CMS, KDE3.1-look and other things about kde.org

[marko faas]

Hello everybody,

I just volunteered at KDE.nl to translate the KDE-site to Dutch.So, I
have the great opportunity to view the site and the way of working
without any history or knowledge about how it came about. Which I just
did :-) That doesn't mean that I think the current site is bad. I just
want to get things on an even higher level.

While I am impressed by the KDE-project and the huge amount of sites and
information on KDE.org, the way to translate the information looks a bit
difficult. It is hard to keep up with new content on the English site
without a sophisticated system to do the translations. I noticed that
not only the Dutch site lags behind, but also other languaged-sites have
difficulty to keep up with all the new announcements and programs. The
result is a rather unfriendly set of bi-languaged websites. The Dutch
are very forgiven when it compares to English, but for other languages
the translation must be complete. 

To do that, a very sophisticated system is needed, where ALL content is
stored in. All contributors and translaters of information must have
access to this system. There must be a kind of workflow, so translators
can see whats new and a superviser can assign tasks and check before the
translation is put on line. The system must provide a way to mark the
importance of a piece of content. That will not only help the
translation of the site to a new language, current translaters can see
the important new additions. If the systems provides an embargo, it
would be possible to announce a new version of KDE in all languages at
the same time. These are just a few examples of how the KDE-site could
be internationalized better.

I noticed some other things as well:

While surveying about what to translate first, I kept in mind the
different user groups.I noticed that the site combines information for
the KDE newbie, the KDE personal user, the KDE business user, all kinds
of KDE developers' groups and all kinds of KDE communities. To me, this
makes the website a bit confusing. The best way to see that, is in the
FAQ-section. The information is sqattered and a combined en indexed
knowledge base is missing.

How about using the KDE-dragon as a 'guide'. I mean, every section a
different dragon, so users know for whom the page is meant. That will
prevent first time users ending up in developer sections for example.

Some websites, like promo.kde.org are not maintained for quite some
time.Others are more independent and should/could be maintained
independently from kde.org.

I just saw a couple of screenshots for KDE 3.1. It looks GREAT! But
those great designs do not reflect (yet) on the current KDE-site. If we
want to promote KDE 3.1 in near future, the site should look more slick.

Anyway, all these things might need a more sophisticated content
management tool. I have read the questions from people who asked why
Zope wasn't used. And I recognise the answer that php was easier than
python. So, here are a few interesting tools we could use for the new
site (provided, you all agree with me).

http://ariadne.muze.nl/
http://www.ezpublish.org/
http://www.midgard-project.org/

So:
- do you agree that we should upgrade our content management system?
- do you agree that the KDE 3,1 look should be on the site too?
- do you agree that we should make a limited number of sections (welcome
to kde, user, business, developer) with content tailored for that group?
Thus, do you think we should redefine the structure of kde.org?
- how do you think we should (if we would) undertake this adventure?

(I guess this list is the best place to ask about a new site, but if I
missed an existing discussion, please point me to it. I hope I didn't
anger somebody, who has worked a lot on the current site)

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