WeMenu

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== Install By Default? ==

Although the most powerful case is one where the WeMenu is included by default and installed on the standard Unity desktop, it could also be an optional item available from the Ubuntu Software Centre in 11.04, to allow us more time to add functionality and polish, without the immediate spotlight.

"Inspired by its big brother, the MeMenu. Designed with the community in mind."

Short Summary

Create a WeMenu. Make it prominent. Connect it to the Ubuntu community. Over time, expand it to include additional social connections: family, friends, neighbourhood, city...

Introduction

The WeMenu is the focal point for community on the Ubuntu desktop. It is a highly visible place containing persons and groups that are central to the Ubuntu experience and ethos of "Our Shared Humanity". It is outward looking, but human centric. It focuses our attention on people, beginning with those closest to us.

Original design and specification: RandallRoss
This specification is incomplete. Want to help?
Your feedback is welcome at WeMenu/Comments.

Disclaimer

None of this specification is currently implemented. No code has been written. This is purely a proposal for discussion and refinement. UDS-N may be our opportunity to begin working on parts (or all) of this.

Rationale

The modern computer desktop lacks a focus on community. As a result users are swept away into an endless sea of of data, trivia, and distractive content from the instant their computer is connected to the net. One might argue that the net has become a solvent for true community, flooding us instead with loose affiliations and data smog.

I've seen this first hand. Perhaps you have too. Walk into any major public library and observe what most users of public computers are doing. Facebook, YouTube, Farmville, some free web mail, and maybe a few other "amusements". Is this the net sum of all the work that we've done to build the internet and associated infrastructure?

Ubuntu is a human-centric project and system. Its desktop should provide a richer experience than that offered by the competition. It should endeavor to strengthen the ties between a user, her family, her close friends, and her true community. Ubuntu's desktop should not only be an expression of self ("Me"), but also an expression of our connectedness and our humanity ("We"). It should allow us to find and connect easily with others nearby in meaningful and sustainable ways. Ubuntu should help ensure that local community flourishes.

Enough philosophy. Here's the detail:

The appearance and title of the menu should be an easily recognizable icon representing the community (the Ubuntu fish bowl is ideally suited for this) followed by your location, in my case, Vancouver. (By default your location will be the one you've specified when setting up your computer, usually your own city/town.) The advantage to including the logic that ties in location is that if you're traveling, or move, some WeMenu items can automagically adapt once you have reset your location.

The menu placement is specified to be prominent, ideally right beside the MeMenu as that is the place on the Ubuntu desktop where users are likely to be looking with regularity. Other items on the panel can shift to the left to give the WeMenu screen real-estate.

panel_placement.JPG

Install By Default?

Although the most powerful case is one where the WeMenu is included by default and installed on the standard Unity desktop, it could also be an optional item available from the Ubuntu Software Centre in 11.04, to allow us more time to add functionality and polish, without the immediate spotlight.

The menu items are ordered (top to bottom) from "strongest ties" to "weakest ties". This order promotes local focus and directs our users' attention to those people and groups most important (and nearest).

Each menu item expands (magnifies) outward when highlighted and can (optionally) be torn off in an expanded view when clicked and dragged.

we_menu.JPG

(Yes, the graphic quality sucks. I'll make a better one, unless you want to. Tell me in the comments.)

Ubuntu Local Community

This item represents the people in your city/town/village that are part of the Ubuntu community. This is considered the strongest tie within the context of the WeMenu as everything that powers the Ubuntu desktop (design, processes, code, translations, art, etc) originates from Ubuntu community. It is a place to meet other Ubuntu users, developers, or simply to get community assistance locally.

The top-most position of this item also reflects the importance of Ubuntu Community in the ongoing health of the Ubuntu project. If there exists a prominent entry point (on-ramp) for every Ubuntu user on the desktop and in plain view that makes them notice a way to "enter" the project, there will potentially be more much more involvement (hence, a magnifying effect). Attention is scarce, and becoming more so.

Because of this, the "Ubuntu Community" item should also be the first item that we develop/implement. Other menu items can be worked on in upcoming releases if necessary.

ubuntu_local_community_item.JPG

(Yes, the graphic quality sucks. I'll make a better prototype once this gets hashed out a bit more.)

Family

Your relatives. They are nearest to your heart.

Friends

Those people that you enjoy associating with.

Neighborhood

People that live near you, usually within a short walk or bike ride. (i.e. A few city blocks.)

City (or Town)

People that live a little farther away, but still within your city/town limits.

Other

People that aren't necessarily near you, but that you still associate with.

UI Considerations

How Do Items Expand?

A highlighted menu items should expand/magnify to a window that shows avatars or icons that represent the components of the item. These components should sort geographically from nearest to farthest.

item_expansion.JPG

(Yes, the graphic quality sucks. I'll make a better one soon.)

Possibly Useful Technologies

These are projects that have useful ideas or code to potentially use as building blocks. Some of these are futures.

LoCo Directory

Power parts of the "Ubuntu Local Community" item from the LoCo directory. Possibly an RSS feed that gets parsed and presented to the user when they hover over an item in the "Ubuntu Local Community".

Folks

libfolks is a library that aggregates people from multiple sources (eg, Telepathy connection managers and eventually evolution data server, Facebook, etc.) to create metacontacts. http://telepathy.freedesktop.org/wiki/Folks/Roadmap

Sugar "Mesh View"

The user interface present in (OLPC's) Sugar has a notion of "zooming" to relate four discrete views of nearby people. They are: Home, Groups, Neighborhood, and Activity. The interface permits zooming in and out on the mesh community. (Source: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Human_Interface_Guidelines/The_Laptop_Experience/Zoom_Metaphor) Neighborhood.jpg

Gwibber

Pull updates from people you follow into the respective WeMenu items.

"FreedomBox" (and similar concepts)

Projects like the FreedomBox and Diaspora are working towards liberating one's social data from Facebook and similar proprietary services. We should support this idea and ensure that we build interfaces to free social networking projects. Items in the WeMenu should have the ability to interface with open social applications.

Ubuntu One and/or UEC

With the liberation of personal data there is a natural requirement to host one's personal data somewhere. Ubuntu One is a natural fit. UEC may be a useful way to not only host the data but also the server instance. (Diaspora calls it a "seed")

Avahi

Useful for pre-populating the Neighbourhood item.

Geolocation

Useful for sorting (expanded) items from nearest to farthest.

WeMenu (last edited 2011-07-19 03:07:52 by randall)