[clug] CLUG website discussion wrap-up

[Paul Wayper]

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Hi all,

It seems everyone is waiting for everyone else to say something about the talk
last Thursday :-)

We came out of it with two clear things:

Firstly, we have the infrastructure and the will to redo the CLUG website.  It
looks like Drupal is a reasonably good option here - most people at the
meeting didn't mind something dynamic as long as it's reasonably well
maintained and has the features we want.  We're aiming to use an LDAP database
as a credentials store and there were a couple of suggestions for packages to
manage that - Tony would especially like to hear of command-line tools to add
and modify LDAP information.

Secondly, the things we wanted on the website roughly fell into two categories:

1: About CLUG:
  * Who are we
  * Where do we meet and when
  * Who to ask for more information
  * What meetings and activities do we run
  * What other events and conferences do we attend
  * How to get involved
  * Photos and news from past events
2: Linux in Canberra
  * Our experience with hardware and software
  * Member projects and interests
  * FOSS companies in Canberra
  * Where we can help others
  * Linux resources that we use and like
  * Other FOSS/tech groups in Canberra

I think the next steps are for people who are interested in working on these
things to drop me or Tony Breeds (tony at bakeyournoodle.com) an email asking for
access to the system.  I'll forward them on to Tony anyway, but I'm trying to
avoid a single point of failure :-).  He's working on removing the existing,
outdated installation of Drupal and installing a fresh working copy.

At that point I'd like to have a 'hackfest' at a meeting or programming SIG
for people to create the structure of the site and get things installed as
needed.  My opinion is that if we get together in one place it'll be much
easier to discuss things like themes, what plugins we want to use, and how
we're going to deploy some things - rather than drawn-out discussions on the
list or (worse) a free-for-all.

The main other points discussed at the meeting were:

 * Obviously, it all comes down to people maintaining the site.  Most people
recognise that they can't (and/or don't want to) do it all, but are happy to
curate some part of the site.  Now is the time to buy in.
 * A wiki structure was discussed and there are things in Drupal that can do
that kind of content management without having the entire site as a wiki.
 * We do want things like calendars, RSS feeds, social media tie-in, and other
stuff - we may need some people who know a bit about these things to recommend
the right plugins and configure them.
 * The primary focus is about the *Canberra* Linux Users Group, not the people
who inhabit its email list.
 * The content is stored at ANU, and ANU are very keen to make sure that the
server doesn't get used for stuff that will get them in trouble.  If people
need a place to store their own content, there are more than enough other
places for that kind of thing out there.  Personal opinions are a blurry line
- - someone's idea of a good review of some new hardware might not appeal to
others - but we'll deal with that problem if and when it occurs.

Anyway, if there's stuff that I've left out or things that my brain has
auto-corrected into something else, please feel free to add, expand, correct
and revise as necessary.

Have fun,

Paul
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