Transition network web service update 131113

Transition network web service update 131113
Transition Network web service update 13/11/13
Transition Network web service Staff ‘doing’ meeting 13/11/13 (will also be written up for board meet at end of November) Rough outline • History • Now • Why the web service is like an old apple tree that needs pruning • What that pruning might look like and how it is organisationally existential • Some key questions for us all
2007 Transition Network web service history • Wiki 2009 • Tudor Grant £50,000 • Review (Daniel Harris, Graham Mitchell, Gary Alexander) • Agreement to go with Drupal, use independent freelancers, be quite political 2010 • Build - start simple with directories • Newsletter and Transition Culture separate • No site editor or policy, support framework, comms building blocks, strategy 2011 • Gradual complicated-ification of site and products with ongoing releases •Nominet and Project Sharing Engine project £35,000 2012 • Ed and Laura job share 11-12 • PSE and project form issues • Bit of a hiatus really 2013 • Process back in order • IT move to new web servers and software • PSE final delivery • Transition Culture moves onto TN.org and drives major traffic • Load spikes, growing maintenance issues and cost, major software and hardware work • First PR work for book sales •Infographic as first go at explaining Transition simply and cross-culturally • Social media co-ordinated so suitable people can blog, tweet, Facebook • International Initiative Registration Service (IIRS) £7,000
Transition Network board approved plan 2009 Transition Network web service history
‘Ttechs’ – Transition Technologists circa 2009
Transition Network crack squad: testing: January 2010
Transition Network web service Staff ‘doing’ meeting 13/11/13 (will also be written up for board meet at end of November) Rough outline • History • Now •Why the web service is like an old apple tree that needs pruning • What that pruning might look like and how it is organisationally existential • Some key questions for us all
What do the users do? • • • • • • • • • • • • Homepage Transition Culture blog Initiatives Stories Support News Training People Projects About Nearby Ingredients NB. Top five are roughly correct, others are regular features. Ed and Rob (TN comms) promote Transition Culture and Stories in social media and newsletters. There is process for projects and core services to promote themselves too, now, and we will continue to show everyone how to access promotion channels.
Transition Network website visits May 2011 to October 2013 Generally steady and now seeing a significant upturn with the addition of Transition Culture http://tinyurl.com/TN-web-stats
Transition Projects registered in Projects Directory: March 11 – October 13 March 2011: 112. October 2013: 1,140
Transition Initiatives registered in Initiatives Directory: March 11 – October 13 March 2011: 715. October 2013: 1,140
Maintenance: ongoing project management TRAC ticketing system: Current ticket: •#615 •Move to GMap 6.x-2.x-dev as Google Maps API v2 is being shelved Longest ticket: •#555 •Load spikes causing the TN site to be stopped for 15 mins at a time •130 comments in thread Maintenance work budget: £1,027 per month •July 2013: 28.7 hours •August 3.4 hours •September: 38.34 hours •October: 33.57 hours https://tech.transitionnetwork.org/trac/wiki/TransitionMaintenance
Puffin: LIVE Penguin: ADMIN Parrot: PROJECTS ETC. TN.org News.TN.org Transition Research Network patterns site Space: collaboration Wikis Static: store TRAC: tech ticketing Web stats: Piwik: users etc. Webalizer: all traffic Munin: performance Reconomy Earthinheritors Intransitionmovie TransitionTownTotnes Transitionstreets 4GB + 4GB RAM £1,136 (also: back ups: £290) 2GB + 1GB RAM £644 1GB + 2GB RAM £520 https://tech.transitionnetwork.org/trac
What a load spike looks like “We had a massive load spike this evening, this is the Munin load graph: But this understates how big it was, this is the Munin email I got at the height of it: Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 23:02:03 +0100 Subject: puffin.transitionnetwork.orgMunin Alert transitionnetwork.org :: puffin.transitionnetwork.org :: Load average CRITICALs: load is 91.54 (outside range [:8]). This was high enough for the server to kill itself, see wiki:PuffinServer#LoadSpikes…” https://penguin.transitionnetwork.org/munin/transitionnetwork.org/puffin.transitionnetwork.org/load.html
A web service a bit like a cheerful old apple tree • Bountiful but unclear • Project and Initiative additions: plateau recognised • Primary Points on Contact in UK: 30% response • Constructive criticism: lack of overall site coherence • Site heavy; laden with old hacks and logic •Drupal 6 platform out of date • What sort of abundance are we seeking? • Big resource from years of creativity • Great potential now we know more, and are better at communicating • Not sure what type of apples we trying to graft
… looking at a pruning • Needs a core identity based on • Transition Network’s roles • Transition's strategic vision • Transition’s story to put it into context •‘web service elements’ • Needs a clear structure based on Transition’s • DNA • Engagement/relationship model •Transition Network’s support offer • Needs to be: • logical, coherent, pragmatic, useful, measureable , usable • can provide insights for all • Migration: what to migrate?
Identity: Transition Network’s four roles 1. Transition DNA: • Up to date description of Transition story- How, why, where, what 2. International Development • Support spread of Transition globally 3. Secretariat to international hubs • Support the emergence of the National Hubs group 4. UK National Hub • UK specific support
web service’s high level elements: web things at their most basic 1. Editorial • News • Blogs • Pages 2. Support • Materials in framework based on support offer • Core • Development/crisis • Thriving • Projects • Training • Resources 3. Relationship Management • Directories of Transition Initiatives, People, Projects, geared as.. • System to promote relations between • National/Regional hubs and Tis • TN and hubs • TN and TIs
Mapping TN’s roles to the web service’s high level components Roles/Web Elements Editorial Transition DNA International Development Support X X X Secretariat to International hubs UK National Hub Relationship management X X X X This gives us a sense of the basic elements – from which we can roll different things out over time…
web service structure: rooted in the DNA • Current structures • Themes (food, energy etc.) • Stages (in ingredients) • Location • Official/muller (Tis) • All sorts (Projects) • Speaker/facilitator/poc (people) • etc. •Needs a clear structure based on Transition’s • DNA • Engagement/relationship model • Transition Network’s support offer • Health check (?) • Needs to be: • logical, coherent, pragmatic, useful, measureable , usable • can provide insights for all • Interlinked with health check so it is Useful for Tis
Transition Initiative: Information Architecture Base Health check Extended? TI Research/ M&E Relationship Four layers of Information for a TI • Base • name, location, point of contact, www, status • Health check • diagnostic-based health check tool linked to Transition DNA • Relationship • Connection to network layer • Research/M&E • Reporting for movement-wide analysis • Extended • more information (??)
When, what, roughly? Activity/season Autumn (Oct-Dec 2013) Staff, board, key projects and stakeholders review big picture, concepts, rough timeline Pruning and tidying: remove Community Microsites, PSE widget, News Engine Edit exiting site to make it relevant and useful now – particularly support Budget preparation and funding blurb writing for 2014 International Initiative Registration Service (IIRS) build Core comms concepts: Transition DNA/story Winter (Jan-Mar 2014) Site users’ survey Edit exiting site to make it relevant and useful now – particularly support International Initiative Registration Service (IIRS) trial: Portugal Information architecture: Tis, People, Projects Support framework design Relationship ‘deal’ agreed (Tis’ status, engagement model) Migration planning: rigorous and disciplined packing Secure budget for development TNv3 site development incremental roadmap Spring (Apr-June 2014) Start TNv3 site build TNv3 site migration Summer (July-Sept 2014) …
Key questions for us all 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. How to collaborate and on what and who and when: Staff agreement on how to collaborate Transition DNA/story/building blocks: Strategic TN Relationship/Engagement/'Membership' model: Strategic TN Information Architecture: Strategic TN Support framework design: TN support Boundaries- What the TNv3 site offers and not • web service and politics: how political are our decisions? (e.g. hosting with Wordpress or independents? deep tie-ins with Facebook?)

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