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Help Develop An Open Projects Community Site 39

Cerb writes: "Open Projects sounded most appealing as I was on the prowl to find one of the many IRC networks to link my idle server to. Having been involved with the open source community for quite some time, it seemed to me to be the place to be. It just seemed 'right' to link there. Now I'm simply stuck with these people. They are exactly what I was looking for. But, when I decided to help out, little did I know that I would end up in a project manager position. So here I am, it's 12.24 am in Vienna, and I'm mulling how to phrase this best."

"OPN have thought a lot about the current development of community sites for the open source community. While we believe that sites like sourceforge and the like do a good job in their category, there are not enough project-related news sites.

We have decided that it is time to gather information, ideas and reminders from the open source community as to how they would like to have a site developed, that actually tells them, all in one place, what is going on with people in the community and the projects they work on.

So we're approaching the community, trying to gather as many contacts as possible and start discussing this idea we had during one long frenzied night of IRC brainstorming. Users who think they can help us out with ideas, development time, written content, information about the open source community and the like are asked to please participate and sign up to our mailing list at http://lists.openprojects.net. That same host runs an nntp server gatewayed to the mailing list archives, in the newsgroup opn.discussion. If you feel you are qualifying as a volunteer right away, you can sign up to our volunteer database using http://lists.openprojects.net/db/

Spreading the word is not easy and wording this right is even harder, so I will not try to make this sound any better. I'll just send it off, hoping that it gets posted and many join us. Should you have more specific questions, please join me on IRC. The server is irc.openprojects.net, the channel is #content.

oh yeah... I am dmalloc on IRC and right now I have quite a problem allocating more sanity.

cheers...

On behalf of dmalloc, lilo and the rest of the gang on irc.openprojects.net"

So who's up for this? I'd like to see a by-project community site that goes beyond the few excellent sites over at LinuxCare's Kernel Central, like Kernel Traffic, though I wonder how hard it will be to pull off an organizational task of this size.

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Help Develop An Openprojects Community Site

Comments Filter:
  • Release notes on FreeBSD, BeOS and other open source OSes?
    BeOS is closed source.
  • by Anonymous Coward
    Hello linuxlover.
    Thank you for asking more questions. Some might have simply walked away or left a stupid comment.
    Since we have not really released a specification sheet, I can only outline the basic idea behind this project
    As you surely know, all those open source related sites, such as linux.com, sourceforge.com and newsforge.com along with slashdot, are doing a great job gathering and displaying quick news.
    We believe they are doing a great job in that area, yet we are missing a site where the news is project and which is more important very close to the users that are involved with it.
    OPN is a large IRC network (more than 2200 user) which primarily hosts channels for projects such as #php, #debian #linuxhelp, #c , #c++ and the like.
    Naturally we have a lot of visitors fromt he open source community and many choose to meert with their co developers for a project on our network.
    We are interested in displaying quality content, fromt he people, for the people, we are not interested to always have the latest news.
    linux.com and /. do a far batter job in that category.
    We also wish to avoid branding, as long as the news is somehow associated with the open source community and we can reach someone that is in charge of those news (be it a user or a project maintainer or a developer) we are intereste din displaying it.
    Basically that means the same rights to everybody, no matter wheter this is a huge project like #php or a very small one. NO matter if it is mainly based on BSD, Solaris or linux.

    I think it is important to understand, that we ar enot trying to copy nor be a competition to the big news site.
    We do nto have any interest in generating a fast revenue, we simply wish to build a news interface to the community,
    which has actually been developed and is maintained by the community.
    That is why we do nto have any paid staff, ourt staff will be made up from volunteers, everybody is free to sign up as a volunteer at this form [openprojects.net].
    We are also open for discussion as to how this site should be developed and what features should be included, that is why we introduced the mailing list.
    Commonly a site is developed and then presented to the users, after a big team of analysts has skimmed the market indirectly for their wishes.
    We wish to be active and not passive by asking you before the site is developed, so you may help its development along.

    Hopefully that lcears up a bit of the confusion you were left with.
    Please do not hesitate to visit me online if you have further questions.
    dmalloc();
    ps excuse the many typoes, my phone is ringing like crazy but I wish to keep up to date on comments.

  • by Anonymous Coward
    Good morning. On behalf of OPN I woudl like to thank those who have took the time to check out our project and who might have signed themselves up on the mailing list or our volunteer database.
    I would also like to thank slashdot for posting this article and I would liek to thank OPN for trusting me enough to lead this project
    I am also on OPN dmalloc as you surely noticed and I am in charge of the organisational matters which are linked to this project
    I have been going through the comments and there is a lot of good content.
    All I can ask of all of you, is that you signe up to the mailing list.

    A quick over view of what is going to happen.
    The mailing list is still closed until a threshold of 60 sign ups is reached, which should happen fairly fast, givent he fact, that slashdot is helping us out a lot by posting this article.
    After the list has been opened, it will take a few fays, presumeably until Friday until I post the "Ideas and specifcations sheet".
    That nit of information will layout to everyone which key points we thought this site should have, everyone on the mailing list and that has access to our news server via nntp is then invited to discuss additional ideas.
    This will be a site from the users for the users, we are only in charge of the organisation, or better I am in charge of it.

    It is important, that you particiapte in any form, simply spill your ideas on your news server to the group named opn.ideas until the list is opened and the idea sheet has been posted.

    I am also often on IRC, so please do not hesitate to ask me if you have more specific questions.
    The only last thing I am asking of you, is that you are a bit patient with me. I promise to get this project rolling by the weekend and I expect a lot of feedback.

    Please excuse my typoes and hopefully you will be visintg our mailing list soon.
    dmalloc();

  • by Danse ( 1026 )

    This has got to be the most incoherent rambling post I've ever seen on /.

    I want the last several minutes of my life back dammit!!!

  • ...XML-based content exchange format...

    Jabber. [jabber.org]

  • i can't reply to you (sorry everyone else) since there is no mail link in your message nor is there a url.
    but do contact me [mailto] about the various possibilities. we might be able to help you out is several ways including co-location.
  • by pjones ( 10800 ) on Monday January 22, 2001 @04:43AM (#491283) Homepage
    We have the resources (now thanks to relationships with IBM [ibm.com], VA Linux's Source Forge [sourceforge.com], Red Hat [redhat.com], Mandrake [mandrakesoft.com] and the Center for the Public Domain [centerpd.org]) to host such a project or even different versions of the project. If you are seriously interested, drop me a note Paul Jones pjones@ibiblio.org [mailto].


    This is one of the things that I feel we should be doing.

  • Your project, slashcode, sourceforge, parts of gnu mailman, etc. all point to the need to a standard file layout for web server programs, so that people could install these big services on the web servers as easily as they today unpack tar files from / that put things in /usr/bin, /usr/lib, /var/man, etc.
  • BeOS is closed source.

    Part of BeOS is open source. The Tracker (equivalent to Windows Explorer) and Deskbar (a much more functional taskbar, but not as fancy as the ones for GNOME and KDE) are both open source, released under the BSD license.


    --
  • What? A charity to fund software development? What an good idea [fsf.org]. Too bad they only work with Free Software... What is this Open Source stuff again?
  • Links to key developer's .plan updates (if they have them - this seems more prevelant in the game industry) would be key... similar to what Blues News does. Just a thought....
  • Could some one tell me *what exactly* is OPN trying to achieve (may be dmalloc can answer this). I have read over the slashdot article and OPN site a couple of times and still don't understand what is to be done.

    May be it is early monday morning, but I am not catching up yet!

    LinuxLover
  • www.kernelcode.com
  • As one admin to another... glad you chose our network for your link and glad to see you wanting to help out even more! Wish I had more time :)
  • It's called Linux Weekly News. Every time an issue comes out the next half hour or so brings me up to date on what's happening all over Linux and Open Source... Despite "Linux" in the title, various issues from the BSDs and such are discussed as well. Wherever appropriate, there are summaries and links off to more specific news pages such as Kernel Traffic, Gnotices, Wine Weekly News, LyX Weekly News, Debian, etc. The edtors are up on EVERYTHING that is happening, and restrain themselves to no-nonsense reporting that is a pleasure to read, with links off to more information if you want it. If you're interested in providing more newsletters like WWN or Kernel Traffic, fine, but make it all fit into LWN. Check it out [lwn.net] if you haven't already. (They also run daily newsbits in case weekly isn't frequent enough for you.)
  • Specifically the Netscape RDF format

    I guess you're referring to RSS. It's a good means of exchanging "news" and "news" has a pretty broad interpretation in RSS 1.0

  • by lilo ( 106287 ) on Monday January 22, 2001 @05:44AM (#491293) Homepage

    Thanks to everyone who has shown interest so far. What we need more than anything at this point are graphical design people and people comfortable with the technical aspects of things like php and postgresql. Haven't nailed down the design yet, so input on that will be useful, though we do have some ideas. Try to have input on the desirability of the tools you know best.

    What we need most, of course, is for people who have time, talent and interest to subscribe to the content contact list and suffer through the initial organizational throes. :)

    We're not initially planning to do user forums. I think sites like Slashdot and K5 do as good a job of such things as it's possible to do, and I don't envy them the work that goes into it. What we plan to do is features on the state of people and projects in the community and articles on how the community can leverage its talents in positive ways. It's hoped we can contribute a very community-oriented site and possibly help finance the growth of OPN.

    Hope to see you on the mailing list!


    Rob Levin
    Head of Operations, Open Projects Net
    "Open source, open technology, open information"

  • This isn't meant to be something that pokes fun at people that have something constructive to say. This is to poke fun at the people that simply don't give a flying f*ck, and choose to increase the noise. On slashdot the S/N ratio can get pretty bad when a bunch of dedicated trolls gets together. Instead of modding down, have them moved to the haters section.

    Personally I WANT new ideas, and I do not to get upset at newbies or ignorance. I DO get upset with stupidity and childishness. While peoples opinions about what is childish vary widely. Posting "Yeah I'm first, lets goto goat.cx and grab some pr0n and BSD rules you stupid linux fuck. GNOME RULEZ" should go straight to the haters page.

  • by cluge ( 114877 ) on Monday January 22, 2001 @04:08AM (#491295) Homepage
    There are a few good open progect "portal/slash" development tools. From the all encompassing zope to slash and php nuke. Why doesn't the new site do the following

    • Come up with and build an open source management software to allow some of the participating users to design pages on the fly?
    • Have on place where you can get GOOD descriptions of each kernel release changes (i.e. like Alan Cox's writing on the 2.2 kernel series)
    • track number of downloads from sources like "source forge" and links from "fresh meat". Post the most and least downloaded programs by OS
    • Obviously needs a web interface to irc!
    • Also have a haters page where people that don't like your interface/ideas/code/moderation can have all their flames posted for other people to laugh at. (slash dot needs this badly)
    • A news section so you can keep slashdot on their toes (competition breeds excellence)
    • Release notes on FreeBSD, BeOS and other open source OSes?
    • A hidden Porn section, reason......we're geeks, do we need a reason?
      • Just a couple of ideas, best of luck.

  • ...if all sites could agree on a common (e.g. XML-based) content exchange format and conventions/protocols for agents to visit from remote sites and swap/glean content.

    (i.e., "We don't need no stinkin' .NET; we're standards-based open source!")
  • To help out with the site come to

    #opnwebdev on OPN

    we could do with the help

    cya there
    Devilish

    www.sci-fact.com - From Fiction to fact -
  • by Alien54 ( 180860 ) on Monday January 22, 2001 @04:11AM (#491298) Journal
    Like anything worthwhile, this is going to be a lot of work.

    So make sure you do not get blind sided by the commitments you find yourself making.

    That being said, even helping out a little would probably be appreciated. For example, maybe something like hosting a server or a slashcode site, etc. so that the front line troops can focus on the work at hand.

    of course, it is best to check with them to see what is really needed and wanted.

    Sounds like what they could use are a couple of extra assistant leaders

    ;-)

  • AC:

    Someone who can afford the time to wish a community to die a death (virtual or otherwise) is rather pathetic in a sociopathic kind of way. And someone who does not have the stones to stand up and be counted _by_name_ is as insignificant as his mindless blatherings themselves.

    If you don't like it here, leave. No one's forcing you to stay. If you just enjoy provoking others, get a life. Or get therapy. Either would be an improvement.

    Tomin8tor
    Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.
    There was never a genius without a tincture of madness.
  • Also have a haters page where people that don't like your interface/ideas/code/moderation can have all their flames posted for other people to laugh at. (slash dot needs this badly)

    Now this is one thing that bugs me about the current attitudes in the OpenSource movement... if it is ever going to gain wide-spread acceptance, this "only my opinion counts" kinda stuff has got to go. If a lot of people start pointing out where they see faults and issues, don't dismiss them as idiots. Remember: those same idiots are the ones who make IT purchasing decisions and buy computers at the local ChumpUSA.... the world isn't full of geeks; they don't care what kernel you are using. They just want the pretty colors and funky screensavers on their new PC. So while improved UIs and flashy graphics don't do anything to help the geeks, they do serve a very useful function that shouldn't be taken lightly.

    -
    The IHA Forums [ihateapple.com]
  • by OlympicSponsor ( 236309 ) on Monday January 22, 2001 @06:39AM (#491302)
    ...who think that at least one paragraph was left out of this story? I have literally NO idea what he is talking about. I see a bunch of references to "Open Projects" and I see some answers that reference website software. Other than that, I have zero clue. If this were K5, I'd vote "-1 Dump it" with an editorial saying "rewrite to make clearer".
    --
    MailOne [openone.com]
  • Indirectly you will be competing with OSDN [osdn.com] (if I got the text of teh article right?) and place like that - they have corporate sized money to throw at advertisement and other site associated costs.

    I run an Asia-Pac "Nerd" News site called CORE [core.org.au] and spend a sh*tload of time just sifting though online news sites and other places of interest (enough time probably to make this a 9-5 Job). So there might be need for wages (eating is non-optional) - and where there is wages there is accountants ..etc etc =).

    Makes me tired just thinking about it...
    --

  • > ...if all sites could agree on a common (e.g. XML-based) content exchange format and conventions/protocols for agents to visit from remote sites and swap/glean content.

    I think you need to learn [w3.org] about RDF [w3.org], which is indeed XML based. Specifically the Netscape RDF format is already an established form of this.

    So infrastructure isn't a problem, it's resources - to maintain, develop and host such a site - and this needs money. That will be your problem - you will have trouble finding money beause Open Source is based on giving things away. Perhaps you should start an Open Source charity. I'm sure if you went round the campus towns of America ratting a tin you'd get plenty of donations.
  • Fresh out of the box, any Microsoft spell checker does Not even recognize the word Linux. How do you expect me to use something like that.

    As for being one of those rampant Linux Zealots, yeah so what. I do it just to piss poeple like you off. Works well doesn't it. The original artical was a flame bait. So I flamed. Flame me. I do not care. Let that be known.

    On the note of Linux being a costly endeavor: Take the liscensing fees for example. It works just the oposite of Windows related support: (Pay a million $ for a bugged out piece of software and spend days on the phone getting walked through how to boot properly). Or...download a piece of Functioning, bug-tested software from Linux, read a few lines of a man page, and your all set. The cost is in your time spent learning. If that time is too much to spend then you do not deserve to know the answers.



    .
  • Then why does Microsoft, after creating an app that can conceivably be accessed for use by an open source OS via a patch, "rethink" the application to make it totally and agressively incompatible with anything that isn't Microsoft? I mean they actually work to make their stuff unuseable or full of glitches for others. It's not just money, or is it? Is this ridiculous rant just more "open" paranoia from the source? Anyway, before you get all bent out of shape, I'll have to agree with you on the "right out of the box" useability of Windows products. It really is professional, but so are many asp-wholes. Now there's nothing wrong with making $$$$. MS does that very well. I hate having to type code and commands just to do simple tasks that should be hidden by the system. Whenever I use Debian, I feel like a doctor examining someone with transparent skin. I can even see what it ate for breakfast. In fact, if the next windows os lives up to expectations, and has a selective installation option, I might become just another capatalist-pig's victim.
  • Hello :)
    I woudl like to thank you for your generous offer.
    We have not decided how we will host the pages.
    Most likely we will have to look for a co-location, since we believe, that the machine which runs thesepages,
    shoudl be tailored to their needs.
    If you are interested in helping out, you might wish to stay in contact with me none the less.
    If you allow me I will kee you in my list as one of our possible mirrors once the site goes live.
    Even thought he net is a wonderfull place, one can never have enough mirrors to bounce their content off tot he user.

    dmalloc

  • Hello
    Thank you for pointing this out.
    We will aim to please the common admin by developing an easy to setup interface as well.
    Even though the development should be kept as open source, we do not believe, that our code will be copied directly.
    We will try to provide the community with all the necessary tools to "reprint" the content that will, hopefully, offered to us by the open source community.

    defining a standard is always a thing only the people involved can do, which would be you as well.
    s So please help us out and spread the word, join the list. Thank you
    dmalloc

  • oops ;) yes it was me who posted the above :) sorry
  • you can see I am a slashdot newby.. again I posted the above article, so here the repost with my password Hello ;) I just wanted to answer a few points quickly, since our specifications have not been released yet. This will be more of a news site interfacing witht he community, rather than a community site itself. Right now we have no plans of tracking other sites, yet we wish to provide all the necessary information, or better all the information the community truely wishes to read about WE will be mainly built to provide news about any open source projects. We will employ static authors (voluntary staff) and occasional submissions from project. Important to knowe is, that we will NOT be branding the site, that means we are not going to focus on linux or BSD or NetBSD or Solaris. The site is for the open source community and many of the things that are developed there happen to run on many different OS. dmalloc
  • again... I apologize...it was me who posted that ;)
  • Yes it was really me who paosted... my squid strips cookies and I am not used ot /. excuse that please so here is the repost Hello linuxlover.
    Thank you for asking more questions. Some might have simply walked away or left a stupid comment.
    Since we have not really released a specification sheet, I can only outline the basic idea behind this project
    As you surely know, all those open source related sites, such as linux.com, sourceforge.com and newsforge.com along with slashdot, are doing a great job gathering and displaying quick news.
    We believe they are doing a great job in that area, yet we are missing a site where the news is project and which is more important very close to the users that are involved with it.
    OPN is a large IRC network (more than 2200 user) which primarily hosts channels for projects such as #php, #debian #linuxhelp, #c , #c++ and the like.
    Naturally we have a lot of visitors fromt he open source community and many choose to meert with their co developers for a project on our network.
    We are interested in displaying quality content, fromt he people, for the people, we are not interested to always have the latest news.
    linux.com and /. do a far batter job in that category.
    We also wish to avoid branding, as long as the news is somehow associated with the open source community and we can reach someone that is in charge of those news (be it a user or a project maintainer or a developer) we are intereste din displaying it.
    Basically that means the same rights to everybody, no matter wheter this is a huge project like #php or a very small one. NO matter if it is mainly based on BSD, Solaris or linux.

    I think it is important to understand, that we ar enot trying to copy nor be a competition to the big news site.
    We do nto have any interest in generating a fast revenue, we simply wish to build a news interface to the community,
    which has actually been developed and is maintained by the community.
    That is why we do nto have any paid staff, ourt staff will be made up from volunteers, everybody is free to sign up as a volunteer at this form [openprojects.net].
    We are also open for discussion as to how this site should be developed and what features should be included, that is why we introduced the mailing list.
    Commonly a site is developed and then presented to the users, after a big team of analysts has skimmed the market indirectly for their wishes.
    We wish to be active and not passive by asking you before the site is developed, so you may help its development along.

    Hopefully that lcears up a bit of the confusion you were left with.
    Please do not hesitate to visit me online if you have further questions.
    dmalloc();
    ps excuse the many typoes, my phone is ringing like crazy but I wish to keep up to date on comments.

  • Please disregard that post, ther has been an internal missunderstadning. The official channel for this project is #content The above channel is for an entirely different project. dmalloc
  • Hello. This is indeed a very interesting idea, please make sure you sign up to our mailing list and promote it there.
    Just for your information, we are already promoting such a format in a very limited way.
    OUr specification, for now, reads, that content and layout engine are completely seperated.
    This means we will be able to provide a whole lot of different formats from one content source.
    Hopefully that will also help in providing content to remote sites.
    dmalloc
  • Hello :)
    I really appreciate your comment.
    Yes, I could use a few assisstants. This prijects prooves itself to be rather interesting to many.
    Hopefully I will be able to pick a few of the mailing list.

    I also appreciate your comments about being on track.

    To me it is important, that the users also control me and the OPN structures behind this project.
    Everyone is free to discuss our ideas and hopefully, we , as the organisators will be able to read a consensus fromw hat is offered to us.
    so help us out, we do not bite, we rely on your wisdom as well as ours.
    dmalloc

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