On Tuesday 01 May 2007 23:33:33 Abdulaziz Al-Arfaj wrote: > Salam, وعليكم السلام، Glad to see signs of life from you.
> For some time now, Arabeyes members and contributors wanted to create > a community portal for all things Arabic & open source. To quote Nadim > back in February of 2005: > > "...OpenArabia.org (OAO for short), is available for us to really make it > the premier portal for all things Open Source and Arabic. The idea is for > OAO to bring the various factions together, from Arabeyes to all the other > LUGs, projects and entities. OpenArabia.org should not pertain to > source-code openness either, it should venture into any and all Open Source > mediums (books, data, encyclopedias, etc). The various ideas and details > can be worked out later as the vision(s) are too grand to be noted at this > juncture...."[1] > Just to open the discussion again, because I did not follow the developments of the idea, I think that for now the idea of involvement from LUGs is to be excluded -as in not believing in so much hope-, LUGs are pretty inactive in my eyes, if they were active the way the OpenArabia.org idea expect them to be then I should have noticed that. LUGs are good because they bring the idea very close to the end-users and potential participants, but it is simply not the case . > There have been several initiatives in the past to jump start the > OpenArabia.org project but they didn't take. But the time seems ripe > now to bring this topic to the discussion table once more and see if > anyone is willing to adopt this project, and when I say adopt, I mean > someone literally needs to make this project his/her baby. Rectification: "someones". In my imaginary concept of OpenArabic.Org, the project needs a lot of care from many carers, getting news, writing news and present quality content is not a one man's job at all, it is a community's job. Even big portals like OSnews or Slashdot, with their international community, can hardly satisfy their reason of existence. > Its simple, we need a web admin to setup the various pages and > sections of the portal and do upkeep, someone who is comfortable with > CMSs... (Drupal, Joomla etc...). The web admin must understand exactly > what the purpose of OAO is and keep those goals in mind while crafting > the portal. Once done you can get a fully empty Joomla demo site. We need content, there is no one to make content. There is few people, who try to tackle the priorities, and with difficulty. > As with anything we do, this is best done through a group effort. But > to get the initiative off the ground someone will have to take the > lead. Anyone more familiar than me with the history of OAO please > chime in with your thoughts on this. True, it needs a fully dedicated person, and a group to follow. > So, any takers? Unfortunately, not me. The idea is great, the means are not there. Suggestion: Start a page in http://wiki.arabeyes.org/OAO_Draft to draw the features of this project, and convenient realistic ways to achieve it. Anyway, it is not a completely impossible mission. > Regards, > > Abdulaziz, Youssef. PS: I wish I didn't send this reply. _______________________________________________ General mailing list [email protected] http://lists.arabeyes.org/mailman/listinfo/general
