Extended Coding for Cause Project for Florida Greenways

Here is a draft version of a project description discussed at the Brevard MeetUp on March 12, 2013. Please feel free to comment, critique, correct, suggest and add. If you are interested in participating or learning more, please provide your name, email and area of interest.

Florida Greenways Project

Introduction

The Florida Greenways Project is a volunteer effort to construct a dynamic, interactive Drupal Community Website for the Florida segment of the East Coast Greenway.

The East Coast Greenway Alliance is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to building, improving and inspiring use of the East Coast Greenway - a developing long-distance urban trail connecting towns and cities from Maine to Key West. The objective is to connect existing and planned shared-use trails to form a continuous, traffic-free route serving cyclers, hikers, joggers and other users of all abilities and ages.

Description

The Florida Greenways Project is working with the ECGA to build a more interactive and dynamic website focused on the Florida segment which runs from the Georgia border, through Amelia Island and down the East Coast to Key West.

Several participants of the Brevard Drupal Meetup are taking on the task of building the FGP Website and are seeking volunteer assistance from other members of the local and global Drupal community. The FGP will initially focus on trails and routes through the Central Florida counties of Volusia, Brevard and Indian River but will eventually expand to other geographic areas. This project will be of special interest to Drupal community members who are interested in working together on a real project and being recognized for their contribution, and also those who are interested in cycling, bike trails, camping, adventure, and active living.

The FGP website will augment the existing ECGA Greenway.org website. Greenway.org covers the entire East Coast Greenway at an overview level and provides Google maps of ECG segments, but does not provide forums for discussion, blogs, route changes, information sharing, volunteer opportunities or trail building information, links to other sites, or information vital to cyclers on the greenway. By leveraging the awesome capabilities of Drupal, the FGP website will address all these shortcomings.

A greenway has been defined as a “corridor of land recognized for the ability to connect people and places together.” Since Drupal is also recognized for its ability to connect people, places, ideas, technologies and many other things together, it is an ideal platform for the Florida Greenways Project website.

Inspired by C4aC

Every year at Florida Drupal Camp volunteers spend a day creating a website for a non-profit in an effort called Coding for a Cause (C4aC). The idea for the Florida Greenways Project was inspired by this worthy effort but differs from it in several ways. Unlike C4aC, the FGP is a long-term, evolving effort that is championed by a member of the Drupal community.

Since most of the Central Florida Drupal community is currently focused on preparation for the Florida Drupal Camp, the main activity FGP will not commence until after the Florida Drupal Camp occurs on April 20-21. At this time we are soliciting interested parties and encouraging discussion.

Benefits to volunteers

This project will be taken on as a shared development project using Volunteer effort. This affords Drupal developers and other contributors with an opportunity to participate in a team, to learn and benefit from others, and to experience the satisfaction of seeing a project through from concept to user experience. This is an opportunity to make a real, lasting, meaningful contribution to a healthy population, a green environment, and a sustainable future while enhancing your own reputation as a Drupal expert.

Volunteers names (and company names where appropriate) will be displayed on the website. There will be a Project Blog where we can promote and recognize the contributions of individuals and sponsor companies. The project will be developed in phases and does not have a defined end date since the requirements are open-ended. Once Phase 1 is operational, it will be announced and promoted in various cycling and trail publications such as Rails to Trail Conservancy and Adventure Cycling magazines, and the East Coast Greenway newsletter.

Next steps

Signup interested people and volunteers
Planning Meeting - review and revise project description, develop User Stories and other requirements specs
Suggested time – sometime this week Wednesday 3/13 – Friday 3/15
Suggested meeting place?

Drupal Camp Special Interest Group?
Will there be special interest groups at Drupal Camp this year and if so, can we designate a time & place for this topic?
Project Site
After Drupal Camp, DrupalEasy has volunteered to establish a group for this project to facilitate communication.