[Pydotorg-redesign] pytdotorg-redesign notes from PyCon Open Space session

[Kevin Altis]

Some meeting notes from the python.org redesign Open Space session at PyCon
2003

  http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/moinmoin/PythonOrgWebsiteRedesignOpenSpace

Thanks to Evelyn Mitchell for providing her excellent meeting notes as the
basis for this document. Any errors below were probably introduced by me and
my imperfect memory ;-) Hopefully, this will help refresh our memories and
get some sub-topic discussions going.

I won't generally cross-post messages, so if you want to be involved in the
python.org redesign, then join the mailing list. I consider making
python.org better the top priority in our promotion efforts for reasons
cited below.

  http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pydotorg-redesign

ka
---

Kevin Altis would like to see a 10x increase in the Python user-base in the
next 2 years.

Promoting Python
   leverage evangelism
      (what are the tenets of evangelism)
   website is very high visibility
      - don't have phone number or press contact

I suggest that people interested in learning more about effective evangelism
watch and read what Guy Kawasaki has to say on the subject. All of his books
are quite readable, pretty short, and contain many amusing anecdotes. See
the link below for more info; the signal to noise ratio is very good. [ka]

  http://pythonology.org/pipermail/marketing-python/2003-March/001124.html

The main point about the website is that since we don't have traditional
marketing and PR dollars, nor do we have normal phone and email contacts for
people to get immediate answers about Python, the website needs to do that
work for us. The site is the face of Python to the rest of the world. [ka]

Who is the customer?
    people who don't use python today
    people who do use python today
        - information source
    lots of different types of customers
       identify use cases for groups of users

We need to establish metrics
   track usage
   to ensure modifications that are improvements

Adoption rate of python
   increase in traffic and new users of python

By establishing some metrics in the web site stats such as total unique IP
addresses, page views, and downloads per month, etc. we can see how our
"popularity" is growing. Metrics should also tell us whether some of the
"improvements" made to the site really did what we thought they would or
ended up having a negative impact on usage. That way we aren't just guessing
and modifying blindly. [ka]

Not focused on technical solutions
   identify problems
   identify customers
   how are people using website
   what is missing
   what are websites we like
      (similar customer bases)

At the Open Space, I didn't want to focus on the technical issues of
implementing the site, but that conversation is okay to carry on in parallel
here on the list. [ka]

Kevin is comfortable with the site redesign process

Product
   Mockups
   templates
      estimate work to estimate effort

Before implementing any actual changes, we should make templates and mockups
to get feedback before making the changes live. [ka]

Current implementation problems
   No database backend

I expect Aahz, Steve, Thomas, and other pydotorg maintainers to articulate
the current problems they have maintaining the site, time sinks, and ideas
for where we might make site maintenance easier and improve their lives. :)
[ka]

Make recommendations to current web maintainers and PSF members

Process
   establish a working group empowered to make changes to the website
   the website is owned by PSF

That's what this mailing list is about. [ka]

Problems
   ownership of domain
   clarifying process to change website
      get authority delegated from PSF to implement changes

Opportunities

Recommendations
   5-6 people
   balanced between management and implementation

Where is the effort to do the work going to come from

Ongoing management is required to ensure that maintenance on an ongoing
basis gets done

Behind
   job postings that don't get uploaded
   50% of the mail to webmaster doesn't get answered
   webmaster workflow
      multiple responses

Personnel
   Who is available to do work
   How much time do they have
   What are the skill sets

Split off the PR effort from the language development effort

Introducing Python Video
   done

Appeal to the people who have the skills that are required

Audience
   People who don't use python today
      recommendation from another source
      resource for further information
   Advanced developers
      defectors
   journalists who are trying to get more information
   Managers (tool selection)
   teachers
   python core team PythonLabs
   python contributors (community)
   newbies (programming newbies) non-programmers
   community of exiting python users
      job seekers
      event page
      books
      user group
      trainers

What is python
How do I start doing python

Metrics
   identify customers
      python in business
      teaching/learning python
      then track traffic to the sub pages to discover customers

wide diversity
   more general launching page
   home page is too complicated

home page
   asking "what were you looking for. Did you find it"
   search - used to determine what they were looking form

Analysis of search term metrics
   will be difficult because the access to the log is hard to get.

We still have assets at CNRI
   seach.cnri

Anyone interested in joining the python.org maintenance team
   Aahz says the team members are restricted to well known community
      members
   Give the appearance of needing help
   Give the appearance of being open to joining
   Look for volunteers

Specific specialized areas of responsibility
   Python in education

Kirby Urner for the edu-sig/Python in Education pages can be our test case
of having page or section maintainers not directly involved in the
maintenance of the rest of python.org. [ka]

py.org experience

Zope3
ht to html still works well
Wiki
   Needs a strong editor

Which maintenances take the most time
   Where is the time going now?
      job listings
         add a form to allow for posting jobs
         add a secure form to allow for removing jobs
      event listings
         add a form to allow for posting events
      broken links
      webmaster mail
      help at python.org ->tutor
      reflector (a static page of suggestions)

Jeff Eppler to work with Steve to do the PyCon website

Credit card donations
   Paypal
   ShareIt
   donate.python.org

python.org needs a certificate

40% Documentation is the number one hit
RDF file is also getting a lot of hits

750000 hits
unique IPs in march 180,000
   http://www.python.org/wwwstats

Similar sites
   php.net
   mysql.com
   postgresql.org

Web site computer resources are adequate for current needs
   10% load on the machine
   hot backup could be provided

Continuing the discussion
  PSF board meetings
      forming a subcommittee or group of volunteers to carry on the work

downloads of documentation
   faster to have unified download page
   too confusing

"Get Python Now"
   Make the download of documentation very straightforward
   Matrix of choices

python.org SIG design mailing list -> next action
   reimplementing SIGs

pythonology.org
   a good new user site
   only if the support of the pages will come from the original author