Transition Towns Web Project

Here’s the final deadlines for action around the new site launch. For a more ‘facilitation-y’ outline of what phases we are going through post-launch, read the high level website launch update.

Wed 17/2:

Soft launch: read only beta: no-one invited in. All login/register options point to a holding page while we tinker live, move URLs, DNSs and other technical things with three letter acronyms, and find things we couldn’t foresee.

People are welcome to come and read and get in contact using the contact form, help us spot bugs!

Monday 22/2:

Soft launch: invite only beta: only some people invited in. All login/register options still point to a holding page

Ed will send invites to initiative profile admins/editors and project profile admins/editors to come in and tinker with the profile pages while it’s calm and we can concentrate on a limited number of users.

Monday 01/03:

Full launch: all welcomed with open arms, login/register options open and functioning

Ed will send invites to all users registered on system.

Let Spring be initiated with the arrival of our long awaited virtual blossom

Flower in February

This is for TN staff really, it’s a little geeky Information Systems and workflow post. Before the new site, when initiatives wanted to become ‘official’, there was quite a paper chase involving Word documents, emails, wikis, telephones, national hubs and other things.

For this project we reviewed the ‘official-isation process‘ and decided it was an important workflow for the platform. (The ‘platform’ supports a range of ’services’ and ‘workflows’).

It is now possible for initiatives to add themselves as mullers, fill out their initiative profiles and apply to become ‘official’ all in the system. We haven’t tested it yet, but it’s looking good.

Of particular excitement this morning is a tiny bit of logic to show admins what number the initiative should be:

click save to make official

Now I don’t know about you, but this is swwwweeeeeet!

That’s right folks, we’re using the word ‘user’. We love you dearly and know that you are humans with hearts and souls, but the word is so useful that we can’t avoid it. Just to prove it, here’s a photo of one (representing his local TT initiative at a Bristol street fayre):

Dan from TT Montpelier with his 'wish tree'

So now we’ve got that out the way, here’s our view on the different users and their related roles in our system. Dan will be a ‘primary point of contact’ and ‘Initiative Profile admin’ (not that he knows that yet)…

Anyone spots anything amiss, let us know and we’ll be very grateful – here’s a direct cc from our workspace:

Note: (You all know this, but I’m guessing many users of the site don’t…) Roles, like the permisions they wrap up, are cumulative. This means that users should be given the right combination of roles to do the job. For example, the Administrator role does NOT need to write newsletters or develop the site, so if an Administrator needs those facilities, they get given the ‘Newsletter Writer’ and ‘Developer’ roles as appropriate – rather than bloating and complicating the Administrator role. This is Jim Kirkpatrick’s work…

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We’ve had a few enquiries about managing multiple languages on the new web platform. Here’s a starter for ten:

We are launching the site in English to start with. Once we have ‘bedded’ the site in, and are happy the many workflows and processes are in place, we will launch the conversation on how best to approach multiple languages. This will require a group of discussers. We do not want to rush into anything short term that a long term plan would de-value.

One of the benefits of using drupal (our software framework) is that it has good hooks for multiple languages in all the layers of the site. We have thus ensured that all our ‘content types’ (profile pages, blog posts, user profiles etc.) can be multi-lingual-enabled so that, technically-wise, we are capable of adopting new languages as and when an ‘international’ group works out the best way to proceed.

This will involve work however – technical and linguisitic – which will need the support of a group.

We are also working in an open source environment with all the required technical processes in place, so that important technology like this can be delivered by the people who need it the most and know the most about it.

This is a pretty ‘workflow-y’ post to provide the basics of the three ‘adoption’ phases we envisage following the launch of the website. It’s quite long as there is a lot to say! Getting a website online is one thing; having people use it is another.

The community nature of the Transition Network web platform means that it will only ’succeed’ (beyond being a news site) if the movement adopt it as their own. So it’s a gamble that there is enough value in the service to encourage transitioners to use it.

This is an old, old, online community management challenge, and one we are really looking forward to experiencing; everyone says that they want a community site – the question is – once we’ve launched it, and call out to transitioners to adopt it, will we all make the effort to make it a valuable community asset by adding our details?

Departures board in a Star Wars style

We have identified three key phases to gradually introduce transitioners to the new and lovely site. The phases start with the vital but relatively simple bit where we update our initiative profile pages, and gradually get more interesting…

We are relatively easy about timings; we won’t move from one phase to another until we are happy that it’s OK; it’s a community project, not a corporate marketing gig. And please excuse the word ‘user’; it’s a useful technical term and, really, reflects that we are all ‘using’ the service.

Three ‘phases’:

• Pre-launch communications (phase 0)
• Pre-launch warm up mail to all official points of contact
• Initiative and User Profile adoption (phase 1: February)
• Post-launch welcome email to official points of contact
• Post-launch welcome email to all registered users
• Mullers adding themselves to directory (phase 2: late February/early March all things going well)
• Welcome email to all mullers (scraped off the google maps)
• Community Microsites (phase 3: late March, early April all things going well)
• Gentle approach to beta-testers from EM’s list of likely people
• Beta-testing activity
• Wider opening up to all wiki users

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Part of the new web platform is new forums. These will be more accesible and have better functionality than our much loved yet ever-so-slightly-out-of-date ones we have been enjoying for some time.

Our much loved but soon to be archived forums

We are looking for help/support/advice/beta-testing from current forum users – you have been using the forums for some time, are familiar with what does and doesn’t work, which threads were the most popular, which subjects were the most significant, how the ’structure’ of the forums worked etc.

The new forums will be integrated with the rest of the site which will mean we can track our activities, get email alerts when new comments are made, see other commenters’ profiles, have forum threads appear in wider searches across the ‘transition themes’ with other content etc.

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What is going to happen once the site is launched?

We are very close to launching the new Transition Network website. Our goal is to have it out and about on the internet in the first week in February. This will be a ’soft’ launch – it will be live, and the formal home for the Network and the Movement on the web, but we will continue work on it. The Transition Towns website will remain online for a good few months as well; our move from one to other will be gradual.

Like when you move into a new house together. You need to know how it is to live in it before doing any changes – to ‘observe and interact’. Only then will we really know what needs to be done to suit us all more effectively. We will be asking all Transitioners to come in and give it a go and give us feedback too.

So what’s going to happen?

We aim to have ‘phase one’ of the site live, as a ‘public beta’ in the first week of February.

This will include:

• Website pages (about us, 12 steps, 7 buts etc.)
• Initiative directory (directory of initiatives, starting with ‘official’ ones)
• People directory (directory of people, starting with those who subscribe to the newsletter)
• Projects directory (directory of projects, starting with ‘food’)
• Events directory (directory of events, starting with Network events)

(phase two will involve inviting the mullers to add their initiatives to the directory, and phase three will be about introducing the ‘community microsites‘ for initiatives who want them, but we’ll only move once phase one is settled in so more on them in another post)

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Since the dawn of Transition Network and its wiki, the Network has offered TT initiatives in the movement the use of some website pages on the wiki to get them online.

Part of the web project going forward is what sort of community websites we can offer to the initiatives for free, and what would cost. We would love to offer everyone a service more brilliant and suitable than Ning, but we don’t have hundreds of developers and support staff etc. so we have to be careful not to over-extend ourselves now only to find ourselves over-exposed later.

We’re aware that many people have put a lot of effort and time into using the current wiki so we need to work out how to move them onto the newer, more flexible, linked up, easier to use service without too much grief. (This is an absolutely classic problem when migrating between different technical platforms).

Banner on Wave March

So we’ve been analysing the use of the TT wiki by the official initiatives in order to get an idea of who is using what, and how.

There is a huge range of different usage patterns, from none at all to hundreds of pages.

Here is a rough breakdown:

• Active wiki users: more than 100 page use: 1
• Active wiki users: 11 – 100 pages: 16
• Active wiki users: 1 – 10 pages: 29
• Holding wiki users: 11 – 210 pages: 6
• Holding wiki users: 2 – 10 pages: 5
• Holding wiki users: 1 page: 38
• Empty wiki users: 23
• Direct link to own site: 134
• Cancelled: 1

Definitions and explanations:

• All data is drawn from the ‘official initiatives listing page‘ on the TT wiki and searches of pages on the server
• Attachments have not been analysed
• Active: not using own website – all web activity on the TT wiki
• Holding: using the TT wiki site in combination with own site
• Empty: awaiting content

I think it’s safe to say that this means we’ll need to approach different initiatives in different ways!

This is a post to explain what we’re up to with the web platform, a high level view of the services it supports , and an idea of times for everyone. It’s quite a long post as there is a lot to get through.

Since the presentation of the web project recommendations at the conference and board approval to proceed, we have been putting the necessary pieces in place for a sustainable web project that reflects the needs of the Transition movement. We have gathered a pool of ‘Transition Technologists’ to do the technical work on the web platform, the right hardware and software, and are now underway…

There is plenty of information and diagrams about this which you are welcome to read in the about page and resources pages of this blog, or get in touch via our contact form if your questions are not answered.

At the basic level, the web platform covers these services:

• Transition Network website (about us, how to contact us etc.)
• Initiatives directory (each initiative has a profile page)
• Initiatives community websites (like the current wiki but better)
• People directory (each individual has a profile page)
• Projects directory (each project has a profile page)
• Forums (common ground for relevant discussions)

A bit more details on these services:

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Not long ago, we opened up our Food Projects database early pilot trial from our consultation phase to public beta testing.

The food projects database is a pre-cursor to a wider projects directory covering many areas, including energy, health, home improvement, transport etc. We’ve done some testing and will import all the information into the new web platform.

Running beta trials is a bit scarey as a tempting human urge is to release things when you think they are fully done; you have controlled the development process and feel it’s ‘ready’.

This is a hangover from computing’s background in engineering and science where the process is tightly controlled, the product is clearly defined and all that stuff. Since then, the web has shown that there is no such thing as a finished product in this area, and that the design process is best done iteratively and when deeply engaged with the users. This is particularly true with many to many human applications (like community platforms). We simply cannot know in advance what the best solution will be.

We need to learn – to compost our thoughts as we design our services iteratively:

Ed's compost heap

Anyway – enough theory and photos of compost suffice to say that our motto is not new, but we believe it keenly: ‘Release early, release often, collaborate’.

So what did we learn from the beta phase?

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