Thanks for bringing this up, Giles. In general I agree with the idea (every time I have to edit the ASC site I cringe - I just don’t do it often enough to keep that skill set front-of-mind) but devil’s in the details. Would love something easy to use (wordpress, drupal, whatever) but has to be secure, easy to mange, and I think we have to generate static content.
So I think the focus would be what tools would be easy for our less-technical committers to use to manage the site content that still generate HTML. FWIW - I just unofficially touched base with infra - the top level project has to be hosted on ASF systems it seems, but that just means they serve the HTML that’s checked into git. How we get that HTML in there is up to us. I checked a dozen or so other ASF projects, seems like they’re all hosted on the ASF servers. John > On Dec 23, 2016, at 3:30 AM, Giles Sirett <[email protected]> wrote: > > > For some time I’ve been thinking that the cloudstack.apache.org > <http://cloudstack.apache.org/> website is looking a little dated and could > do with a redesign > > I also feel quite strongly that we should move it to an easy-to-use CMS, > rather than the middleman/github repo approach > If we do that, we can broaden to pool of people who have the skills able to > udate the website (i.e. open it up potentially to people who don’t know > git,etc) > > This hopefully would allow us to keep the site more up to date, more easily > > > So, first question: do others agree this seems like a good idea ? > > > Moving on from this, I have had a discussion with a web agency that I know. > The net result is that they would consider helping us out on a pro-bono basis > (to be frank, they are reasonably excited to be able to do some work for an > apache project – it’s a good thing for them to talk about. All they ask is a > “site designed by” credit) > > They are https://www.blinkeredmedia.com/ <https://www.blinkeredmedia.com/> > (their site focusses on video but they knock out wordpress sites by the dozen) > > They are up for getting involved in our community (maybe marketing@) as > volunteers and working on a redesign > > So, next question: do people think this is a good idea, would we accept their > offer of help? > > Now, the potential challenges I see: > > 1. If we moved to something like wordpress, are ASF infra able to host > that? > a. Assuming “no” – then is there anything to stop us using a commercial > ISP ? – My $dayjob could donate a couple of years hosting if required, giving > control of it to this PMC. Is that allowable ? > 2. The current workflow (AFAIK) only allows commiters to update the > site. That’s a sensible check process. So, if we moved to a CMS, how would we > enforce necessary karma, and who would have such karma ? > 3. Has anybody got any experience of “commissioning” a website in an > open source community ? – they have already asked me lots of questions about > how it would work – and I’ not sure. In theory, it can all be > designed/reviewed/ etc on marketing@ but I would be a little anxious that it > could turn into a bike-shedding nightmare (and theres nothing designers love > more than 10 different opinions J ) > > > My thinking would be that, as long as they are happy to (and we are happy for > them to do so) we get them to come up with a design idea to give people a > starting point to look at > > If people think it’s a good idea (and we can answer the challenges above) – > my first step would be to introduce these guys on lists and let them take it > from there > > > > > Kind Regards > Giles > > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > www.shapeblue.com <http://www.shapeblue.com/> > @shapeblue >
