A Swiss Ubuntu Linux portal

Remarks by dsto, January 14, 2010:

• please note, hosting has been offered by puzzle itc and the domain ubuntu.ch is available for us.
• there is a test installation of drupal with ubuntu themeing available. Note: Many Ubuntu sites are built on drupal and it is one of the preferred tools for community plumbing. I know of further Ubuntu related drupal sites operated by swiss moderators, so we should have enough skill available to bring the system up and running for the purposes as indicated below
• modules to integrate the site into launchpad are available. Official community sites are entitled to use the launchpad service. This reduces the efforts for user handling considerably
• I would like to pick up and and start implementation of some of the ideas below. In addition, I have started to gather Swiss customers references and would like to see a lot of additional reference information submissions ...

• there is storage enough to put some iso images and I would suggest to formally put the SwissRemix activities onto this site.

Now the hard part: Who is interested to join the work and build the new site? Two or three additional brains would be nice for a start, if one of them is fluent french writer, even better. Drupal knowledge would be cool, but what counts more is content and professional look & feel. If you'd like to know more, drop a note on the mailing list or send an email to dsto@stoni.ch.

What do to with the ubuntu.ch domain? I suggest setting up a portal with links to different ressources --TormodVolden

Please help with the /Draft. When it's ready, we'll make nice html out of it and put in up on www.ubuntu-ch.org and eventually www.ubuntu.ch

• SwissTeam. Leave all community activites here. Just mention on the portal, but "force" people to go to the wiki for actual information: local contacts persons for support and info, mailing lists, IRC etc

• Support ressources de/fr/it/en
• Swiss Linux sites:
• Ubuntu Marketplace for commercial support
• ubuntu the UN project/site for those looking for something completely different

Guidelines:

• Keep this portal minimal, with very little stuff to maintain: semi-static
• Do not compete with other sites which are more appropriate for content.
• Think about possible "use cases": people looking for information on "Ubuntu" in "Switzerland"

• Contents first, polish, then publish!

Hosting

• Maybe open/ch can host it for us, or ubuntu-eu. Meanwhile, we can prepare the contents on the wiki.
• stgraber manage servers and he proposed to host it.

Use Cases

• Marcel has heard about Ubuntu and types "www.ubuntu.ch" into his webbrowser in order to find out more about it. He sees a big "What is Ubuntu?"-link which leads him to a site with detailed, newbie-friendly information.

• Ursula has installed Ubuntu and is wondering, if there are other people using Ubuntu living near her. After googling for "ubuntu switzerland" she finds ubuntu.ch, where she learns about the SwissTeam and its activities.

• Andreas is interested in becoming more active in the community. He visits ubuntu.ch, where he sees the date of the next IRC meeting as well as an overview of the current activities.
• Jean lives in Geneva. When he visits ubuntu.ch, he is happy to see that it is available in French.
• Anne-Catherine has heard that Linux is only for geeks. When she visits ubuntu.ch, she is surprised by the clean design and the newbie-friendly descriptions and links, and after clicking a few links, she decides to give Ubuntu a chance, especially as she sees that there are a lot of people living near her who are willing to help her in case of any problems.
• Michele has used Ubuntu for a while and has also visited #ubuntu-ch a few times. When she visits ubuntu.ch, she sees that there are even more Free Software communities in Switzerland and she goes to the next meeting of her local LUG.

Note: While the use cases should be more or less realistic, the results people get when visiting ubuntu.ch are mostly based on my personal visions of the portal. -- ManuelSchmid

Other comments

If there are bloggers in the swiss team reporting on Ubuntu, Linux, team activities, ... . A central blog which would only publish certain topics from the swiss LoCo members blog could be a idea. Sort of Swiss Ubuntu blog post catcher. -- Peppy2

• - What's you descibes looks like a planet (like http://planet.ubuntu.com/). There's is a open source CMS to make planets http://www.planetplanet.org/ but it need python. -- ponsfrilus

It would be great to have a map to localize swiss ubunteros. Maybe there is a way to have this one included: http://www.ubuntu-fr.org/carte/ . -- ponsfrilus

A help center to redirect users to their "mother tongue speaking official communities" is also needed. -- ponsfrilus

I would also suggest short information on what is going on in the community at the moment, i.e. a "current activities" box and a box with the date of the next IRC meeting. Some kind of help how to access the IRC channel would be nice as well, but probably not on the frontpage. Also it is quite important imho to provide links to general information on Ubuntu/Linux, as not all visitors already know about Ubuntu. -- ManuelSchmid