Hi all, I'm mooting the idea of having a pool of web designers/developers who have an interest in OpenSource projects to provide voluntary services for creating their web fronts. Most OpenSource projects have zilch-nada budget for marketing and the cheapest avenue is the web. However, as OpenSource projects' scope are often far beyond that of web design and standards, the good folks behind these projects may have no idea of what is a good and effective standards-compliant website. Their websites may just be quick and dirty content that are chockfull of tables, graphic text yadda yadda. No fault of theirs, especially if they're a bunch of systems programmers who previously had no business being on the web. These people need help, and if they ask for it, it'd be good to have a pool of like-minded web pros who are willing to contribute.
I got this idea from the concept behind http://www.openusability.org, where a bunch of usability experts created a pool ready to provide their skills to OpenSource projects who register their projects with them. You can surf over to their website to check out their structure and how they provide their services. Why is it important for these guys to get the help they need? A lot of the people behind these projects don't really get the web. They vaguely know it's an ideal publishing avenue but that's about it. All of us here know that it's not just "we build it and they'll come". Plus, the fact is that a number of these sites contribute to the proliferation of non-compliant and badly conceptualized websites littering the cyberscape. Heck, even the default theme that ships with Mambo, an OpenSource WEB CMS, uses tables to shoehorn the layout. Obviously, if you have no love for OpenSource, this email wouldn't matter to you. What I'm trying to do at this point is to gather a group of people who do support OpenSource and are willing to contribute some time and resources towards this. No, I don't expect that any of us will be getting paid for this. But I guess if you're into this kinda thing, the philantrophical streak already runs in your blood. Plus there's that little thing called exposure if your particular project hits the limelight. I've made an initial shortlist of services that we can provide: 1) Help them understand the difference between a publicity and developer site for their project. Most of them mix the two up and in a lot of cases this is not the right tack to take. 2) Help them conceptualize a presentable and standards-compliant website. 3) If possible, set them up with (or help them to do so) a simple CMS such that they can do self updates (no, I don't feel that we should be the one doing all the data entry especially when we do not even understand the content and actual scope of the project itself) I'm fine with discussing this off-list if a high volume of folks (or even a single moderator) here find it non-relevant to them. Oh, BTW, the name's Wong. I'm thus far more a lurker than anything else. I'm a web developer based in Malaysia, which I do while trying to be a small-time local OpenSource evangelist as well. Some of the sites to show you what I'm talking about: 1) http://www.slackware.org (table-based) 2) http://www.kanotix.org/ (frames on something as simple as this?!?!?) 3) http://fluxbox.org/version-0.9.php (ah, looks like some thought went into the design itself, but the inner workings are still very old school) Interested parties can either email me privately or here (while the objections have not started). Thanks! Wong Note: A copy of this email is being sent to the Web Design List as well. ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
