[webteam] radical simplicity

[Sander Devrieze]

2008/5/24 Robert Martinez <mail at mray.de>:
<snip>
>> I don't disagree with you, but at the same time I don't see a good way
>> to get such people involved. It's pretty clear what developers can do to
>> contribute (join one of the projects and write some code), what system
>> admins can do (run a server), etc. It's not as clear to me what people
>> like designers, writers, and activists can do to get involved. There's a
>> need for documentation (that's how I got started, after all!) but I
>> think most of that is focused on particular projects. There's a need for
>> attractive websites and user-friendly software interfaces, but again
>> that's mostly focused on particular projects. What can they do at the
>> level of the Jabber community in general? I think we need to get clear
>> on this before we can figure out what the right tools are.
>>
>>
>
> In my eyes this is pretty clear. We are the ones to do the talking and
> showing here!
> We need to tell people about their freedom,

People are not interested in this

> We need to show how things in the xmpp world work,

People are not interested in this; it only should work and then
they'll be happy. Note that the definition of "work" is that of the
user of XMPP software; if he thinks it does not work because he can't
chat with people on a walled garden network, he is right.

> We need to let other people talk to even more people!

Probably, but this point is a bit vague to me.

IMO jabber.org should act like an umbrella to promote the XMPP brand:
* no documentation at all (client projects can do that better)
* few text
* lots of up to date screenshots of clients (not older than the latest release)
* lists of XMPP clients, XMPP compatible services, XMPP servers, XMPP libs,...
* links to XMPP projects
* an XMPP button programme (idea: XMPP projects and XMPP services can
put a button on their website that links to a page on jabber.org, this
page presents the user with basic information about interoperability
and it links to lists of compatible software and services)

So, the mission for jabber.org contributors would be easy:
* try to make the lists as complete as possible (the current list
lacks many software projects as not all projects have fanboys!)
* keep the database of screenshots filled with up-to-date screenshots
of all clients
* create minimal but high quality texts to sustain the goal (=promote
XMPP brand)

<snip>

> They want to focus on presenting THEIR features - not the benefit of xmpp in
> general.

THEIR features are the benefit of XMPP for end users ;-)

<snip>

-- 
Mvg, Sander Devrieze.