[ubuntu-za] WikiTeam meeting transcript

[Morgan Collett]

Seeing as our Wiki have some downtime soon, I'm mailing the transcript
itself.

Note that the resolution of our hosting is currently out of our hands -
Matthew Nuzum of Canonical is assigned to set up the new server. We
should have it active before Matthias Urlichs' server goes down.

Also note that no actual decisions regarding our web presence have been
made, other than to reinstate our wiki at the URL that it has had.

Ideas regarding Drupal or a similar CMS were mentioned, and will be
discussed at a future WikiTeam meeting - which will be advertised on
this list.

Transcript follows:
<craigaa> Greetings everyone
<morgs> Hear ye, hear ye, meeting about our website is now in session!
* craigaa whacks morgs with his gavel
<craigaa> is everyone away?
<morgs> highvoltage: around?
<Seeker_952> I'm here now
<morgs> craigaa: Any news on that DNS update PGP thing?
<craigaa> no response from Matthias as yet.
* ghoztly (n=southafr at dsl-146-30-163.telkomadsl.co.za) has joined
#ubuntu-za
<craigaa> My impression is that he incorrectly encrypted the msg
<craigaa> or my pgp has gone on strike
<morgs> Possibly. I got the same response from Evolution, although he
doesn't have my key AFAIK.
<morgs> Have you tried using gpg on the text in the body?
<craigaa> The error message is strange indicating that he encrypted it
without a key
<craigaa> I've done tests to check functionality in the past
<morgs> I'll dig out my key and mail him too then. That's the issue of
DNS for the site.
<morgs> The other issue is Canonical's hosting.
<craigaa> yup
<craigaa> If anyone is listening, have you all looked at :
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoHosting ?
<Seeker_952> I have but you know that already :)
<morgs> Anybody other than craigaa, Seeker_952 and morgs who wants to
participate, please say hi
<TheOddOne> hi
<craigaa> I guess my theme music for today is going to have to be Simon
and Garfunkel
<GrandPOps_> Hi - just came back to check if anyone was home
<craigaa> howzit
<ghoztly> hi
<GrandPOps_> Not sure what I can contribute ...
<craigaa> Essentially, we are having to relocate the ubuntu-za.org
server
<craigaa> this gives us the opportunity to start from a blank slate
<morgs> If we don't get Matthew Nuzum to sort us out with the Canonical
hosting by the end of the week, we will have to make another plan
(temporarily)...
<craigaa> the question is - do we replicate what has already been done
or...
<craigaa> do we do something different
<craigaa> timing is a factor too
<craigaa> as morgs said above :-)
<GrandPOps_> I just looked at the wiki - anything wrong with it?
<morgs> We could copy the existing content onto the new server, or we
could put the non-out-of-date content from our server onto
wiki.ubuntu.com/SouthAfricanTeam, or we could start with new content
<morgs> GrandPOps_: quite a lot of it is out of date, and very few
people have contributed in a consistent way.
<morgs> So what is going to work for people in a long term way?
<craigaa> GrandPOps_ : it's not really an issue of there being anything
wrong... but rather an opportunity to change
<GrandPOps_> Get you - so there are two issues - 1 where do we host it
and 2 should we start from scratch or try and fix?
<craigaa> essentially - yes
<craigaa> I think that we can all agree (?) that we need to stick with a
wiki?
<morgs> craigaa: +1
<TheOddOne> craigaa: +1
<morgs> Consistency with other LoCoTeams, ease of collaboration
<Seeker_952> craigaa: +1
<GrandPOps_> I agree too. But it does need the right sort of activity
<craigaa> GrandPOps_ : I assume that you mean more participation by team
members?
<GrandPOps_> Well yes - but if there is nothing particularly interesting
on the wiki there is no participation. 
<GrandPOps_> It becomes a viscious circle. However you spell vishuss.
<craigaa> lol
<craigaa> It does dissapoint me that there is little participation
<ghoztly> A Wiki is mainly for a reference and less for a discussion.
What do we want? Discussion or reference? Or articles and announcements?
For each there is a better tool than the other.
<GrandPOps_> Personally I read the Ubuntu forums a lot - particularly
the Absolute Beginner one (because that is where I am
<morgs> For discussion we have a mailing list and a forum (not that
there have been much discussion on either).
<GrandPOps_> and get a lot from it. But there has been little to keep
nme coming back to the wiki.
<morgs> We need to get going with some focussed goals that we can move
towards in ZA, which will generate participation and discussion.
<GrandPOps_> Which means I have probably missed a lot 
<morgs> This is another discussion really, but the wiki needs to play
its part, and so we need to decide what makes sense
* craigaa thinks (hence the smell of burning rubber)
<morgs> Either we host our own wiki server (as in Canonical provides the
hosting), or we use wiki.ubuntu.com, or...?
<morgs> Use case:
<morgs> Software Freedom Day 2007
<morgs> We get some installfests going
<morgs> Where will people find the info?
<craigaa> morgs is correct, lets focus on the "technical" aspects and
discuss motivation a little later
<Seeker_952> Well I didn't notice that quite a few LoCo teams are using
systems like Drupal that can function like wiki's but give more
participation
<Seeker_952> *did not didn't :P
<craigaa> what skills are available?
<craigaa> ie who has experience with what
* linuxboy falls off his chair
<linuxboy> people. talking. wow!
* Seeker_952 does
<ghoztly> drupal
* morgs is a pythonista - moin++
<Vhata> linuxboy: apparently there's a meeting
<craigaa> Geez. Don't these people read mail from the list. ;-)
* morgs will use CAPITALS next time ;-)
<klimraamkosie> Just an outside question, this the UCT LUG?
<linuxboy> craigaa: I've been idling in this channel for over a year now
<linuxboy> :)
<Vhata> craigaa: so have I
<linuxboy> who reads lists ?
<klimraamkosie> (That is being discussed)
<morgs> klimraamkosie: If UCT = Ubuntu Cape Town... ;-)
<craigaa> linuxboy : 8-)
<klimraamkosie> haha
<Vhata> klimraamkosie: no, this the Ubuntu South African localisation
team
<morgs> klimraamkosie: You want LEG, or perhaps CLUG
<Vhata> klimraamkosie: there is no UCT LUG, there is CLUG, which has a
#clug channel over on irc.furion.org
<klimraamkosie> Ah :) thx
<klimraamkosie> That's fine, was just wondering which organisational
duties you guys were discussing, didn't read far up.
<craigaa> http://ohio.ubuntu-us.org/ use drupal
<craigaa> it seems that everyone else seems to stick with moin
<GrandPOps_> Back to reality - my experience of wikis is that they need
time more than skills to manage.
<craigaa> my experience wrt wikis is primarily as a user, not an admin -
so I am disqulified from commenting
<morgs> Hence our WikiTeam, which is theoretically meeting now - to do
the following:
<morgs> * Add content where appropriate
<morgs> * Clean up existing content
<morgs> * Clean up formatting of contributed content
<ghoztly> Ohio.ubuntu-us.org looks good
<morgs> * Set guidelines for participation
<morgs> * ...
<craigaa> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoTemplates
<ghoztly> My guess is that in the end we will really need people willing
to write good, topical articles for either Wiki or Drupal.  Doing the
server before the content is putting the cart in front of the horse.
Basically use what there is exhisting and spend your energy on content
rather than administration.
<ghoztly> correction - existing
<morgs> ghoztly: That makes sense - except that our web presence
vanishes at the end of the week and we need to put up something.
<craigaa> please remember that we do not have to limit ourselves only to
a wiki...
<craigaa> we can use www.ubunt-za.org/wiki for the wiki ...
<craigaa> we can use www.ubunt-za.org/forums for the forum  ... (bad
example)
<morgs> Once the canonical hosting is activated, we should be able to
run anything - druppel, moin, etc.
<craigaa> we can use www.ubunt-za.org/ for the website etc.
<morgs> :s/ubunt-za/ubuntu-za/g
* craigaa blushes
<Seeker_952> craigaa: Thats what I was just thinking
<morgs> OK then, let's get the recently edited pages from the wiki up on
the new server under /wiki/ - as before, and then we can get drupal
installed too and see what we can do with it.
<ghoztly> use whatever is existing first - I agree 
<craigaa> comments? complaints? ideas?
* TheOddOne has quit (Read error: 110 (Connection timed out))
<GrandPOps_> Horses for courses. In my opinion: eMail lists are best for
general discussion; forums are great for focussed discussion on
particular issues; wikis are great for quick web pages that may need
development; "true" web pages are great for more permanent content.
<morgs> Then craigaa and I will press canonical for the hosting, and
then we can get people involved as soon as there is a place to host
content.
<morgs> GrandPOps_: Yes. Wiki's are often great for collaboration where
anybody can edit - but the whole web2.0 thing or "read-write web" as
some are calling it can be done with various technologies.
<highvoltage> is there a meeting atm?
<morgs> Perhaps there can be some level of 
<morgs> highvoltage: yes
<morgs> Perhaps there can be some level of integration between the site
and the wiki in terms of user management - we can look into that - so
there aren't too many passwords for people to use to take part...
* TheOddOne (n=hgibson at hgibson.ee.sun.ac.za) has joined #ubuntu-za
* Superhuman has quit (Read error: 110 (Connection timed out))
<craigaa> +1
<Seeker_952> +1
<Seeker_952> Has any one got a backup of the current content yet
<craigaa> yes
<craigaa> but it needs to be redone as morgs has made some changes ;-)
<morgs> ;-)
<morgs> OK, I need to go
<morgs> Feedback will be given to the list on server availability
<morgs> and we can schedule another meeting in the near future
<morgs> In the mean time, everybody please think about what sort of
content you could contribute
<morgs> Take a look at the other LoCoTeam sites
<GrandPOps_> K - Cheers
<craigaa> right
<Seeker_952> will do
<craigaa> if everyone can also put some thought into motivating
participation as well
<TheOddOne> ok.
<morgs> Here's a great site (page?) running on Ubuntu's wiki itself:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ColoradoTeam
<ghoztly> next action = will look at content

Regards,
Morgan
-- 
Morgan Collett <morgan at penguinlabs.net>
+27 82 555 9574
PenguinLabs - Open Source Consulting
http://www.penguinlabs.net/