As some of you may already know, being part of the Apache Software Foundation,
the OFBiz project is asked to comply with the ASF
Brand policy:
http://www.apache.org/foundation/marks/responsibility.html
http://www.apache.org/foundation/marks/pmcs.html
Every quarter, as part of the report to the ASF Board, we have to add with the
current status of compliance with the Project
Branding Checklist.
During the last year we were able to fix our site and download page in order to address some outstanding requirements; a few
days
ago we have added the TM to our logo and now we are mostly close to complete
this work.
In my next report to the ASF Board I will probably write something like this:
====================================================
Project Website Basics: complete [*]
Project Naming And Descriptions: complete
Website Navigation Links: complete
Trademark Attributions: complete
Logos and Graphics: complete
Project Metadata: complete
[*] The text in the main pages (index, download) of the project's website is
now compliant with the project branding guidelines;
however there are several Confluence based pages (linked from the home
page) that still need to be reviewed
====================================================
As you can read, we are pretty close but the last item is probably the biggest
one to fix: making sure that *every* link and
information in the OFBiz site is *official* and published under the approval of
the OFBiz PMC.
This task can take a long time and I would instead really hope to clear the
checklist within the next Board report (in June): in
order to achieve this we will have to work together over a concrete plan of
action.
I would suggest the following plan of action (trying to minimize the effort and
proceed at small steps):
1) remove all the existing links to Confluence/Wiki from the OFBiz website
(i.e. static html pages under ofbiz.apache.org/*)
2) we will initially end up with a simpler website (less links etc) but there
are some pages (currently in Confluence) that are
really important, for example:
https://cwiki.apache.org/OFBADMIN/mailing-lists.html
https://cwiki.apache.org/OFBADMIN/ofbiz-source-repository-and-access.html
in these cases we will convert them to static html pages and host them from the
website (making sure they are compliant with the
branding guidelines)
3) we will only keep *one* link to access Confluence/Wiki: in this way the user
will clearly know that she/he is leaving the
"Official site" for the "Official Wiki" (where for its nature, the information
could be a bit less controlled)
4) we will then add a footer/header or similar to the Wiki pages with a mention that the
information in them is less "official"
and to report to the OFBiz PMC any abuse or similar; we should not spend too much time on this as we will have soon to migrate
out
of Confluence (by the end of the year)
5) change our internal policy for updates to project website pages: the changes to the static website pages will have to be
voted
before being published (Review-Then-Commit): even if it will be extra work, imo
it is important because website pages are
"officially" published as soon as they are committed/deployed and this is
similar to issuing a release (that requires a formal
vote); in this way we, as the PMC, will be sure that we are controlling the content of the website and will be responsible for
it
6) then we will add content back (from Wiki to html) voting the new additions
to make sure the site remains clean and good
7) in the meantime we will also discuss the new technology for the wiki
Of all the above points, the weaker one is #4: because according to the branding guidelines the OFBiz PMC is also responsible
for
the content on the official wiki; but at least we will have a clearer boundary and there will be more time to improve (also
based
on the technology we will adopt for the new wiki).
At the moment, the following branding requirements are some of the ones that
will require some cleanup for sure:
* "Apache projects must host all official website content on an apache.org
domain. This includes all content overseen by the
project's PMC (including top level website, downloads, wikis, etc.), and
ensures both that the ASF infrastructure team can
maintain the services, as well informing any users that the content comes from
the ASF or the project's PMC, and not a third
party"
* "Projects must ensure that their average user can find all information and
code necessary to use the product in its common use
cases solely on the project's own website. A normal user should be able to
learn about the product from the project's own
materials, and must be able to use the product solely under the Apache License or other Apache Legal Affairs approved licenses
in
software that is distributed from this or other Apache projects"
* "Projects must not endorse or promote the work of third parties, nor allow
third party influence to affect the future of the
project for specific outside organizations"
What do you think (especially on the plan outlined at #1-#5)?
Kind regards,
Jacopo
