A change of heart

[Valorie Zimmerman]

On Sat, Aug 16, 2014 at 4:24 PM,  <david.wright12886 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi guys,
>
> I've been doing a bit of research lately on CMS's and stumbled across
> http://commonsinabox.org/ which is basically a bundled buddypress plugin
> which powers http://commons.gc.cuny.edu/ amogest other.
>
> Given the social nature of this setup, and the fact it is built upon wordpress
> (it is basically a set of wordpress plugins that have been tested together), I
> felt that this might be something that KDE might like to take under
> consideration?
>
> A standard install would include forums, groups, collaborative docs, social @
> mentions, user profiles etc, etc.
>
> Also, using the multi user aspect of wordpress it would still allow certain
> projects to keep their identity, but remain under the networks umbrella, as
> evidenced by: http://helpwanted.commons.gc.cuny.edu/
>
> Naturally, being exposed then to the wordpress plugin ecosphere would allow
> then a better integrated events management, job board, even a store if
> desired.
>
> Ultimately though, the goal is to increase funding. The KDE websphere is too
> spread out, and this would help reign it in so we can really do focused
> funding campaigns on users. That would be the advantage of the groups, as we
> could tailor funding drives to particular interests and hopefully have better
> success.
>
> Administration might also be made easier as we could get rid of a fair few
> subdomains by moving to this kind of platform.
>
> Anyway, it's late, and I'm jabbering. Let me know what you think!
>
> :-)
>
> ps
>
> There is also a buddypress app that could be rebranded:
> https://github.com/yuttadhammo/buddydroid
>
> Mozilla were also working on bugzilla intergration a while back:
> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=643570

Hi David, I've looked at the software you linked to, and am a bit underwhelmed.

However, your concern seems like a good one, and I've heard various
efforts towards the same goal. Rather than looking at a 'website in a
box' I think we should back up, and look at the goal, think about how
best to meet it, and then craft the KDE.org website and the rest of
our public-facing tech to support that.

Our Forums are working really well, as are the wikis. IRC and mail
lists seem to be ticking along well too. There has been some
discussion about tuning the Help > About KDE message on every KDE
application. We're the largest or one of the largest participants in
both GSoC and GCi. We do some active outreach in quite a few tech
conferences and other meetings. We've got great blogs and other
writing, including at least two books.

However, I think we all know that we need to do more to get KDE
software users more involved in the community, and yes, supporting us
with their money too.

So the question is, how can we build on the great infrastructure we
already have? Surely the main KDE.org can use some freshening, and
honing. How about getting involved in doing that work? The www team
has lost some momentum lately, and could use your energy and
enthusiasm.

I think we are poised for a lot of growth in the next year, as our new
frameworks and beautiful new Plasma work become more widely adopted.
It would be great if our user infra was ready for the new visitors.

Valorie