[kdewebdev-site] First draft of www.kdewebdev.org vision statement - feedback requested

[David Joham]

Hello all,

Here's the first draft of the vision statement I've put together for the 
kdewebdev.org web site. I hope everyone agrees that it is imperative we 
define what we're going to be building before we get started so that we fully 
understand the goals of the project and what we're trying to accomplish. This 
is going to be a big project and I believe these first few steps are critical 
to its success.

Please keep in mind that this is a first draft based on my readings of the 
archives, feedback from folks so far and a few tangents of my own. I welcome 
any and all constructive feedback.

This vision statement doesn't yet contain any TODO's. I decided it was a 
little premature to get to that before I had feedback on this document.

This is how I would like to proceed. I would like to suggest we all take until 
Wed. night Mountain Daylight time to digest, discuss and modify this 
document. I will then take all of the suggestions and create a final document 
by next Sunday evening. We can then move on to assignments and the design 
phase. 

The design phase is where I expect to start saying things like "Chris, will 
you please work with our graphic artist and put together a page layout 
prototype and document. Can you have that done in XXXX days?".  At that 
point, hopefully this project will start being the collaberative project I'm 
hoping for rather than jus t me sitting up typing random suff into KMail :)


So, without further ado, here is the first draft of the kdewebdev.org vision 
statement.

kdewebdev.org: 
VISION

kdewebdev.org aims to be a the preeminent website for users of KDE's web 
development tools to find documentation, code samples and best-practice tips 
and tricks. The primary goals of kdewebdev.org are to allow web developers to 
help themselves, see what KDE offers in the way of tools and other 
development aides and to allow developers the opportunity to easily 
contribute back to the kdewebdev.org community.


kdewebdev.org; 
DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

The development of kdewebdev.org can be broken down into two phases: 

Phase I will be the development of a www.kdewebdev.org “umbrella” site as well 
as a “brochure-ware” site for each component in the kdewebdev.org family.  
When completed, these sites will serve to educate visitors about the tools 
and technology we offer as well as present a consistent, professional image 
that conveys confidence and trust. 

Phase II will be the development of an infrastructure that encourages 
interactive contributions to the kdewebdev.org community. These contributions 
will include things like Kommander scripts, Javascript code, templates and 
contributions to the core tools themselves.

This document will concentrate on Phase I, but will touch on Phase II as well.


PHASE I Details

The primary goal of Phase I will be the development of a “portal” site 
(www.kdewebdev.org) that will professionally introduce visitors to the tools 
we offer and to convey a sense of cohesion. We want visitors to easily be 
able to see what tools are available, what they can do and to understand that 
these tools have been designed and developed to work together.

At a high level, www.kdewebdev.org  should (at a minimum) convey the following 
information to a visitor:

 * Introduce kdewebdev.org as an “umbrella” site for KDE's web tools
 * Briefly introduce the tools that are available and their features 
 * Provide a news area 
 * Provide one or two high level screen shots of each tool in action
 * Provide a FAQ
 * Provide links to access all <tool>.kdewebdev.org sub domains.

A good use case for someone who would use the www.kdewebdev.org web site would 
be a new KDE user who is trying to figure out how to replace FrontPage, 
Dreamweaver or any other tool (s)he is used to using. This user has never 
heard of Quanta or any of the tools we offer and needs to have a place where 
all of the available tools are presented in summary so that (s)he can easily 
match a development need with an available tool.

This “portal” site can almost be thought of as a teaser site. It won't have 
much detail about the tools themselves – rather it will have a one or two 
sentence description of the tool that invites and encourages the visitor to 
visit the tools, <tool>.kdewebdev.org subdomain for more information.

In Phase I, these <tool>.kdewebdev.org sub domains should (at a minimum) 
convey the following information to a visitor:

 * Introduce the tool and what it does 
 * Provide a feature list
 * Provide screen shots (if appropriate)
 * Provide a way for user to get support (mailing lists, etc)
 * Provide documentation on the use of the tool 
 * Provide instructions on how to get the tool
 * Provide a FAQ (if appropriate)
 * Provide contact information (if appropriate)
 * Provide a way to get back to the main www.kdewebdev.org site 

All <tool>.kdewebdev.org sub domain web sites will share a consistent user 
interface – further reinforcing the idea that KDE offers a suite of tools 
that are designed to work together.

When we are finished with Phase I, we will have a consistent, 
professional-looking web site that allows users (even ones that have never 
heard of us) to easily find  the tool that is right for them and the 
information they need to use it. We can then proceed to Phase II.


Preliminary PHASE II Details

The primary goal of Phase II will be to build interactivity into the 
<tool>.kdewebdev.org sites and provide a means to help new developers easily 
contribute to the core applications themselves. 

As appropriate, each sub domain should have the capability for users to upload 
materials that will help other developers use the sub domain's tools. This 
will include items such as Kommander scripts, JavaScript code and other 
items.

Phase II will also include mechanisms for recruiting and helping new 
developers get started working on the core tools. Further definition of this 
feature will come later.


Thanks again for everyone's help. Please feel free to comment publicly or 
privately (if you so desire) on this document. Any and all feedback is 
desired and helpful.

Best regards,

David