Magazine Technical Aspects

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Paul Orwig on October 28, 2009 at 1:41pm

Thanks for kicking off this discussion Amy. I think the approach you have laid out here makes sense, and I also like the "keep it simple" theme you touched on more than once.

At this point I am trying to keep an open mind (and a blank slate) on pretty much everything. I am looking forward to having Michael weigh in with his thoughts on this subject as well as the others that are being brough up now that this project is starting to get off the ground.

I have traded some messages with Michael over the last day or so. I know he is looking forward to this project. My sense is he wants to collect his thoughts before diving in here, which isn't necessarily a bad thing for a project like this.

Permalink Reply by Amy Stephen on October 28, 2009 at 1:55pm

Yes, it will take a bit to bring everyone together and gather ideas. I briefly talked to Mike yesterday, as well. He was hoping to stop by as soon as he can. It's not a good idea in a free software project to sit and wait. Let's keep discussions moving so we don't lose interest and communicate in the open so anyone can participate. Those are the ingredients for a collaborative environment where good things happen.

Permalink Reply by Paul Orwig on October 28, 2009 at 2:49pm

I understand and respect your point that it's not a good idea in a free software project to sit and wait. Another point is that at the start of a project, it's a good idea for the team to get some direction from the leader before moving too far in any direction.

I don't mean to discourage any discussions (in fact I started a new one a few minutes ago), but I just think we should keep those discussions pretty broad and high level until Michael weighs in, which along with you I also expect will be soon.

Permalink Reply by Amy Stephen on October 28, 2009 at 3:15pm

It's all good! I talked to Mike, too, and he said he will join us when he is able. Meanwhile, people can talk and the conversation is here for everyone to read, when they are able, there is simply no reason to be concerned.

We are using a participative model, not an in charge model. If others want to lead, the way we handle that is, they simply say "I want to lead, too", and they are also leaders. It's very, very, very community oriented rather than top-down. We only had one volunteer in this group so far, but I expect we will wind up with several leaders before it's done. Some people might like leading certain aspects and shared leadership shares the burden, too.

The difference is that the leader's job isn't to bring the plan to the others and assign tasks, but rather to keep the group generating ideas and moving towards consensus. We try to encourage any discussion, rather than limit it until someone arrives. We want ideas. All of them. Even if the group decides not to use most of them.

It is a little different approach from a business world, mainly because it's more like a neighborhood or a church community. But folks tend to like it after working with it for awhile. It takes the pressure off of everyone and helps people come to agreement together. Keeps people feeling like they have ownership in the process.

The other half of that, and this might be what helps you feel a bit better, is that consensus is an important element of the group decision making. There is no reason to worry that it will all be decided before Mike arrives. It will be decided as a group, and that will naturally include Mike.

Permalink Reply by Mark W. Bender on October 28, 2009 at 3:23pm

If it gets decided to use Joomla! to "publish" the magazine, will the obvious domain be magazine.joomla.org ?

Some of the people who are future leaders in our community, haven't even been to our website yet, or may have never used Joomla! yet! There will always be a "melting pot" in our community!

Here's an idea: If it is decided to use Joomla! to publish the magazine, wouldn't it be very COOL to do it with 1.6? The ACL system would open many opportunities for our community magazine!

Permalink Reply by Dex Randall on October 28, 2009 at 3:33pm

I think we should use Jxtended Magazine, myself. It's tailor made for the job, as other people have suggested.

Permalink Reply by Jen Kramer on October 28, 2009 at 5:48pm

Before we decide what technology to use, can we talk about how the magazine is organized?

Issue numbers?

Topics?

Certain months?

It's likely that a visitor may wish to see the November 2009 issue, all articles that are about beginning Joomla, specific articles about templating and CSS, or all articles written by Amy Stephen.

Agreed? I think that's pretty typical for a magazine.

A straight section/category system does not support this well.

We will need a tagging technology so the site visitor can slice and dice up the magazine articles to view what's of interest.

I believe K2 does this well and it's GPL. That's what I would suggest. If there are other technologies that slice and dice content well, as I've described, we can certainly consider those as well.

thanks,
Jen

Permalink Reply by Amy Stephen on October 28, 2009 at 6:04pm

Much better approach. Let's think about the types of information.

Issue, (ex. January 2010, New Beginnings All Together)

Magazine Sections (Site Builder, Community, Developer, Site Profile, whatever),

Topics (Security, CSS, JUGs)

Author: Name, Profile, Web site, Listing of Author's Articles

- In terms of what application to use, I do like the idea of using Extensions from different developers, especially very popular pieces that many have already found to be stable. Free of charge GPL is an obvious plus. Part of the reason I recommend staying close to core on joomla.org is this discussion.

Permalink Reply by Paul Orwig on October 28, 2009 at 6:10pm

Amy - Yes of course people can talk, I hope you don't think I was suggesting otherwise. And no there is no reason for concern, I am not concerned I was just expressing my opinion.

I am also not suggesting that this group should have a top-down model, where the leader's role is to tell us how everything will work and to assign tasks to all of us. I love consensus and I love a participative environment. I do think that the dynamics of leadership in a participatory model are a bit more complex than how you characterized them, but I'll leave that for another thread ;-p .

I want to help produce a great online magazine. I also hope we can take advantage of every asset and resource we have so all the work can get done efficiently and with as few stops and starts and course changes as possible.

That last point is where I see Michael's experience as a valuable asset to this group, especially as we are starting out. And that's why I think it's a good idea to hear him weigh in with his thoughts before we move too far in any direction.

Permalink Reply by Mark W. Bender on October 28, 2009 at 6:11pm

And K2 has ACL, plus with JoomFish added to it, we have "instant' translation built into the Magazine.

Talk about "killing 2 birds" with one stone!

Permalink Reply by Amy Stephen on October 28, 2009 at 6:22pm

I think we're good, yes? I'm sure Mike will be here as soon as he can and everyone is eager to get a great issue. Let's have fun!

Permalink Reply by Michael Moloney on October 28, 2009 at 6:22pm

I guess the key question that arises is this "just" a community magazine or are we trying to address a broader audience and attract more new members to the community?

If the latter is the case then my bias would be to utilise the the maximum functionality and formatting capacity we can in order to showcase the capability of our beloved platform.

What is the consensus on this?

BTW - Any ideas on what we are going to call our publication? After all it will be the best open source community magazine on the planet!!!

Cheers
Mike

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