Flock 2016 Software: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 15:55, 23 March 2019

This page is about a revamp of software to use for Flock 2016 and beyond.

Background

Here are our preliminary notes on problem statements, and proposed fixes for our issues with Flock software.

Here are our comparisons of existing tools.

Proposal

The core team of folks looking at software for Flock include the following:

Paul Frields
Máirín Duffy
Patrick Uiterwijk
Josh Boyer

With substantial assistance from:

Ruth Suehle
Luke Macken

The main issues we identified in summary were:

Inability to manage content easily
Registration process required frequent manual hacking
Multiple single points of failure for maintenance
Inability to relate funding decisions to content decisions

Given the comparison matrix, availability of useful software upstream, and the rate at which problems are addressed upstream, we agreed to propose this solution to the Flock staff.

Summary

! Use	System
General content for users to read (pre-conference)	fedora-web module
Registration, CfP, voting on papers	regcfp
Content for event (at conference)	Sched.org

Content

Content consists of information and messaging for the general public. This is how we advertise dates, venue, transportation information, travel tips, and calls to action.

Static site: Use a static site, managed with the fedora-web git repo similar to all other main Fedora websites, to post general information for the public about Flock. It will still reside at https://flocktofedora.org.; Request help from Design team (Ryan Lerch), hopefully building on a well known theme or model to bring into line with Fedora branding; Here is the git repo and a direct link to the folder in the tree.

Sched.org: Use sched.org for schedule arrangement, publishing, web + mobile access for attendees; (unchanged from Flock 2015)

User activities

User activities are the actions we ask for users to take ahead of the conference to provide data for the organizers.

regcfp: Use regcfp application for registration, desk, call for papers activity, and paper voting/acceptance. ~~TODO: File RfR ticket with fedora-infrastructure, likely for Patrick to handle.~~ DONE - to be available at https://register.flocktofedora.org; Visual elements will reflect Fedora branding.; The software team will create an administration and maintenance document on wiki for Flock planners using the system.; ~~TBD: Generalize an ansible playbook so this app can be used for other Fedora events if desired.~~ - IN PROGRESS - Patrick handling; Users will visit via https://register.flocktofedora.org URL.; The software team will monitor incoming issues and prioritize based on the Flock planning team's needs.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-Fixing the Flock Software System
+This page is about a revamp of software to use for Flock 2016 and beyond.
-We aren't talking about Flock itself, but the software / website for it.
+== Background ==
-We're not talking about FUDcon sites but things that help it too are good. Focus is on Flock website.
-Scope:
+Here are [[/Problems | our preliminary notes]] on problem statements, and proposed fixes for our issues with Flock software.
-* Registration
-* Submission
-* Voting?
-* Schedule (rooms, times, talks)
-* Information (pre-, during, post)
-* Remotee attendance
-NOTE: It would be helpful if whatever solution(s) we come up with enabled both FUDCon + Flock events
+Here are [[/Tool_comparisons | our comparisons of existing tools]].
-Problems:
+== Proposal ==
-* Registration
-** Need to require email address
-** Would be nice to collect flight/visa info instead of doing it through google doc--privacy concerns (good for fudcons in general too)
-*** and track reimbursements
-*** so, we need a way to customize user info that only the user + admins can see
-** reg disconnected from voting system
-** Some attendees do not want the fact that they are away from home to be publicly listed on the 'net
-** Need region of the registration (EMEA, NA, APAC, LATAM)
-** Need to confirm speaker attendance
-** Need to confirm registrant / attendee attendance
-** Registrant emails bouncing
-** Specific volunteer opportunities in registration form
-** Automation for querying funded travelers to provide links to the volunteer content (blogs, photos, etc) they agreed to do in order to get funding and get them sent to organizers, automate notification of who didn't do it to organizers
-** Is the person going to come if their talk was turned down? or are they not going to go then?
-* Submission
+The core team of folks looking at software for Flock include the following:
-** Submission acceptance is manual
+* Paul Frields
-** ALL notifications are really manual! :-(
+* Máirín Duffy
-** Did we mention there was a lot of manual stuff involved? (automate all the things)
+* Patrick Uiterwijk
-** Ability for submitter to tag their talk into a category
+* Josh Boyer
-** Allow co-speakers and communicate with all speakers of a talk
+With substantial assistance from:
+* Ruth Suehle
+* Luke Macken
-* Voting
+The main issues we identified in summary were:
-** Used the Fedora voting system elections app / range voting with a restricted range
+* Inability to manage content easily
-** Had to look up talk synopsis elsewhere while voting in another window.... for 150 submissions its hard
+* Registration process required frequent manual hacking
-** It seemed like a huge number of talks had around 50 votes. When I saw that, I wondered if there was some issue in the voting system. (Or if many people were simply voting for every talk they found remotely interesting, rather than those they would actually attend.)
+* Multiple single points of failure for maintenance
-** cluster related talks in the voting list so you can more easily compare them when voting
+* Inability to relate funding decisions to content decisions
-** Note that many talks cross multiple categories. My "Remote Desktop & Fedora" is best categorized under Desktop (and thats how it was categorized), but some people would object to the categorization.
-** Elections app doesn't scale
-* Schedule
+Given the [[/Tool_comparisons | comparison matrix]], availability of useful software upstream, and the rate at which problems are addressed upstream, we agreed to propose this solution to the Flock staff.
-** happy with sched.org, it's cheap (but we should doc our process so we don't get TZ issues and similar)
-** Only admins could update any talk info -- might be a permission issue (ability to edit some extra information like URL or materials or co-speakers)
-** link to video in schedule later
-* Information
+=== Summary ===
-** Takes way too long to make simple change in content (locating where to do it, then waiting for admin page to load)
-* Resources
+{|
-** Luke has to jump in each year to fix it
+!! Use !! System
-** Everyone having problems with WordPress on OpenShift
+|-
+| General content for users to read (pre-conference) || fedora-web module
+|-
+| Registration, CfP, voting on papers || regcfp
+|-
+| Content for event (at conference) || Sched.org
+|}
-* Website
+=== Content ===
-** Wordpress site backend/admin panel horrifically slow (we don't know why)
-** Wordpress backend/admin panel hard to navigate
-** Difficult to theme, so we don't update it
-** Archives of older flock info (eg videos, etc)
-** A way to pull curated photos or tweets into a semi-live feed
-** A way to tie volunteer content like photos, etc. to a badge
-* Other:
+Content consists of information and messaging for the general public. This is how we advertise dates, venue, transportation information, travel tips, and calls to action.
-** Need proper HTTPS certificates
-** Bid voting
-** Ability to upload slides?
-** Ability to later add a URL to video, e.g. Fedora YouTube channel
-** Transcriptions of talks -- need a place to post them
-Ground Rules:
+;Static site
-* Yes, can put in a new application
+:Use a static site, managed with the fedora-web git repo similar to all other main Fedora websites, to post general information for the public about Flock. It will still reside at https://flocktofedora.org.
-* Do not have to require that it runs on Fedora infrastructure (requires too much packaging resources to do so not ideal)
+:Request help from Design team (Ryan Lerch), hopefully building on a well known theme or model to bring into line with Fedora branding
-* Something to run on openshift would be fantastic, we have access to that, we can scale access, can host a wide variety of frameworks/sw types
+:Here is the [https://git.fedorahosted.org/cgit/fedora-web.git git repo] and a direct link to the [https://git.fedorahosted.org/cgit/fedora-web.git/tree/flocktofedora.org folder in the tree].
-* Turn key / commercial solutions can be considered but we really want something open source and we know open source ones exist so we'd really prefer that
-** If it's not on a framework or language where we have skills, then it needs to be more turnkey
+;Sched.org
+:Use sched.org for schedule arrangement, publishing, web + mobile access for attendees
+:(unchanged from Flock 2015)
-Potential solutions:
+=== User activities ===
-;Zookeepr - http://zookeepr.org -- Ryan
+User activities are the actions we ask for users to take ahead of the conference to provide data for the organizers.
-*Developed/used by LCA
-*Appears to be python
-*review / voting system
-*could talk to Donna Benjamin about it? (LCA organizer)
-;OpenConferenceWare: http://openconferenceware.org/
-*Fully FOSS (Rails engine, ruby >= 1.9.3) (can't customize it too much, higher bar)
-*Used for Open Source Bridge
-;SCaLE Reg: https://code.google.com/p/scalereg/ (?)
-*Django app
-*Poor/nonexistent documentation
-*Appears to be registration only (not full featured web app)
-;Open Source Event Manager (OSEM): https://github.com/openSUSE/osem -- Mo
-*Ruby app (so we can't customize it too much, higher bar)
-*Used by openSUSE, GNOME, ownCloud; actively developed
-*openid support
-;Wordpress + Plugins -- Paul
-*https://wordpress.org/plugins/evenium/
-** Disappointing -- this is mainly a front end for Evenium.net SaaS (non-free) :-(
-*https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/conference
-** https://wordpress.org/plugins/cr3ativ-conference/
-*** Only a rudimentary framework for a few content types (categories, sessions, speakers)
-*** No display functionality, reporting, registration, or venue definition -- would require a LOT of PHP coding
-** http://eventespresso.com/
-*** For a single-event model; no multiple room support, no calendar or event check-in with free version
-*** Oriented around pay ticketing/registration functions
-;Frab: http://frab.github.io/frab/ -- Jon
-*ruby implementation of PentaBarf
-*used for frosscon
-;VCC
-*used for LinuxTag, but has a lot of things Flock wouldn't need
-*https://vcc.linuxtag.org/
-;ConfLab: https://github.com/rh-lab-q/conflab
-*no registration at DevConf? is that a function?
-*may not be ready for prime time
-;sched.org + eventbrite + glue (custom code - foss) (moved down bc not foss)
-;Drupal COD (Conference Organizing Distribution): http://usecod.com/ (moved down bc drupal is painful)
-*Code at https://www.drupal.org/project/cod
-*Used by LFNW, Drupal groups, other
-*Paul has previous experience, was difficult to set up (drupal 6 COD not 7)
-;OpenConf: http://www.openconf.com/editions/ (moved down bc academic)
-*Open core?
-*More aimed at paper-driven conferences (academic)
-;Open Conference Systems: http://pkp.sfu.ca/ocs/ (moved down bc academic)
-*Fully FOSS (LAM/PHP)
-*Aimed at paper-driven conferences (academic)
-;PentaBarf: http://pentabarf.org/Pentabarf  (moved down bc people are migrating away from)
-*written in Perl so many events have dropped it
-*python implementation called frab
-;Bedrock - Mozilla engine, Foss, https://github.com/mozilla/bedrock/
-* Installing locally: http://bedrock.readthedocs.org/en/latest/install.html
-* https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contribute/events/
-* https://reps.mozilla.org/events/#/period/future/
-* the base heart of the listing is: Opennews - https://source.opennews.org/en-US/articles/tags/events/
-* Also perhaps you find it useful: http://schema.org/ - Schema.org is a collaborative, community activity with a mission to create, maintain, and promote schemas for structured data on the Internet, on web pages, in email messages, and beyond.
-;Hackdash -  Web platform that brings people and ideas together and allows anyone to know the state of each project.
-* When working on collaborative projects, it s always hard to * know what the other team members are doing. Later on, it becomes hard to remember who worked on what, where the data were used and where the prototype was.
-* Website: https://ijnet.org/en/blog/hackdash-free-platform-organizing-collaborative-projects
-* Visualization extra - D3.js: http://datadrivenjournalism.net/resources/data_driven_documents_defined
-Next Steps
-*communicate via flock-planning list
-*set up ethercalc for evaluation
-*set up test systems to play with
+;regcfp
+:Use [https://github.com/puiterwijk/GUADEC-regcfp regcfp application] for registration, desk, call for papers activity, and paper voting/acceptance. <strike>'''TODO: File RfR ticket with fedora-infrastructure, likely for Patrick to handle.'''</strike> DONE - to be available at https://register.flocktofedora.org
+:Visual elements will reflect Fedora branding.
+:The software team will create an administration and maintenance document on wiki for Flock planners using the system.
+:<strike>'''TBD: Generalize an ansible playbook so this app can be used for other Fedora events if desired.'''</strike> - IN PROGRESS - Patrick handling
+:Users will visit via https://register.flocktofedora.org URL.
+:The software team will monitor incoming issues and prioritize based on the Flock planning team's needs.
 [[Category:Flock]]
+[[Category:Flock 2016]]

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