Informal get-together this weekend
Ray (Gman)
Although I have not yet been able to attend any of the meetings where I want
to announce all of this (Int'l & US chapters, especially), word of mouth has
gotten around enough to where a few devs have been begging for more details
about the custom foundational approach we intend to use to construct a
comprehensive TZM network of websites, starting with the LingTeam's
PMS/portal needs as our initial 'lab rat'.
The following synopsis should give you all a decent overview of the issues
that we're looking to solve with this.
DEV TEAM
Where are we now?
The Zeitgeist Movement on the internet currently consists of a growing group
of websites each working in their own way to help spread awareness and
coordinate the efforts of Chapters and Teams. While crosslinking helps tie
many of the sites together conceptually, each site, at a technological
level, essentially operates within the domain of its own resources.
Typically we find one site, one data store, with a CMS platform as the
go-between. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's often the most
efficient way to get things going and is a natural first step in building an
online presence. Over time, however, this approach can lead to redundancy
and isolation. This is why we have to sign up for a new user account on
every site, why some sites become outdated, and why there is a general state
of discombobulation that occurs when one tries to wrap their head around how
it all fits together programmatically as a system.
Where are we going?
We're migrating into a resource-centric development paradigm. With most
current CMS platforms in use across the movement today, the data model is
highly coupled with the view and application logic, making it difficult, if
not downright painful, to share important data across related sites and apps
that would otherwiswe love to be cross-pollinating. This is where the idea
of data services come in. By providing centralized, language agnostic
mechanisms for accessing data resources (think RESTful API), we decentralize
user interfaces and decouple the data layer from the presentation layer.
We'd love to see sites all over the movement sharing access to common
resources like user profiles, blog entries, forum posts, media "any data
resource" while having greater creative freedom over user interfaces.
This approach requires a thoughtful balance of the yin and yang of
resource-centric development: openness and security.
We want be open, make information easy to access, encourage idea sharing and
collaborative work, empower creative individuals and foster community. At
the same time, we need to protect the movement's resources and prevent
abuse, especially on the most public of our sites. For example, by
integrating authentication protocols and granular ACL (access control lists)
mechanisms, each site can implement its own set of privileges and
restrictions on usage and we can protect our resources from being used
innappropriately. Perhaps the most important security benefit of the
resource-centric approach is that no site's content can be wiped out as a
result of circumstance or a malicious act. Because the information is a
shared resource, a site can be taken down without any data loss. Slap on a
fresh interface and pick up where you left off, or hop onto someone else's
interface and hook right into your data streams.
Ultimately what we're building is a safe and secure environment in which
information is liquid and interfaces are lightweight. The next generation of
ZM sites will have the ability to hook into movement-wide data services as
much or as little as they want, leaving the community of sites as free and
open as it is today, but with the option of participating in a rich, stable
and secure system for those looking to implement ZM 2.0.
As far as the underlying PMS required by the Linguistic Team, a lot of the
initial data structures and relational logic was worked out months ago by
several of us. Unfortunately, most of us were pulled into other, more
immediate issues that needed to be handled over the last couple of months
and this development project was put on hold for much longer than we would
have liked. In order to get this thing back into motion, Chris (cluster)
and I would like to show you folks all that's already been done toward it,
with the full understanding that there is likely be more to add to the
already outlined database structure.
So, if you're available, reply back and let us know how your schedule looks
for Saturday &/or Sunday for a get-together in Teamspeak. Hopefully, we can
find a time that works for at least most of us. :)
Warm Regards,
Ray (Gman)
"The entire future of humankind is yet to be written"
http://www.thevenusproject.com/
Dennis Ruhe
I am only available sunday 19:00 GMT, hope this isn't a problem.
Kind regards
Dennis Ruhe
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gavin palmer
Man - I look forward to this effort. It is the necessary transition tool. Efficiently organized non-profit volunteers should be able to out compete the profit industries. This tool should let us organize and progress in our ability to organize. Then - people who want to address efficient distribution of necessary resources will be able to effectively collaborate.
It is very exciting.
We might try adding this google group portal to the "taking action" menu at the main site.
Ray (Gman)
A more formal meeting is needed where we can all come together and more seriously start planning out our approach to some of the bigger goals, while bringing together many of the current projects that need to be handled in a way that allows for much more of a system's approach than what has been done up til now. I switched the LingTeam meetings to every other week, so I can be in the Dev Team channel this Saturday. If we can come up with a time that works for everyone, we'll have that more formal meeting. Otherwise, stop by and we'll have a more informal chat.
Adding the Dev Team to the main menu is very much a part of this (and something I'll take care of as soon as the main site has settled into its new server), but it may be changed once we have all gotten together long enough to decide the best place to use as our global 'Welcome Wagon'. Other options already include the Dev Team forum, the Programming Sub-Team wiki section (I'll be changing the name of that to a more encompassing Dev Team title as soon the wiki also settles), etc.. It may turn out to be this email group, but then again, we may end up restructuring the current Dev Team resources in a way that quickly makes this one obsolete. I created it specifically with the 'initial' gathering of devs in mind and expect that the team will soon brainstorm on what additional &/or replacement resources will be needed for the Dev Team before we pull together, document and dive into individual projects.