[ZDP] Portal Discussion

[Maik Roeder]

Hi Alan !

Alan Shutko wrote:
> 
> Maik Roeder <roeder@berg.net> writes:
> 
> > Do think that the basic idea of offering different portals for
> > different communities (Beginners, Developers and so on) is a bad
> > idea ? What do you think about the organisation in Subjects/Topics ?
> 
> Well, as a brand-spanking new user (or user wannabe, if I can get the
> tutorial to run), I think that offering portals at all is a bad
> thing.  I want information, not hoops to jump through to get
> information.  Part of this is that I don't really like portals much in
> general, but a large part of it is that when I have problems, I go
> looking for information to solve those problems, and I don't want to
> have to guess where something would be filed (kind of hard when you
> don't know much).  The current portal segments information based on
> what kind of "user" you are, but in reality, my problems involve
> information which might be found in many places, and I have to dig
> through all of them to find out where.

Maybe it would help if we had a Horizontal Portal, where you have a model of 
personalisation. The theory is that each person has unique interests and
needs. You get a customized start page featuring your specific interests.
 
> It might be better if all information were contained in all portals,
> but organized differently.

This is a good idea ! Do you have some ideas how this would look like ?

> Right now, as a "new user & developer" I  have a portal that's empty...
> not even a link to the faq!  That's a big help!

Everyone has the right to add a Subject there. Then in each Subject,
everyone can add Topics. In the Topics everyone can add Comments, Links
and Drafts. These will be taken by the ZDP members as a starting point
for writing good introductions on the Subjects and Topics. This is
a community site, and you can't expect to get everything served up
without contributing yourself. The portal tries to enable people to
work together, and if you don't find what you are looking for in the
Portal, it would be great if you could take the time to share what
you have found out on your own, so you make it easier for those who
come after you to get right to the good information.
 
> > This is a job that only DC can do right now. The ZDP has "only" got
> > the aim to point to existing stuff. Restructuring the existing docs
> > is not our job.
> 
> Well, why is it called the Zope Documentation Project, if it's not
> supposed to provide documentation?

I have been talking about restructuring the existing docs ! With that
I mean the Zope Content Managers Guide, the Zope Administrators Guide
and whatever documents Digital Creations has written, that still lives
on Zope.org, and we can't copy over because we only have limited space
on our server, and it would also be a problem to always keep things 
up to date.

> Oh, wait... it's not, I guess.  I  hadn't looked at the title on
> http://zdp.zope.org before, but the link at 
> http://www.zope.org/Documentation says it's project (and a source
> of documentation).

Yes, the ZDP is also a Documentation Project, and we will continue
writing the ZBook, ZFAQ and ZSnippets. 

The ZDP has just changed its focus to become a Zope Documentation
Portal, just because we don't have control over all documentation !

We live on a different server than Zope.org, so what else can we
do than linking to existing documentation ? And while we are at it,
why should this not include our own documentation ? 

For the visitor it is not so important to see the Zope Documentation
Project, because what people are looking for is documentation, not
a project that provides it.

> > What documentation do you mean ?
> 
> Well, there's the Zope Book project which requires lots of clicking
> (and it took me a little while to figure out that there was actually
> content on the sub-sections, because the interface changed on me).
> Personally, I haven't gotten any further, because I just started.

Please report all usability problems to the ZDP mailing list. We are
going to listen to you, and change things to better serve your needs.

Greetings,

Maik Röder

-- 
Open Source is "about being able to work together with people you've
never  met, on projects that  are in  a constant state  of flux,  on 
a time schedule  that would  cause a  hummingbird's  head to  spin."
Paul Ferris, http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/opinions/1593/1/