Transition Towns Forum » Websites for Transition Initiatives » TransitionWebProject

High level features that I envision being useful

(8 posts)
  • Started 1 year ago by marcpalmer
  • Latest reply from edmittance

  1. marcpalmer
    Member

    Here's a stream of thoughts... I've filled in the form to become a contributor to the platform.

    - [ ] Separate the site into groups/spaces with user groups tied to these (i.e. a TT Stroud "Space"), with
    superusers who can operate over all to moderate/help out. Signup, password reminders etc needed
    - [ ] Wiki/CMS with spaces per group etc (look at confluence/spaceo.us? - I have experience with one + possible working relationship soon with the latter, an enterprise tool)
    - [ ] Blog per space (multi-user) with RSS feed + comments, eg a TT Stroud blog where certain members of TTS are permitted to post.
    - [ ] Forums per space and globally, eg. TT Stroud forums for energy, textiles etc but also "TT Global ideas" forum for example
    - [ ] Mailing lists per space and globally with simple integrated interface to join / unsub them. e.g. "TT Local network coordinators news mailing list" but also "TT Stroud textiles mailing list"
    - [ ] A transition roadmap for each group showing what areas to consider tackling locally (energy/transport/textiles), with a tick-list / indicator of how many areas your initiative is currently covering and suggestions for other areas that will need to be tackled, a "colouring by numbers" way to look at what needs to be done.
    - [ ] Ability to send referrals to pages on the site between groups (addressing scheme for members i.e. "TT Stroud/marcpalmer" as a target "address" - implies a directory of people in other groups / contact forms to reach out to other groups, but the server hides their email addresses from public view, and forwards on messages.
    - [ ] Overview of transition movement stats i.e. "21 new transition towns this month, 90% have energy plans", for motivational
    purposes
    - [ ] Library section - direct hosting of key documents - pref all in PDF format, cleaned up, good consistent formatting etc
    - [ ] Screencasts + introductory videos explaining how to use it
    - [ ] User "portal" home page showing just the information they want - i.e. latest blog posts from their group, most recently edited
    documents and most popular forum posts, prioritising those they have contributed to previously. Indication of membership of
    subgroups, with links to click to view their "spaces"
    - [ ] Emphasize use of photos to give faces to names and improve local community forming

    I've got a fair amount of experience in high profile website stuff from the software design, feature design and implementation angle...

    Posted 1 year ago #

  2. marcpalmer
    Member

    Actually on second reading, I think there is a fundamental decision to make here.

    I think it would be bad to have both forums AND mailing lists. You end up with fragmented discussion, its a well known phenomenon.

    Only one should be employed.

    Having worked with a lot of people who are less than fully computer literate but very effective at campaigning/making a difference, I would say that mailing lists are a MUCH better bet. Everybody uses email, there's nothing new to learn once you've signed up.

    Forums require proactive visiting, emails get to people all the time.

    So please consider forums DITCHED from my above proposal :)

    Posted 1 year ago #

  3. jdaviescoates
    Member

    Nice list. Plone 3 could be configured to nicely do all that :)
    http://plone.org/products/plone/features/3.0

    I agree with how having forums AND mailing lists can lead to fragmentation.

    Thankfully these issues are address by great bits of software such a Listen (a Plone product/ module).

    This allows you to create mailing lists that can be viewed and used online like forums at the same time (like yahoo groups and google groups allow). You can either reply to message via e-mail, or via the web in a forum-like view.

    More details here:
    http://plone.org/products/listen

    Posted 1 year ago #

  4. sambris
    Member

    I think Drupal could also do all that too :)

    I believe you could use list handler http://drupal.org/project/listhandler

    Does Plone have a module which allows sub groups to manage their own pages and content? Somthing like Organic groups in Drupal?
    http://drupal.org/project/og

    Posted 1 year ago #

  5. SteveAtkins
    Member

    RE: "I think it would be bad to have both forums AND mailing lists. You end up with fragmented discussion, its a well known phenomenon."

    ...has anyone got further info/ links on this 'fragmented discussion phenomenon'?

    Posted 5 months ago #

  6. benbrangwyn

    It's what it sez on the tin. Someone posts to a forum, a couple of people respond. Someone else gets the email digest from the postings and then forwards it to some others to continue the conversation = two separate parallel fragmented discussions.

    Posted 5 months ago #

  7. SteveAtkins
    Member

    Whilst potentially duplicating discussion, presumably by doing both you could reach a wider audience? ie, some people use forums, some people use emails, some people use both.

    Posted 5 months ago #

  8. edmittance
    Administrator

    Indeed Steve - that's the nub of the discussion.

    What people like to use; as identified earlier, it's largely email lists at the moment. Also, what TN needs to support and what it sees as not the responsibility of TN.

    Also as we're working with Drupal, how to integrate that with lists is a technical... Looking at list handler (thx sambris), as long as people post to a list, it will be archived in a forum. One could say that if people post off-list, perhaps they don't want it to be public...

    Posted 5 months ago #

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