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Re: [Gnumed-devel] GNUmed website


From: David Grant
Subject: Re: [Gnumed-devel] GNUmed website
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 2003 15:31:11 -0500
User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20031007

I think I would disagree with you on one key point: I think there should only be ONE website. This website should meet the needs of developers as well as normal users. Advantages of this are: developers will frequently access the same site that newbie users would because there would only be one site, and thus the user-part of the main site will not be neglected, and also, NEW developers need to have a reduced barrier to development, this would be achieved by having one and only one website. I don't know any open-source projects which have 2 or more websites, except for gnumed. The single website model works the best in my opinion. Thus many maintainers can work on ONE page, instead different maintainers working on 2 or more webpages. We can provide translations at the same site as well. Take a look at: http://kmymoney2.sourceforge.net/index.html A simple table of contents on the left hand side, seamless switching between french and english, and the page opens up with "news". There are links for developers, and users.

I don't see the point of the gnumed.net site. Why not stick it all together with the main site. Having these multiple sites just gets people confused. Reducing the number of sites from 4 to 2 won't solve the problem. The problem will still exist, just to a lesser extent. Developers want to work efficiently and if they hear about the project, they want to find out about it as quickly as possible and figure out how to get it from CVS, and get it running as quick as possible. If it takes them too long or if they don't find what they are looking for on their first attempt, they may give up. There should be one webpage at the savannah/gnu site, and that's it. All domain names that are owned can link to the savannah site. gnumed.de can link to the german translation. BTW, Sebastian's description of gnumed.org below is silly. Having a web page for end users with no information? I suggest having one site which is mostly focused towards developers now, but as the project gets more developed, it will have more links to user information, however all the developer links will still be there.

No offense to whoever designed www.gnumed.org, but the shades of orange just don't do it for me. It think for the new site, some different colours would be a good idea.

If someone can give me CVS access for the htdocs and stuff, I would gladly help integrate the pieces into one main site. As for #3 below, I'm also committed to getting gentoo ebuilds going for gnumed, and I actually started this last week, and I might do some more on it tonight. I will create an ebuild which installs sources from cvs. Getting gnumed to work for everyone in all distros is important.

Thanks Sebastian for your comments. I hope others will jump in as well and support his ideas, and help out. Although I hope others will agree the 1 site is better than 2.

David

Sebastian Hilbert wrote:

Hi !

gnumed.conf.de is over and it has been a fun time.
One attendee said he had trouble getting to know GNUmed. He explained that
there are too many websites for GNUmed and almost no documents for people who have never heard of GNUmed, open source , CVS and the like before.

Therefore I propose we overhaul our websites. Proposed changes: gnumed.de will shut down or redirect people to gnumed.org as soon as all information has been transfered to gnumed.org/net.

gnumed.org
let us rework the design and structure. I personally believe it needs changes.
1.) move all !!! developer content to www.gnumed.net
2.) Thilo will soon post a note on what he thinks is of interest to new developers / potential users.

gnumed.net
who maintains it ? how can *I* change things ?
1.) does it need an cms as well ? 2.) lets have a download section for GNUmed related materials such as conference papers, design documents etc. 3.) we need someone who takes over responsibility

There will be no immediate changes since there is Christmas and so forth. We still need to discuss this as soon as possible. We need to reduce the number of sites. We need to produce more documentation on getting to know GNUmed as a whole. We need more documentation targeted at people who want to get involved with the code.

Here is what we need immediately.
1.) maintainer for gnumed.net
It is your duty to monitor the mailinglist and put up existing documention or add new as it becomes available. You also need to monitor the roadmap that is out there and post progress on the website

2.) maintainer for gnumed.org
It will be your duty to report on information that is targeted at end users. If there is no such information because GNUmed is nowhere near complete than you are lucky. You could maintain a FAQ by monitoring the mailing-list.

3.) We need people who try to install GNUmed and report what sucks with the process. Ideally you would produce step-by-sep documentation.

4.) We need to write offline documentation. This means we need to produce documents in pdf-format that can be downloaded and printed.
- CVS guide for absolute beginners
- CVS guide on how to get the code
- guide on how to become a developer
- guide on rules for developers
- a pdf that describes the state of GNUmed - needs updates every six months or so

There is probably a lot more. How much time will 1-4 consume? This depends on you. I do not think it takes more that two hours a week for 1 and 2. It shuould take no more than a week to accomplish the 3rd item.

I cannot restrain from a personal comment. I joined the project in late 2001. I have seen many developers come and leave. I have answered many inquiries from companies who want to make money off GNUmed. Many potential users contacted me but never contacted me again after hearing that GNUmed cannot currently save them loads of money. This sucks !

If you are a company , moitoring this list and intend to make money than please help out. I consider it selfish if you wait for GNUmed to get done and start making money afterwards. Consider dedicating resources to the project. These could either be human resources or monetary resources. If you are a potential user and do not have programming skills, help out with the documentation. Stop listening and do something. Don't tell me you got no time. Do you think, Karsten (2 medical jobs), Ian, Syan, Richard or Sebastian (medical student final year) have time ? Get off your butt and do something. Start asking questions. Sart asking what you can do. If you feel you cannot help with documenation or programming consider funding the project. You do not need to spend a fortune but any deveolper will be happy to spend some money on Christmas presents instead of coding for free. Consider saving a small amount (5-10 Euro ) each month for the project. Keep it on a savings account for the time we might hire external developers.

You can contact me in private if you feel you need to  tell me something.
sebastian dot hilbert at gmx dot net
I am impatiently awainting your offers to the GNUmed project.

Sebastian Hilbert
- disappointed GNUmed developer -



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David J. Grant
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a-Si and Integrated Circuits Lab
University of Waterloo
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