some thoughts on the OFBIZ.org site redesign

[Si Chen-2]

David, Tim, Mike, et al-

I'm really excited about the OFBIZ.org site redesign and think  
this'll be great for the project.  I just had a couple of thoughts  
about it:

1.  It should be more "visual" but not overly graphical or fancy with  
flash or images, etc.  I think open sourcers are looking for  
information, and something that looks overly commercial would not be  
right.

2.  We should play up more about the sites, products, and projects  
that use OFBiz.  It's really great how many major commercial sites,  
products, and open source projects use OFBiz, and that should give us  
more credibility.

3.  Above all, we should talk about what OFBiz stands for -- what are  
the core values or principles of the project, both technically and  
culturally, and why they are better for the developers and users of  
OFBiz.  I think people try open source because it's free, use it  
because it works for them, but then get passionate about it because  
they identify with its values and ideals, so it's really important  
than we communicate ours clearly.  For example, we just discussed the  
roles and responsibilities of our committers on the DEV list.  I  
think we should have information like that and then explain to  
newbies what that really means.  We should similarly discuss what the  
philosophy behind the framework and applications are and then explain  
why it's great.

Again, I'm very excited about the site redesign and the new logo and  
really appreciate your work on this.

Si

[Tim Ruppert]

Thanks so much for the kind words, Si - we were glad to be of service.

As for your comments on the website redesign, we couldn't be more in
agreement with what you laid out here.  Looking forward to getting the
discussion rolling.

Cheers,
Tim

--
Tim Ruppert
HotWax Media
http://www.hotwaxmedia.com

o:801.649.6594
f:801.649.6595



Si Chen wrote:

> David, Tim, Mike, et al-
>
> I'm really excited about the OFBIZ.org site redesign and think this'll
> be great for the project.  I just had a couple of thoughts about it:
>
> 1.  It should be more "visual" but not overly graphical or fancy with
> flash or images, etc.  I think open sourcers are looking for
> information, and something that looks overly commercial would not be
> right.
>
> 2.  We should play up more about the sites, products, and projects
> that use OFBiz.  It's really great how many major commercial sites,
> products, and open source projects use OFBiz, and that should give us
> more credibility.
>
> 3.  Above all, we should talk about what OFBiz stands for -- what are
> the core values or principles of the project, both technically and
> culturally, and why they are better for the developers and users of
> OFBiz.  I think people try open source because it's free, use it
> because it works for them, but then get passionate about it because
> they identify with its values and ideals, so it's really important
> than we communicate ours clearly.  For example, we just discussed the
> roles and responsibilities of our committers on the DEV list.  I think
> we should have information like that and then explain to newbies what
> that really means.  We should similarly discuss what the philosophy
> behind the framework and applications are and then explain why it's
> great.
>
> Again, I'm very excited about the site redesign and the new logo and
> really appreciate your work on this.
>
> Si

[Jacques Le Roux]

Very weel said, Si !

Jacques

> David, Tim, Mike, et al-
>
> I'm really excited about the OFBIZ.org site redesign and think  
> this'll be great for the project.  I just had a couple of thoughts  
> about it:
>
> 1.  It should be more "visual" but not overly graphical or fancy with  
> flash or images, etc.  I think open sourcers are looking for  
> information, and something that looks overly commercial would not be  
> right.
>
> 2.  We should play up more about the sites, products, and projects  
> that use OFBiz.  It's really great how many major commercial sites,  
> products, and open source projects use OFBiz, and that should give us  
> more credibility.
>
> 3.  Above all, we should talk about what OFBiz stands for -- what are  
> the core values or principles of the project, both technically and  
> culturally, and why they are better for the developers and users of  
> OFBiz.  I think people try open source because it's free, use it  
> because it works for them, but then get passionate about it because  
> they identify with its values and ideals, so it's really important  
> than we communicate ours clearly.  For example, we just discussed the  
> roles and responsibilities of our committers on the DEV list.  I  
> think we should have information like that and then explain to  
> newbies what that really means.  We should similarly discuss what the  
> philosophy behind the framework and applications are and then explain  
> why it's great.
>
> Again, I'm very excited about the site redesign and the new logo and  
> really appreciate your work on this.
>
> Si

[Ean Schuessler]

Si Chen wrote:

> David, Tim, Mike, et al-
>
> I'm really excited about the OFBIZ.org site redesign and think this'll
> be great for the project.  I just had a couple of thoughts about it:
>
> 1.  It should be more "visual" but not overly graphical or fancy with
> flash or images, etc.  I think open sourcers are looking for
> information, and something that looks overly commercial would not be
> right.
>
> 2.  We should play up more about the sites, products, and projects
> that use OFBiz.  It's really great how many major commercial sites,
> products, and open source projects use OFBiz, and that should give us
> more credibility.
>
> 3.  Above all, we should talk about what OFBiz stands for -- what are
> the core values or principles of the project, both technically and
> culturally, and why they are better for the developers and users of
> OFBiz.  I think people try open source because it's free, use it
> because it works for them, but then get passionate about it because
> they identify with its values and ideals, so it's really important
> than we communicate ours clearly.  For example, we just discussed the
> roles and responsibilities of our committers on the DEV list.  I think
> we should have information like that and then explain to newbies what
> that really means.  We should similarly discuss what the philosophy
> behind the framework and applications are and then explain why it's
> great.

I guess I missed the start of this project. We had some discussions here
at Brainfood both about the website and the look and feel of the OFBiz
back-end.

I think it would be very nice to steal some moves from the 37Signals
gang. What is the procedure for getting involved in this project?

Here are some cute OFBiz based web sites we've recently finished up:

http://www.junipermusic.com
http://checkmark.heart.org
http://www.parago.com

More are on the way!

[David E. Jones]

Ean Schuessler wrote:
> I guess I missed the start of this project. We had some discussions here
> at Brainfood both about the website and the look and feel of the OFBiz
> back-end.
>
> I think it would be very nice to steal some moves from the 37Signals
> gang. What is the procedure for getting involved in this project?

It may take a few days for this to pick up steam, but you can see ideas and plans and such on this wiki page (in addition to what goes through the mailing list of course):

http://docs.ofbiz.org/display/OFBIZ/OFBiz.org+New+Site+Plan

> Here are some cute OFBiz based web sites we've recently finished up:
>
> http://www.junipermusic.com
> http://checkmark.heart.org
> http://www.parago.com
>
> More are on the way!

Great, thanks for letting us know. The sites look very nice. I added in some links to these on ofbiz.org.

-David