Restructuring FSFE's website
The Web team in Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) has recently started a restructuring process of FSFE's website for a possible future redesign in mind. This is going to bring about many technical and content changes on the websites — so buckle up.
The process was started in mid-November when Matthias Kirschner and I organized a website workshop at FSCONS in Gothenburg. We had a fantastically inspirational and constructive discussion with other webmasters and Fellows about the general structure of the website, and decided to summarize these thoughts in a concrete list of proposals for the Web team. The summary was sent out a few weeks later on web@ and attracted a lot of positive feedback. A few days (and a few organizational meetings) later, Reinhard Mueller announced that the Web team should initiate this process with an incremental approach in mind; meaning that the changes to the website structure will not come in one big batch, but rather as a succession of small patches to the current site.
I think this is wise for a number of reasons. Primarily because it reduces drop height if something should go wrong, both technically and emotionally: People tend to have very strong opinions on (perhaps especially æsthetical) change, and it is easier to catch technical glitches and bugs when you only apply small changes to the code. Secondly, it will add to a feeling of progress, which is good when undertaking a project of this size, as changes will be immediately visible to the public.
And this is indeed a gigantic undertaking. In the current CVS repository there is a total of 6 212 files at the time of writing this. And as I am sure you are aware of, fsfe.org is not particularly well known for its extensive use of graphics or small files at the moment.
However, the primary reason why it is a big project is not due to the number of files, but because of all the structural changes that needs to be done. A quick map and successive discussion of this, started by Hugo Roy revealed that the current website has grown out of its current structure, resulting in complex and unorderly menu systems, page overviews, navigation and file structure. To further complicate matters, it was also discovered that many of the ideas that the workshop, I, and others put forth, would require massive changes to not only the file-, navigational-, logical-, and content structure; but also to the technical side.
While we have, intentionally, avoided any issues of technology so far, for very good reasons, Cristian Rigamonti, our sysadmin, have already set up a new SVN repository for the website. This long-awaited move from CVS to SVN will solve many problems we have had, and it will, perhaps most notably, help when starting to reorganize the actual files, as I am sure you know about the delightful pleasures of dealing with file- and directory removal in CVS. In addition to a new repository, he has also set up a new wiki, bug tracking system, and web interface for the repository for the Web team.
We have not yet decided when the new SVN repository will be put into action, but the plan is to do this as soon as possible. In addition to main repository for the files built at fsfe.org, we will introduce a new test branch, built with the same frequency as the main branch, viewable at test.fsfe.org. For more extensive changes, we now have the ability to test these in the test branch before pushing the changes to the public tree.
As I should point out, we are currently focusing on restructuring the website, a process which does not include redesigning its look. The process is going to take a long time, as we have limited people and energy (everything is obviously done by volunteers, as in any good and decent free software project with self-respect), but we promise that the result will be awesome. As with any self-respecting free software project honouring its roots, this is of course also a prerequisite, often resulting in many good ideas, but little action. However, this is again a reason why I am a big supporter of small, important, and incremental changes. Releasing early and releasing often is our new mantra in the Web team.
We have, despite my depressive introduction, made substantial ground already. We have covered the task of grouping our current (and some future) content into “logical packages”, as we have dubbed it, which will help us decide what is important and what is not. Rainer Kersten has proved very resourceful in this process. We have also discussed adding and revising a number of new sections to the website: A dedicated introductory section to free software basics; putting more emphasis on the different project's websites, and making them key components on the website; dividing the enormous Documents section into top-level “resource banks”; increased focus on our campaigns; specific content for different audiences; and much, much more.
So, as a summary, I think we are well under way already, and I am looking forward to the changes that will happen over Christmas. As always, we welcome input, ideas and feedback, and you should not hesitate to contact us on web@. Should you feel inclined to improving the websites, you are of course also welcome to join us. I hope to be writing regularly to the planet in an attempt to keep you all updated about what is going on: The website plays an important part for the free software- and Fellowship community.
Oh, and by the way: I was recently invited to join FSFE's Core team as a new Deputy Coordinator for the Web team. Yay.
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