Re: OpenArabia

[Youssef Chahibi <chahibi at gmail dot com>]

On Tuesday 01 May 2007 23:33:33 Abdulaziz Al-Arfaj wrote:
> Salam,

وعليكم السلام،
Glad to see signs of life from you.

> For some time now, Arabeyes members and contributors wanted to create
> a community portal for all things Arabic & open source. To quote Nadim
> back in February of 2005:
>
> "...OpenArabia.org (OAO for short), is available for us to really make it
> the premier portal for all things Open Source and Arabic.  The idea is for
> OAO to bring the various factions together, from Arabeyes to all the other
> LUGs, projects and entities.  OpenArabia.org should not pertain to
> source-code openness either, it should venture into any and all Open Source
> mediums (books, data, encyclopedias, etc).  The various ideas and details
> can be worked out later as the vision(s) are too grand to be noted at this
> juncture...."[1]
>

Just to open the discussion again, because I did not follow the developments 
of the idea, I think that for now the idea of involvement from LUGs is to be 
excluded -as in not believing in so much hope-, LUGs are pretty inactive in 
my eyes, if they were active the way the OpenArabia.org idea expect them to 
be then I should have noticed that. LUGs are good because they bring the idea 
very close to the end-users and potential participants, but it is simply not 
the case .

> There have been several initiatives in the past to jump start the
> OpenArabia.org project but they didn't take. But the time seems ripe
> now to bring this topic to the discussion table once more and see if
> anyone is willing to adopt this project, and when I say adopt, I mean
> someone literally needs to make this project his/her baby.

Rectification: "someones". In my imaginary concept of OpenArabic.Org, the 
project needs a lot of care from many carers, getting news, writing news and  
present quality content is not a one man's job at all, it is a community's 
job. Even big portals like OSnews or Slashdot, with their international 
community, can hardly satisfy their reason of existence.

> Its simple, we need a web admin to setup the various pages and
> sections of the portal and do upkeep, someone who is comfortable with
> CMSs... (Drupal, Joomla etc...). The web admin must understand exactly
> what the purpose of OAO is and keep those goals in mind while crafting
> the portal.

Once done you can get a fully empty Joomla demo site. We need content, there 
is no one to make content. There is few people, who try to tackle the 
priorities, and with difficulty.

> As with anything we do, this is best done through a group effort. But
> to get the initiative off the ground someone will have to take the
> lead. Anyone more familiar than me with the history of OAO please
> chime in with your thoughts on this.

True, it needs a fully dedicated person, and a group to follow.
> So, any takers?

Unfortunately, not me. The idea is great, the means are not there.
Suggestion: Start a page in http://wiki.arabeyes.org/OAO_Draft to draw the 
features of this project, and convenient realistic ways to achieve it. 
Anyway, it is not a completely impossible mission.

> Regards,
>
> Abdulaziz,

Youssef.

PS: I wish I didn't send this reply.