Highlights of Tribune Interactive's first production deployment of Open Source technologies (Ruby on Rails, MySQL, Lucene, etc.) in support of the 2007 Metromix product re-launch.

1. ExtroVert Proof of Concept/Prototype
Last Updated 11/2/06
Intended Audience: Non-Technical

2. 2
Agenda
 History of the ExtroVert Proof of Concept/Prototype
 Obvious Questions
 Next Steps
11/2/06 - Ruby on Rails Pilot

3. 3
ExtroVert Proof of Concept Background
TI/Technology’s self-imposed challenges
 How far can we take a 100% open source solution in a short period of time?
 Can the organization adapt and evolve?
• Use of a packaged solution or a rapid-application-development framework
• Agile-like software development approach
Proof of concept goals
 Support preliminary ExtroVert technical design efforts
 Suitable for use in usability studies
• Polished look-and-feel
• Real data
 Select ExtroVert functionality
• 27 features in the areas of search, content management and utility
• Informed by snapshot of requirements as of 10/2/06
 Identify suitable external resources for upcoming CSS/DIV-based HTML layout efforts
Rules of engagement
 Small, focused, empowered team
• Manish Shah, Brian Durand, Evan Petrie, Kyle Crum
 Team encouraged to “think as a user” when confronted with ambiguities
• Select questions escalated to single contact: Tony Bagdy
• Answers to be provided within 1 hour
 Frequent (weekly) releases/product iterations
11/2/06 - Ruby on Rails Pilot

4. 4
The Result
 2 Prototypes
 Packaged open source solution - Drupal
 Custom solution w/open source framework -
Ruby on Rails
 ExtroVert Prototype
 Packaged solution forced many compromises
 Ruby on Rails, Ferret/Lucene, MySQL
 27 features
 3 FTEs
 1 month (10/2/06-10/31/06)
• Significant overtime
 Incremental Cost - $6K
 Manifest Digital - West-loop design firm
 Convert screenshots to CSS/DIV-based HTML
 Pilot effort to gauge suitability for GEN3 work
 Positive impact on TI – Almost Priceless
 Renewed team energy
 Proof of Agile-like concepts presented to the ISC
Front-end Functionality
 Restaurant/Bars-Clubs search – Search restaurants and bars/clubs using search box
 Restaurant/Bars-Clubs facets - Search restaurants and bars/clubs using facets
 Restaurant/Bars-Clubs home page – Home page for restaurants and bars/clubs
 Restaurant/Bars-Clubs view item – View a Restaurant or Bar/Club
 Email content item – Email a Restaurant or Bar/Club
 RSS – Subscribe to RSS feeds (These are currently static lists)
 View more related items – View related items to content item currently being viewed
 What’s nearby? - Show other venues that are in proximity to the selected venue
 Mapping - Map the venue and near by venues
 Ability to rate a restaurant or bar/club gallery – View images
 Polls
 Tagging (user creation only)
 Neighborhood search term auto-complete
 View photo galleries
 Sort search results by Picks, Rating, Alpha
Content Management Functionality
 Bulk import of Metromix venue and event data
 Create/Update/Delete venues/events/articles/photo/polls/reviews/photo gallery
 Create/Update/Delete collection for features and utility rails
 Search content/quick search content
 Associate any content item to any content item
 Create user
 Change user password
 Create new collections
 Create/Update/Delete attributes
 Create/Update/Delete taxonomy
 Create/Update/Delete classifications
 Create/Update/Delete content types
 Create/Update/Delete geographic boundaries using geocodes
 Manage external sources/services
 Create/Update/Delete new sites/channels
 Multiple image croppings for new content
 My Tasks
11/2/06 - Ruby on Rails Pilot

5. Obvious Questions

6. 6
What is Ruby on Rails and why did you use it? Is it used by a lot of
organizations? I’ve never heard of it.
 Open source web application framework
 First released to public in July 2004
 Increases developer productivity by 4X-8X (vs Java only or other frameworks)
 Acceptance and adoption by developer community has been tremendous
 Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
• More than 15 “Rails-like” frameworks for other languages
 TI/Tech researched open source technologies for iLab in mid-2005
• Frameworks: Ruby on Rails, Django (both young frameworks)
• Languages: PHP, Python, Java/JSP
• Selected PHP for iLab, but retained Ruby on Rails on “watch” list
 Used by a variety of Web 2.0 companies – no “large” scale sites to date
 Basecamphq.com, odeo.com, 43things.com
 Enterprise use is still emerging – small CNET projects
 Latimes.com – Inpage RSS Reader, Travel(?)
 Provide insight into potential challenges for latimes.com’s Ruby on Rails Projects:
Inpage RSS reader and Travel (?)
11/2/06 - Ruby on Rails Pilot

7. 7
Can we use Ruby on Rails to launch ExtroVert early?
 Not recommended
 Only consider if willing to accept significant risk
 Product may to scale to support anticipated ExtroVert national traffic (testing still in progress)
 Productivity gains are real and significant, but long-term viability is questionable
 There are many languages and frameworks, likely that only 1-2 will dominate over the long-term
• Java – 25 frameworks
• Ruby – 4 frameworks
• PHP – 58 frameworks
• Python – 9 frameworks
 Criteria beyond “developer productivity” suggest frameworks other than Ruby on Rails may dominate
 Ultimately, too little information and too early in the space to attempt to predict a winner
 Use of Ruby on Rails for ExtroVert might prompt conversion to another solution in
18+ months
 General attempt to rationalize technology environment OR
 Difficulty locating resources/talent
11/2/06 - Ruby on Rails Pilot

8. 8
Why was this so much faster than the solutions originally
proposed for ExtroVert?
 Primary contributing factors
 50% tool selection
 50% development methodology
 Tool selection
 Use of an open source framework that improves productivity – Ruby on Rails
 Able to accept some risk with viability of framework since result was Proof of concept/prototype
 Risk was acceptable for a Proof of Concept with short “shelf life”
 Should be possible to recreate this – with slightly less productivity? – with similar tool
 Development methodology
 Adopted an “agile-like” approach
 Emphasis on action/people over process
 Should be possible to realize additional value after engaging an Agile coach
11/2/06 - Ruby on Rails Pilot

9. 9
Ruby on Rails & Other Open Source Elements – Too Good to Be True?
Why Ruby on Rails
 TI/Tech researched open source technologies for Innovation Lab in mid-2005
• Frameworks: Ruby on Rails, Django
• Languages: PHP, Python, Java/JSP
 Ruby on Rails favored by TI/Tech architect
• Significantly improves developer productivity
• Very promising framework, but still emerging and unproven in high-traffic scenarios
• Placed on a list of TI “watch” technologies
• ExtroVert POC goals provided opportunity for additional investigation
 Other Considerations
 LA’s technology architect (consultant) arrived at similar conclusion w/o influence from TI
 LA plans to use Ruby on Rails for conversations with TI
11/2/06 - Ruby on Rails Pilot

10. 10
Next Steps
 Complete scalability test - 11/28/06
 Refine proof of concept for usability tests – TBD w/Product Development
 Complete analysis of “best bet” web application framework for ExtroVert – 12/15
 Conversations with framework creators
 Feedback from Web 2.0
 Add’l industry research
 Integrate feedback from ongoing Open Networks conversations
11/2/06 - Ruby on Rails Pilot