[EuroPython] Reality Check in Winter

[Laura Creighton]

In a message of Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:31:50 +0100, Christian Scholz writes:
>Hi!
>
>So here is my $0.02 for that front page :-)
>
>(not sure this was the right thread)
>
>First of all the question is for whom that web site is and I think we 
>have some audiences here:
>
>- people new to EuroPython, maybe even Python, might want to know what it
> is
>- regular visitors of EP, they know what it is but want to get details 
>about the next one and esp. want to register for it.
>- people registered for the conference. They want more detailed 
>information such as accomodation, how to actually get there and of 
>course the program.

This is, I think, the problem.  The people you think the site is
mostly for, is the people I think that the site ought least to be for.

I want the site to be foremost for the organisers of the conference,
to help organise the conference.  And if you're not an organiser,
then -- why not?  I'd like it if the site said 'you're supposed to
be doing something around here to help put on the conference' and
not 'here is the conference we are planning to give you'.  I'm
not sure how we get this effect, but the site we have now clearly
gives the other effect.

<snip points about making the registration process easier to find
 and use, which I agree with>

>Another nice thing would be some sort of archive of the last EuroPython 
>maybe with photos, videos, links to blog post (we need to blog more 
>anyway) and so on. I think somebody showed something at the last EP on 
>how it could look but basically it's importing some RSS feeds (and maybe 
>converting these to content on the site so this information does not go 
>away should the RSS feed die). But this point is just some icing if 
>somebody feels enlighted to do it.

I don't think that this is some icing -- I think this is what we
need to get more community involvement.  Privided that everybody
can post things that goes on the feed and its not more 'blah blah
from the conference orginisers to you the audience'

>As for the wiki and spam, what about limiting editing functionality to 
>those registered? I mean all this stuff does not necessarily need to be 
>edited by anybody. Of course some system to only store this list of 
>people in one place without manual copying would be the best option here.

I don't want to limit the editing to those who are registered.  I want
the site editable by people who are not registered for this year's
conference.  I want the community to be out discussing and helping
even if they cannot attend this year.  And in particular, I don't want
the site to be only used for one event and then more or less die for
another year.  Because I don't want the organising to more or less die
every year, the same way it has now.  Its not clear to me that even
requring a login in order to edit isn't too much.  I haven't given up
on OpenID yet -- I am curious as to what problems Doug found with it.

One thing I have thought of is a system where everybody has a set of
 virtual postits, so that people could stick them on appropriate 
places of the site with notes -- move this colum there, this thing
is not sized properly -- this thing does not work with safari --
etc, etc, all linked to the bug tracker.  It might help designing
such a thing even though we aren't all located in the same place.

On the other hand, something in me says that people who are interested
in such things should just come to Göteborg and stay at my house until
we work out the details of things.

I just don't know how to do design-by-distributed-people.  It seems
a hard problem to me.

>Oh, and I think we should do something about the design as it looks a 
>bit aged IMHO. I would even like a new logo but not sure how hard it 
>would be to do one or to decide on one (same with design in general).

It's not hard to find willing artists, and the artist we have been using
Vincent Maton, could probably be convinced to do an updated  version.
It's harder to know what you want in a new version.

>And looking at e.g. http://en.oreilly.com/rails2008/public/content/home
>some call for talks would probably also be important to have now (or in 
>general a Call for participation in a prominent spot).

yes.

>(as for sponsoring some design I might think of doing that if there is 
>some consensus on what to do)

Yes, that's one of the hard things.

>
>Ok, that much for my $0.02 :-)
>
>-- Christian