Re: [general] New Arabeyes Drupal Website

["Mohamed Farag" <ict at asiamail dot com>]

Not yet fully ready with a good and covering reply :)
but, I will reply on urgent things, leaving my detailed project plan for another message tomorrow or maybe THU inshallah.

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Djihed Afifi" <djihedlists at googlemail dot com>
> To: "General Arabization Discussion" <general at arabeyes dot org>
> Subject: Re: [general] New Arabeyes Drupal Website
> Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:23:29 +0100
> 
> Salam,
> 
> 
> Ossama, Abderrahim, Sameer and Khaled have already given their ideas
> better than I could. So here is a summary of what I think we agree on.
> 
> I think the website team has been formed:
> * Mohamed Farag.
> * Mohamed Sameer.
> * Daif Al-Otaibi.
> * Abderrahim Kitouni.
> 
> I'd suggest Farag to take care of leading the team. You should really
> take a lot of input from Sameer especially with regards to management of
> the revamp. Abderrahim knows what the current site has. Daif saw the
> actual code and tinkered with it :)

Walaykum Asalam

Ok, I organized the team this way...I am seeking feedback if any suggestion or so:

Team by task:

- Project Manager/ Coordinator: Farag  
- Sys Admins: 
		- Prototype Phase: Farag + Abderrahim 
		- Final Phase    : adn + chahibi
- Arabic Support, Localization: Sameer + ???
- CMS Programming as a whole: Sameer + Abderrahim + Daif
- Themes, Graphics, Styles, Layout, Web Design: Farag + Abderrahim
- Documentation Maintenance: Farag + ???

> 
> Please take the following notes and the previous emails, be practical
> and see what they'll lead to. 

- I am doing that already...

Farag, in your server, can you setup four
> accounts for the above team? If not, please let us know ASAP so we set
> this up somewhere.

- Yes, it's just a shared account .. cannot restart server or anything but only with the hoster's assistance and approval which might take around 48 hrs.
What type of accounts? do you mean CMS admin accounts?
 
> More worky, less talky :) Should we meet Friday 18:00pm GMT? (website
> team) I personally will just be a bystander :-)
> 
> In the future, could you guys use
> http://wiki.arabeyes.org/Website_Revamp to track the status of the
> project? using the wiki has proved very good at managing and letting
> people know what is done and what needs to be done.

- I strongly urge all to use it for documenting the work better than ever, instead of the list.
- I will send a detailed message here tomorrow inshallah with what I suggest in using the wiki for this project. I am putting another suggestion at the end of my replies for the better use of the whole wiki IMHO.

> 
> Summary:
> --------
> 
> * A prototype means a mostly working instance that takes minimal effort
> to integrate. i.e We need minimal code to get it up and running. Mostly
> just configuration.
> 
> You may, of course, show off parts of the work from time to time, and
> you are encouraged to do that. At some point, we'll talk to adn to get
> you a subdomain so you install your stuff to the Arabeyes server, which
> would then be transferred as the main site when things are done.

- I divided the project plan into two phases:
- Prototype Phase: on my shared server (ae.arabbix.org)
- Final Phase: on the dedicated server of arabeyes.org

N.B. I will of course carefully check Abderrahim's install, and see what we can    do with it.
 
> I also think design should get into it. Feel free to leech off whatever
> graphics you may find on the current site.

Alright, thanks
 
> * Multinlingual: this is probably priority 1. It has to support both
> Arabic and English. If a compromise has to be reached, go for Arabic.
> i.e the emphasis has to be on Arabic.
> 
> At one point we used to be a lot more geared towards upstream
> developers. Now our users are mostly Arabic speaking translators and
> developers.

I will rely on M. Sameer's experience for the Arabic support and localization part, especially if we finally went with Drupal (I am still need to double check if there is a better localized CMS out there..and report that..just to do my own homework).

> * Functionality: daif can help you a lot here as he saw code and he has
> proved capable of tweaking it. Here is what we need:
> - News.
> - Press section.
> - Contact, about.
> - A hall of fame section.
> - SVN information (howto and statistics).
> - Downloads.
> - Projects (this should largely mirror the current main projects page).
> Please allow for a "dead projects" subsection - could be as simple as a
> flag in the db. You can make it one big nice page if you want! but
> please let us have an easy way of adding/deleting projects. As Sameer
> described: each project should have icon, logo, description, and
> maintainer. The rest should go to the wiki I think. Just give a link to
> the wiki page.

- Arayeyes' Wiki seems used as a documentation and discussion board.
I also noticed a mix in the wiki content between both discussions and article content on the "article" section, while no one seems like to use the "discuss" tab!
Wiki needs sorting: taking opinions and discussion-natured posts to the "discuss" page. While keeping the "article" content in place, and wikifying it.


- I'd like to include a section in the website for hiring Arabeyes members. 
Consists of profiles of members who like to announce their availability for 
hire, as a service to members.
Also, as a next or parallel step, another section for companies or 
individuals to post job requests in the field of computing in general and 
open source, linux/unix and localization in particular. Let's say: 
Arabeyes job forum.
It can include also a volunteer job section for our use and others' use.
 
> Khaled's idea of "sub-projects" may also be nice. But please leave it
> off for now until we see what you guys come up with.
> 
> - Mailing list integration (subscription, etc)
> - Donate section.
> - Member list and profile pages.
> + it should allow for simple addition of other sections. I assume the
> popular CMS's make this simple ATM.
> 
> 
> One rule of thumb: KEEP IT SIMPLE. If you think you are making it too
> complicated, you probably are :)
> 
> An example of a site that look good and is simple:
> http://www.transmissionbt.com/
> 
> 
> * On LDAP: adn, I know you are busy, but just let us know whether we can
> do this very easily. We currently have SVN + Wiki + trac + new site, and
> it would be nice to be able to integrate all three.
> 
> * Choice of CMS: I'm honestly not too knowledgable of the differences
> between what's available. But here is one piece of advice, Farag:
> Pick one, research if necessary. Stick to it, and do it. Feel free to
> pilot and try what's available, and come to a rational conclusion :-).

I am going to do that check and comparison tomorrow.
As I said, I will need some more time, I hope to finish all that by Friday as you suggested, but, as this is a lot of work - at least for my current schedule - and as Abdurrahim suggested .. I'd prefer to make it an hour earlier prior to the general Sunday meeting. 

Salam,

Mohamed

> 
> Djihed
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> في ن، 04-08-2008 عند 09:03 +0200 ، كتب Mohamed Farag:
> > Thank you so much Djihad for your efforts yesterday!
> > Thank you all for the enjoyable time.
> >
> > I need your opinion before going ahead and install a test install 
> > on my server, therefore making a prototype as Djihad requested.
> >
> > First: for all:
> >
> > Drupal 6.3 Arabic files are not ready yet.
> > Should we install Version 6 and use the Arabic files made 
> > available for 6.3 (that are originally for 5.9)? And start a new 
> > project for testing and it. http://drupal.org/node/232828
> >
> > Or should we go with the older version of Drupal (V. 5.9) with its
> > Arabic language files that is stable and tested? just to be practical?
> > http://drupal.org/node/232778
> >
> > and then we can make a plan for upgrading?
> >
> >
> > Second: For all:
> > Please send me all your ideas for the new website in all aspects 
> > and functions/ modules, features that you see important. All your 
> > inputs will of course be subject to discussion and consensus 
> > approval. Third:
> > For Djihad: What exactly do you need in the prototype?
> > Also, do you mean a working install of the CMS, but not fully 
> > filled with data and stuff..or just homepage design under drupal?
> >
> > Also, do you think I should start website discussions in the 
> > admin list, or dev list? or here in the general list?
> >
> > I will also need to have contact with Daif to arrange our work on 
> > this project. Then we can give an expected deadline for the 
> > prototype.
> >
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Mohamed
> >
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