Structure v.0.1-5 (estimate)

["digitect" <digitect mindspring com>]

Ok, you guys are going to shoot me for this verbosity, but since discussion
on structure has waned a bit lately, I thought I'd toss in my list to date.
Below is basically an exhaustive collection of our statements up until now
along with my editorial comments at no extra charge. (Well, you do have to
read them. ;) Not trying to step on Joakim's forthcoming proposal, just
thought it would be helpful to revisit the content list in the meantime.

As I've droned before, my feelings are to aim the site at two main groups:
Users and the Developer Community...


______________________________________________________________________
USER - Assumes the user has a system with GNOME already installed and
properly maintained via distribution installation, a System Administrator or
a third party commercial delivery system such as HelixCode or Eazel. Or
perhaps a Windows user just wanting to know what Linux is and ended up here
because our art is cool. Probably not interested in joining the GNOME
community yet, just wants productivity from the desktop. Enough
educational/marketing material needs to exist here to enable the later
transition to contributor if desired.

* Introduction (What is GNOME?)
  - Intro Docs - A few important documents here like "What is a desktop?"
and "Is it like Windows?"
  - Screenshots
  - Bugs - I've found a bug, what do I do? (Great opportunity to expose the
developer side.)

* Headlines - Information and articles of general interest only. Things like
"Number of GNOME users increasing" and "Bob explains metathemeing."

* Help/UsrDocs
  - Quick start
  - GNOME users guide
  - Tutorials
  - Links
    . GNU
    . HelixCode/Easel/etc.
    . Themes
  - Published books

* Press/Marketing
  - Lecture circuit
  - Other appearances (Radio, TV, print)
  - Calendar

* Support - Here's where we fork into the Commercial v. do it yourself
(developer.gnome.org) argument and begin to present the user with the
benefits of rolling his own. (Leads naturally onto the Developer side.)

* (Download) - Shouldn't exist on the user side. Reasoning: Does GNOME
really want to distribute software for the average or newbie user? I doubt
that we will ever have the resources or desire to create a delivery system
as useful or efficient as the commercial companies for a typical user. Why
go to all the trouble? Although I believe that GNOME should always be
available from the GNOME site (!), I think we will do better explaining how
the basic desktop components work for the user here and point experienced
users to the Developer side to obtain specific rpms and src files for the
extended range of software. We need to focus on helping the user with the
core desktop (calculator, calendar, applets, etc.) and all of this stuff
will probably be installed for him already. Remember, he doesn't have root
access and isn't capable of compiling source anyway.


______________________________________________________________________
DEVELOPER COMMUNITY - Perhaps this is where our community really begins. Up
until this point, the user is interested in just getting GNOME to work and
finding out what it can do. But if he's impressed enough to dig deeper, and
perhaps tries a dual boot installation on his home computer, then he'll need
the support of the larger community. To me, that's entry level on the
developer side which then expands to the full depth.

* News (Developer)
  - Software update list
  - Gnotices
  - Project of the week

* Docs, Developer
  - Contribution - Philosophical stuff only, directs through to projects
(below)
  - White papers
  - FAQs
  - Mailing lists
  - Newsgroups/Threads?

* Contacts
  - Developers (Advogado-like?)
  - Mail contact
  - IRC

* Software map
  - Flexible listing by date, category, authors, etc.
  - CVS

* Bug management - perhaps attached to the software database?

* Projects/Communities
  - Components
  - GTK+
  - Glade
  - Pango
  - Gimp
  - Office
  - GDP
  - UI Hitsquad
  - Sound
  - Icons
  - Graphics
  - Advocacy
  - Testing
  - Translation

* Foundation stuff
  - charter
  - foundation meeting minutes
  - board members, with contact info
  - advisory board info
  - application form for membership