hello everyone,

Bonjour Nabuur community in Amsterdam.

Jeremy Ecle

--
..www.polarcoordinates.wordpress.com..

Hi all,

On Wednesday 3 March a few members of the development group came together in Amsterdam to sort out the results of the NABUURCamp. (Unfortunately I wasn't there because of a severe cold)

They've copied the resulting pages from the development environment (sb2.nabuurtest.com) to www.nabuurcamp.org
Next to that they've put in quite an effort sorting out the requirements that came out of the Camp. A lot of the documentation has been put up here: http://svn.nabuurtest.com/trac/

For those who've taken a look and got confused: the links in red are links that will bring you to underlying pages with more specs/requirements. As it's a wiki, you can create an account yourself and add your bit to the requirements.

The pages/functional blocks that were defined during the camp are mostly here: http://svn.nabuurtest.com/trac/wiki/InterfacePages

I'm aware this documentation isn't complete yet. I'm sorting out the additional wireframes, notes etc as we speak. Most of it should be online now, it needs some sorting out.

Last but not least: find the attached document that came out of the NABUUR Camp. It shows quite a bit of what was discussed.

I'm also cleaning up this project room so that it can be used to discuss requirements and post updates. You'll see tasks being added per page/functional block, with links to the wiki & wireframes. Together with the wiki that should provide a good environment to share & discuss ideas.

Hope this works out. If you have time to help out that would be great. Suggestions are more than welcome.

Pelle

Ideas of Nabuurcamp.doc

Pelle, thanks for all the updates. I have not had a chance to look properly yet.

Its a bit tough to know where to post this, as its related to the Nabuur website as a whole rather than a specific page or the requirements defined at the Camp, but i guess this is the closest place....

I have been looking at the 1% Club website http://www.onepercentclub.com/ which is now available in English as well as the original Dutch .

The idea behind 1% Club is very similar to Nabuur - find people who can assist projects in developing countries. The major difference is that, as well as allowing organisations to post tasks where volunteers can use their skills, they also allow them to raise money. The site focuses more on the fundraising than the skills-based tasks, although they are still pretty easy to find.

An example of a Project is the one set up for HAU (Nabuur Kisozi village) http://www.onepercentclub.com/projects/hau which currently includes a single task, as well as fundraising.

As the English version of the site is new, there are not many tasks yet, so its hard to see exactly how they work, but from looking at some of the Dutch ones e.g. http://www.onepercentclub.com/doen/task?id=17 each task has a discussion area.

There are simple search options for projects (via the 1%PROJECTS page) and tasks (1%SKILLS page).

I do not know how well known this site is or how successful it is - I have heard good things about HAU's experience, but do not know how typical they are when it comes to success.

I know that Nabuur and 1% Club as both part of the International Cooperation 2.0 group, so I am wondering if there are ways that the two organisations can work together to improve Nabuur.

Part of me even wonders whether a solution may be to look at the possibility of adding any needed extra functions to the 1% Club site and migrating everything across there. Its just a thought, there may be many reasons why its not practical or desirable to do so.

What thoughts do others have?

Mary

Hi Pelle,

I don´t know really where to post this, but just wanted to let you know that in the resource and support group we discussed a possible process for villages to get from the connect to a project stage. The attached document lines out, how this process could look like. We are further working on it, but this is a first go. The main concern was that villages are really ready to start a project, especially if it involes huge funding needs. If a village is not ready, it should rather stay in the connecting stage and further discuss its ideas with other neighbors through thematic groups, for example.

Maria

Village sign up process and support.doc

Thanks Mary & Maria,

Maria - I haven't created a separate 'task' for this process yet. Will do so and copy your post to it.

Mary - yes, we know the 1%Club people. Actually they're also looking at Nabuur for stuff that works. We should do the same too - if they have functions that work great, we should definitely pay attention. One of the ideas behind the International development alliance is to make it easy to 'share' projects across sites, for example: Kisozi, a Nabuur village, could then have a project that is also available on 1%Club for fundraising, without having to re-enter the project info. Updates on the project would be shared across sites too.

Pelle

Pelle- that interconnectedness between different platforms sounds promising- and very useful!

Dear Development Team,

Hope you had a great Easter week-end, everybody.
Is there any news from the website development front? It has become very quiet here. But maybe you are just working outside of this platforme. However, it would be nice and motivating for all other neighbors to get a bit more regular updates, and if possible the page where we could see the changes. What was the outcome of the meeting in London?

Thaks for updates and take care,
Maria

Hi MariaZ,

I have sent you a message regarding a translation of a document from english to french. Here is the link to the project for your easy access. It is an urgent task I hope you will forgive me for not sending you the message much earlier.

http://www.nabuur.com/en/village/buterere/project/task/fill-out-project-...

All the best,

Jeremy Ecle

--
..heal the world..

Hi Maria, and all,

A short answer right now: it's indeed a bit quiet right now because of other commitments most of us had the last 2-3 weeks (including a meeting Pelle and I organised around "linked open data" and connecting different platforms, see http://www.openroadmap.net/index.php?title=Workshop_8_April_2010_Program... for discussion notes)

We'll try to give a more substantial update the coming week, ok?

Rolf.

Thanks Rolf - I am looking forward to it.
I completely understand that everybody has other commitments, and this was clear from the very beginning. But we have to be honest about it and find a solution on how to move Nabuur forward despite the fact that we are all volunteers. I am waiting for your update - but it would be good to have a realistic timeframe (and to keep it), otherwise we can stop doing the whole thing. Sorry, to be so franc, but I (and I am not the only one) am really diappointed by the Amsterdam participants...

Have a nice sunny day,
Maria

I am also proposed to focus on the realistic time frame.

Biozid

I would love to hear an update on the status of the new website. The last I saw anything related to it was around mid-March. It would be great if the team could designate a person to provide us with regular updates. It is very discouraging when we hear nothing. I think we are all hoping for the best - but the longer time goes by with people asking questions and posts not being responded to...it creates an impression that no one is listening and/or that nothing is happening. How soon before we can expect information to start being migrated to the new site? Do you need any information from the rest of us to help you move forward with the development?

All the best-

Jennifer

Dear all,

Here's a short progress update, based on what happened during NABUURCamp.
- During the NABUUR Camp the present users and developers gave the definition of the .. NABUUR.org a good swing.
- During the discussion that followed one of the freshly recruited volunteer developers quit, the rest of the dev team got a bit demotivated. This pretty much harmed the progress.
- In March, the core dev team gathered twice in Amsterdam: focus was on cleaning up the development environment and requirements (which requirements are still valid after the NABUUR Camp), so that new developers also can get an overview
- On March 19, a Drupal Jam was organised in Amsterdam. NABUUR was present with a stand sponsored by KPN (Dutch telecom company). A few possible volunteer developers were interested to help develop NABUUR.org
- On March 24, Rolf and I met Niels in London. We've spoken about the discussion that had taken place and also discussed the way forward. Niels will help with clearing up and structuring the documentation of NABUUR.org, so that it becomes clearer for new developers and users.
- Around the same time a Drupal dev company from New Zealand got in touch, that could help with the look & feel of the new site. Apparently something went wrong with getting their local copy of the site. Clearing that up now.

The last few weeks were pretty silent: I know Kester had a few deadlines, Rolf's attended another conference and I've been looking for business opportunities. We're now looking for a date to meet again.

The development plan: the original plan Rolf and I made met a lot of resistance. At the same time it won't mean any real business for any of the participants. Rolf and I have been discussing other possibilities, mostly coming down to hosting an 'open' event (non-paid) where the budget is used for accomodation & catering. We haven't started this up yet.

The actual status of the site is still visible at nabuurcamp.org. I'm aware that it hasn't changed since NABUUR Camp. Most of the progress that has been made is behind the screens... and it doesn't go as fast as when we still had paid staff. I can't think of an easy way to get that speeded up, to be honest.

Pelle

Pelle-

I have to tell you that I really appreciate your honest update and that fact that you did not write something to make it sound like things are going full speed ahead when in reality that is not the case. I also know how much you all care about making this work and doing it right. Back in January, as you know I was at a breaking point and needed to walk away. A few months away did a world of good. I remembered why I was here. For me, it's not because of the website. I think (HOPE) that's true for all of us.

The reality of the situation for me is this - we have a tool to use and it is far from perfect, but we still have a tool and it brought all of us together. We've made the best of it. We've been utterly frustrated with it - and many have probably been ready to, or thrown in the towel. Right now it's the tool we have. We find ways of managing and we rely on each other when we come across something we don't know how to deal with or can't fix on our own. Over the past year, I've watched the focus drift away from the communities and more on the website. I know for me, once I stepped back - refocused on why I'm here and began celebrating all the little successes happening along the way - oftentimes just because we're all here together and sharing our knowledge and expertise with each other, the rest of it just didn't matter as much anymore.

That being said - of course, we are all looking forward to a new and improved site. I am confident that we'll get there. It may not be as quick as we'd like to, but it will happen. In the meantime, my plan is to try and stay focused on doing what I can to support this community. I wouldn't be back here if I didn't believe we can move it forward in a positive direction.

Thank you again for your honesty -

Jennifer

Hi Pelle,

Also from my site, thanks for the update and your honesty. Of course it is a bit frustrating to see that the motivation from the camp was somewhere lost in between then and now and that very little has happened so far, but ok, that´s where we are, and there are many reasons for it we do not have to discuss anymore.

I agree that caring for the communities is much more important than the website, but it remains an important tool to achieve this in the most effective way. I think there are two things that might help to focus again and to speed up.

1. The discussion about whether hiring some days of somebody to get the site advanced from the remaining 10000 euros or not was not so clearly decided as you said (at least that´s my feeling). Some people, especially one, were against but there was never a democratic voting process that would maybe be needed. My suggestion would be to lay out once more the two models you have with its timeframe, costs etc: hiring somebody or organising a kind of website development camp. And then having a very simple poll for a week where everybody can take part in. This might lead to a solution that people are more likely to accept than an unstransparent email discussion.

2. To set a timeframe and attribute clear responsabilities. It seems that you still have a number of interested volunteers to work on the website. Would it be possible to attribute clear tasks to all of them with deadlines that are known to the groups (so us as well). It thereby will also become possible for neighbors to give input into specific features (e.g. traning material etc) and to know with whom to work with. This might create more transparency, and responsibilising people normally leads to more commitment and results.

These are just some ideas. I am still keen to see this website coming soon since it will help to get things easier and clearer and especially allow new neighbors to get better engaged.

warm regards,
Maria