the final goal (acquiring the sponsored hardware): I have been negotiating with hostmysite.com to acquire dedicated server http://groups.drupal.org/node/14611. NYC DUG doesnt seem to want it, and i think this project will prove to be the best application for it. Hostmysite also said they will provide CDN and other necessary resources to make video hosting and streaming possible.

However, this is just one example. I am doing outreach to many other companies so our options are far from limited.


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Sometimes interesting things appears on http://litwol.com

$56788 hey? that is a bit

tjholowaychuk's picture

$56788 hey? that is a bit lofty IMO, we would gladly provide an equivalent for $25,000 give or take.


Tj Holowaychuk

Vision Media - Victoria BC Web Design
Victoria British Columbia Web Design School

Proposal?

Amazon's picture

Ok, submit a proposal?

Kieran

Would love to help

joshk's picture

Hey Dmitri,

I would love to help out in any way I can. Senpai and I have been talking about reviving the Drupal Dojo for the fall, but if you guys are able to roll forward with this proposal, perhaps we can just help promote and add content! :)

http://www.chapterthreellc.com | http://www.outlandishjosh.com

Your help is highly

litwol's picture

Your help is highly appreciated. we need to rally people to this project and have them vote on it based on the following review and voting guide: http://groups.drupal.org/node/11798


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Sometimes interesting things appears on http://litwol.com

Thanks!

dmitrig01's picture

Thanks for starting the Dojo, and I'm sure that we'll build on your work in the previous Dojo! There were weeks at a time when I would miss Sunday-morning commitments just for the Dojo. Thanks for that!

I'm glad you've been talking about the Dojo with Senpai, and all the advice (and definitely the content) will go a long way to making this happen.

If you have any advice on improving the proposal, I'm all ears. I really would like to create a site that will work well for the community and last a long time.

Thanks,
Dmitri

I'm a big fan of this

mroswell's picture

I'm a big fan of this proposal. Drupal Dojo has been an extremely valuable resource, both in real-time, and via recordings and notes. Missing videos were always frustrating, and having the site down for a long time even moreso, so putting some infrastructure into this will be a good thing. (Also worth adding, that I've consistently found educational materials prepared and presented by dmitrig01 to be outstanding. I don't know the others, but look forward to introductions--virtually, likely.) I share the proposal-writers' confidence that the Drupal community will respond very positively to the creation of this resource. The drupal learning curve can be fierce. This resource will be invaluable.

Thanks for the kind words

dmitrig01's picture

I'm glad that you like our proposal, and I hope you will like the new Drupal Dojo even better!

Thanks!
dmitri

Some thoughts/suggestions

bonobo's picture

I have yet to vote on this proposal (and, fwiw, I would LOVE to see people voting on a proposal leaving comments explaining their rationale), but I love the idea -- my comments here are intended to help focus the proposal, as in its current form it feels very incomplete --

  1. You mention needing to do custom development in months 3 and 4 -- can you include some specifics as to the custom development that will be needed to build this site? From the functionality you have described, I can imagine a few ways of building this site that would require minimal to no development -- what are the areas that will require customization? Will these be new modules, or extensions of existing modules, or both?

  2. In your budget, you set aside 20K for a designer -- what are the design elements that will require 20K's worth of work? How would you answer the question, "Why not build your theme out as a subtheme of Zen?" (fwiw, I can think of several reasons why not, but that type of detail will strengthen this proposal)

  3. Have you considered making the process of building this site a set of lessons that will then be housed within the site? This would provide a great example of how to take a site from conception to finished product, and would also help publicize the effort -- making this documentation a deliverable for the project will help strengthen this proposal.

This proposal has potential, and please do not take this feedback as a sign that this project should not move forward. Including more detail, however, will make for a stronger proposal.

Cheers,

Bill


FunnyMonkey
Tools for Teachers

This proposal will not delve

litwol's picture

This proposal will not delve into technical specifications, proposals are not meant to layout full and detailed track to get this project up and running. This is merely a proposal for the project. If people like it and it gets accepted, we will move forward with putting in real effort for technical research and implementation.

To answer your question about design: We are not talking about which theme to use; we are talking about Photoshop designs, identity development, etc.

Before we can talk about taking something from concept to a deliverable we must get the concept approved and accepted first. Help us get approved and accepted.


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Sometimes interesting things appears on http://litwol.com

I'd love to see the Dojo come back

bonobo's picture

It is a great resource. However, to say, "This proposal will not delve into technical specifications" seems to be a showstopper. This proposal needs technical specifications; right now, it is very vague, and technical specs will help flesh it out.

By way of example, your clarification on the design aspect is very helpful. Your initial writeup mentioned nothing about branding and identity, where your clarification begins to show what you are thinking.

However, your proposal still remains incredibly vague. For example, your research section mentions that you will research video hosting options. What have you researched to date? If you were to start building the site today, what would you use? If you have this information, including it will make your proposal stronger. If you don't have it, then how can you accurately assess time/cost estimates? But either way, more detail is needed to make this proposal stronger.

RE: "Before we can talk about taking something from concept to a deliverable we must get the concept approved and accepted first."

This concept has already been accepted, and it took the form of the dojo. You are asking for a sum of money to re-execute this concept. Details are necessary; not a full scope, obviously, but something that gives some shape to what you will be executing.

If I only had to evaluate the concept, that'd be easy -- this is a great concept, and one I fully support.

However, the KDI is based on evaluating proposals, and this proposal lacks detail. As I said above, I have yet to rate this proposal -- I hope you will reconsider your statement that "this proposal will not delve into technical specifications" as any level of technical detail is precisely what this proposal needs. And please don't misunderstand -- I really want to see this proposal move forward. But without any hint of how this your concept will take shape under the terms of this proposal, I think forwarding this along to Knight would be premature.


FunnyMonkey
Tools for Teachers

My thoughts as well

dgorton's picture

FWIW, Bill is articulating my thoughts extremely well. Answering these and add1sun's questions above at http://groups.drupal.org/node/14760#comment-49381 are really important for helping us all understand this.

Drew Gorton
Gorton Studios

Agreed

dmitrig01's picture

I agree about the lack of detail. We will be filling it in in the coming weeks Initially, we were mainly trying to just get the proposal out the door for the concept to be approved, and how that it has, we're working out specific detail.

Awesome. I really look

add1sun's picture

Awesome. I really look forward to this project happening. :-)

Lullabot loves you

Learn Drupal online at Drupalize.me

Replies - thanks

dmitrig01's picture

The proposal is by no means complete so far. This is simply a first draft that I am very willing to change it, and flesh it out.
Here are my responses to your three points.

  1. This would involve some workflow handling and video handling. It would also involve development for new modules to possibly integrate in to other services. It would also cover development custom user flows, which kind of ties in to the next point.
  2. The design cost includes not only the theme, but the logo and branding, as well as information architecture and user flows, and then finally the actual site design. As this is a relatively complex site, and we want future improvements to be able to build on this solid foundation, these must be very well thought through. For the subtheme of Zen, since the site is supposed to showcase the use of drupal, the site in and of itself should push the envelope of Drupal. While I don't mean to insult Zen, i see Zen as a kind of generic box. You either fit into it, and be like the others (but a small amount different), or you can think outside of the box and design for a Klein bottle or something else like that. Zen is great at doing what it does, but it doesn't do everything.
  3. Yes, we have considered that. While we won't document everything, we'll do our best to document as much as we can. I like your thoughts about what the documentation would accomplish. I'll put that down as a deliverable when I have time (next week or two)

Sad to hear about the demise

webavant's picture

Sad to hear about the demise of the Dojo. I thought it was just … well … quiet, for lack of a better word. Have you put any thought to a live presentation platform like we had with the Dojo? I still have the old one "working" as it was before ;)

great idea

robotjox's picture

I hope this turns into something - the dead drupaldojo site sends off real bad vibrations imho ;)

Would really love to see more feedback on this

bonobo's picture

But, in the absence of feedback, I'm also having a difficult time seeing where more than this is needed:

Use these contrib modules:

CCK
Views
Filefield (for audio)
EmField
JQuery Media
Jquery Update
Token
Workflow
Actions
Date
Calendar

If we want more detailed user profiles:
Bio/Content profile
Autonodetitle

And, if we want to have the ability to process video, either Media Mover of FlashVideo

The site would either use the book module or cck nodereferences to string together groups of nodes into sequential lessons.

For most efficient use of taxonomy (and to allow for use of something like Faceted Search, if desired, or to leave the door open for using something like Apache Solr search) I'd probably start with the following high-level taxonomies: Drupal Version, Functionality, Level, and Subject. Subject should be a free-tag vocab, and the others should be controlled vocabularies.

Set up two content types:

Lessons (with three workflow states): Proposed, Taught, Needs detail.
Tutorials -- these can be standalone, or with a nodereference back to individual lessons.

Views could be used to display tutorials and lessons in a variety of ways, probably starting with a modified version of the default Directory view.

The site could be themed using Zen, and the process of modifying Zen could be a great first lesson to store in the site. Or, use any other contrib theme that displays well cross-browser, validates xhtml strict and has semantic markup.

So, this writeup took about 20 minutes, and while it's far from complete, it provides detail for one clear way forward when it comes to actually executing the idea behind this proposal. However, this site would not take long to build; certainly, it would be far less than what is budgeted in the original proposal -- but, in the absence of any feedback from the people who have put this proposal forward, I'm really left wondering why starting with something simple isn't an option.

More detail in the original proposal would help to see exactly what you are thinking. Additionally, another detail that isn't mentioned in this proposal but that certainly needs to be addressed is longevity: how will this site be maintained, and by whom, and on what infrastructure, after the Knight funding expires. What steps will be taken to ensure that the content/structure/code of this site remains accessible if the site goes offline.

As I said earlier, I love this concept, and I am offering feedback because I want to see the proposal succeed and move forward. I have yet to rate this proposal, as this proposal feels incomplete. Is any more detail going to be added into this proposal, or is this version the final version?


FunnyMonkey
Tools for Teachers

I'm inclined to agree

add1sun's picture

Right now I have given this 2 stars because I feel like I can't make a fair assessment without more clarification. I'm still waiting for more info on my original questions and Bill echos some of my concerns from then, re: long-term care and infra needs. I really would love for this proposal to happen but I don't feel like the proposal in this state is ready to be passed on.

I also recognize that people are busy and it can take a while to answer, so I hope that over the next few weeks more of this will get fleshed out. I'll try to be patient. :-)

Lullabot loves you

Learn Drupal online at Drupalize.me

While I agree, it's not that simple

dmitrig01's picture

I completely agree that the site could be built based on just your write-up - that's what we're going to do during the initial two months. What this completely leaves out is the fact that there is no workflow solution for Drupal that is really perfect, and the fact that video handling is a very hard thing to do.

On the topic of video handling:
Where do we want to host the videos? Blip? YouTube? Host them ourselves? Host them on a CDN? (CDN most likely). If CDN, then how (hint: code)? We will need to have a player. We will probably use an open source solution and just overlay some DrupalDojo branding on it.

The other thing that this completely leaves out is custom user flows. The standard Drupal workflow for adding nodes, for example, is probably not nearly what we want it to be - this is one of the reasons we think the initial Dojo died - it was hard to use! While Drupal in itself is not that hard, for many people it is too hard to jump through many loops to upload content. It should be as easy to find content as to upload it - that way people will be have incentive to do so.

Thanks for the input,
Dmitri

Thanks for the valuable input

dmitrig01's picture

This is my first proposal, so I feel like there's still quite a bit to learn.
I was away on a camping trip this past weeknd, so I wasn't able to respond to your guys' comments until now. I'll do my best to try to answer every one of these.

Please keep the input coming!

Thanks again,

Dmitri

druptube.org

IrishGringo's picture

I own the domain names, druptube.com and druptube.org... and I was planning on doing something like this... perhaps there is some opportunity to work together here... and yes... all video...

but I am going to insist that all of the tutor nodes include a list of drupal versions and node versions.. as well as a ( this tutor is x days old)...
and I wanted to include introductions about what a node does.

Live Webinars?

webavant's picture

Hi guys, I posted a few days ago and I'm surprised there were no responses about live webinars. Did everyone forget what an awesome platform this was for conducting live meetings? Are we abandoning this for the DLRC or for DD2.0? Does anyone have any ideas how to improve the old VNC/teamspeak/skype set up?

Also, what happened to DD? Why are we calling it 'dead'? Josh K is saying it's still alive and well! Why hasn't Squidster pointed the domain name correctly?

Please feel free to ping me on IRC. I am always on, I just forgot to sign on after my shell died one day.

Not yet

dmitrig01's picture

This proposal currently does not include a live component, however taht will probably come soon after.

Learning Resource Center

RobLoach's picture

I'm really looking forward to seeing learning resources grow within the Drupal community. This has my vote!

Strong Idea

marcomatic's picture

As a recent Drupal convert I feel strongly that a site like this is needed. While there are specific tutorials and handbooks on Drupal, a site that can help focus users on the fundamentals would help to lower the knowledge barrier of using Drupal. Specifically educating users on how to prepare to learn Drupal and the fundamentals of what is required to run Drupal. This is also pertinent in the idea of educating users on expectations of time to learn Drupal, basic skills needed such as and understanding of PHP / MySQL, and a basic process overview of building / launching a Drupal website. Many of the gaps in learning Drupal are filled by various documentation and tutorials, but a better organization of these could prove to have an exponential impact on a new users experience.

Count me on board in any way I can be of assistance.

Marc Ray
Right-Sprocket Web Development
www.rightsprocket.com

Open questions

agentrickard's picture

I am not sure this one is ready yet, particularly because of the questions regarding its integration with drupal.org and the redesign.

--
http://ken.therickards.com/

Indeed it isn't. It's

litwol's picture

Indeed it isn't. It's waiting a rewrite that should happen sometime in the upcoming week.


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Sometimes interesting things appears on http://litwol.com

OK

agentrickard's picture

It is on the agenda for this week's meeting. We can discuss it quickly and move on.

--
http://ken.therickards.com/

Agreed --

bonobo's picture

I have yet to vote, and dmitrig01 has put forward some promising ideas, but the proposal needs to be updated to reflect feedback.

+1 for postponing conversation of this app, and +1 for having the new proposal/discussion take place in a new thread around a new proposal. The new proposal should definitely reference this thread, but there is a lot to be gained from having the new proposal be judged on its own merits.


FunnyMonkey
Tools for Teachers

Drupal Dojo is not dead

gusaus's picture

FWIW - The Drupal Dojo (both the mentoring group and redesign project) is not dead. We will be (re)fueling the development effort via a combo of corporate sponsorships, fundraiser events, individual donations, bartering, and volunteers. An effort to create a leadership structure and a curriculum is also underway. A section on the Dojo group has been created for those to keep tabs on, get involved with, and support the effort - http://groups.drupal.org/node/2191/redesign

Gus Austin
PepperAlley Productions

Gus Austin

Status

agentrickard's picture

We officially declined to vote on this during the October 2 meeting.

It still is up for two more reviews before being rejected.

--
http://ken.therickards.com/

Relation to Drupal Dojo

joshk's picture

Having just gotten the DrupalDojo.com domain name back under my control, I should probably clarify our relationship here.

My position is that the value of the Drupal Dojo has always been in the content and community created, and I'm 100% supportive of this and other projects designed to push the envelope in terms of supporting content and community online.

However, as far as I'm concerned, the "official" dojo site lives on groups.drupal.org. It serves our needs for community, and we have always had our best luck hosting our content on freely available services. Now that the domain is back, I will personally create a very minimal site at drupaldojo.com to provide some value to newcomers, but this will be extremely simple, and hopefully temporary. See here for more details.

I would like to reiterate my support for this project and say that should a DLRC actually be built, I think it would be only natural to let them use the drupaldojo.com/net domains. The same goes for any other project that seeks to create a top-notch web space for collaborative mentoring. If you build it and it is awesome, the name is yours.

In the mean time, I will get back in the business of making lessons. ;)

http://www.chapterthree.com | http://www.outlandishjosh.com