LI Web content

[Atul Chitnis <achitnis@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The process of moving the site to a server with MySQL and PHP3 has already
started. Bangalore guys will remember some discussion on it.

While I was able to find a team of people who have solid experience with
site building using PHP3 and MySQL, I have yet to come across anyone in
our lists professing any *expertise* in Zope. And we are definitely
looking for *expertise* here, not casual dabbling.

The framework exists (at least in design), but I do not want this to be
another "here today, gone tomorrow" project. 

Some of you may question the "I" in the line above. This project holds
meaning if and only if it will be a sustained effort, and people here
commit to it. The current site died because eventually it became *my* job
to maintain it - something I cannot do because I have no webmaster
experience. I can contribute content, but have neither the skills nor the 
tools to act as webmaster.

There are two kinds of people who need to commit here - web designers who
will create the site design and maintain it (we already have these
commitments) and content providers who put meat on the skeleton. The
latter is a rare animal, because many people tend to make promises, but
fail to keep them eventually. This could result in content provision by
only a small handful of people (possibly even just one person) which
totally defeats the purpose of the project.

The greatest source of content will be LIH, which means that what one
should really focus on now is the identification of past, present and
future useful messages, tag them, categorize them, keyword them, and get
them ready for listing on the new site. This is a mammoth job that has
become even more difficult because of the delay in recognising the need
for this, but needs to be done.

The creation of the new site does not take the pressure off other urgent
LI matters that have been pending for long (concerned people will know
what I am talking about) - instead it should be *part* of the process.

Atul