Reorganize the KDE ecosystem
Open, Needs TriagePublic

Description

Description

KDE ecosystem have to many web sites/tools/platforms options - can't see the forest for the trees. I think it is confusing for new users, normal and power, to find what they need. KDE website, forum, phabricator, bug reports, wiki, kde store, kde gitlab, kde applications sites, news, promotion... All together, seems inconsistent and disconnected. Do kde need all those platforms, what is redundant? What missing? General list of problems in current kde ecosystem :

  • unfamiliar ecosystem to the general public
  • unfamiliar ecosystem to power users and new contributors
  • to many different platforms
  • outdated information's
  • duplicity of information's
  • visual inconsistency
  • promotion/marketing is not good

What do we need to do to make this reality?

Kde work on all of those problems, but usually on partial solutions. I think kde need to make big reorganizations for all platforms, especially kde website. To solve this, kde should precisely define core structure:

  • which platforms are needed
  • how they are connected
  • how transition will be done from today state
  • needed resources for new ecosystems
  • who will work on what.

Those task need to be solved on two levels:

  • technical
  • community organization

How we know we succeeded

  • increase in the number of users/contributors/developers/donations
  • decrease of frequently asked questions from new users
  • more cooperation inside kde
  • more cooperation to outside kde (other FLOSS developers, institutions and sponsors)

Relevant links

I am willing to put work into this

  • Nate Graham (@ngraham) - submitting patches, writing documentation, managing/organizing/liaising between groups
  • @fabianr - improve and adjust the HIG
  • Neofytos Kolokotronis @neofytosk : mapping the community and projects, presenting in a user/newcomer-centric way
  • Lydia Pintscher (@lydia)

I am interested

crozbo created this task.Jun 9 2019, 11:02 PM
jrioux added a subscriber: jrioux.Jun 10 2019, 1:25 PM

I do believe that this requires immediate attention. I tend to end on forums of distributions (like many others) for kde related things because of the state it is currently in. Searchability and aggregation of information must be easy.

What do we need to do to make this a reality :
+ Define how and where links to a particular platform must be presented for an application, from the store, from the wiki (& more) and provide a guideline. (1)
+ Add an aggregation that provide developers and users an overview of the latest topics in forum/bug/(more) for a particular application and easy search for a particular topic before opening a topic or bug.

(1) This it to provide a way to easily get to help / information in a standard way (icon & naming) that you just click and get to the right place (instead of searching with google)
From an applitation, kde store, gitlab ... to forum, wiki, bug

Example :
application -> help menu -> Online -> Forum, wiki, source, bug
(not just bugs.kde.org, but something like bugs.kde.org/?application=appname)

ognarb added a subscriber: ognarb.Jun 10 2019, 1:59 PM
ognarb updated the task description. (Show Details)Jun 10 2019, 4:47 PM
ngraham updated the task description. (Show Details)Jun 10 2019, 6:30 PM
ngraham added a subscriber: ngraham.
crozbo added a comment.EditedJun 10 2019, 10:50 PM

I'm not familiar with internal kde organization and infrastructure. As normal kde user, for me it is hard to make any exact suggestion, I just saying my viewpoint and problems I encounter. Nevertheless, for me it is clear that this set of problems requires radical reorganization and that is scariest part. Some problems are solvable with partial solutions, but I think without clear picture of whole ecosystem it's hard to make correct decisions. My suggestions is to start from kde website, because it is starting point for every other platform. The website need to be integral part, not just links aggregator and pretty pictures. I don't know, do kde community have enough resources to solve those problems with clear strategy and vision. Someone (or small team) who know internal kde structure need to redesign and propose their core design in one document. The one person/small team need to work on this because if to many people work from start it is hard to have clear vision and it is easy wander off. Then when solution is presented, community can make suggestions.

+1 here :).
additional, phabricator is not very accessible to blind people what prevent them to dive in for help

From my point of view as someone who wants to get involved with the KDE community the situation around projects seems confusing in two areas.

  1. The communication channels seem to be the Forums, mailing lists, martix and irc.
  1. If you want to get involved or see what is being worked on there is Phabricator, Bugzilla and gitlab. I am not sure about the last one but saw some bugs being reported there.

There are just too many places to look. And as I scrolled through the Phabricator instance there doesnt seem to be many projects using it anyway.

It would help to either merge some of them or just make it more clear.

fabianr updated the task description. (Show Details)Jun 12 2019, 7:54 AM
fabianr added a subscriber: fabianr.
skadinna updated the task description. (Show Details)Jun 12 2019, 8:10 AM
skadinna added a subscriber: skadinna.
lydia updated the task description. (Show Details)Jun 15 2019, 7:22 AM

It's very unclear here was ecosystem means and what platform means. Do you mean the tooling used for development?

crozbo added a comment.EditedJun 19 2019, 12:38 PM

For me ecosystem means kde website, forum, wiki, communication platforms(irc, matrix, mailing lists), basically the whole surface exposed to community (including users, developers and general public). For platforms I mean, phabricator, gitlab, bugzilla, wikis, it doesn't matter is it for developers or for users/general public. So, platforms are parts of whole ecosystem, and ecosystem include connections/integrations between platforms.

lydia added a subscriber: lydia.Jul 19 2019, 10:33 AM

Can we frame this less as a task ("reorganize") and more focus on the goal ("more clarity"?) we want to achieve? How is the world going to be different once this is done? What story are we going to be able to tell?

Off the top of my head, here's a suggestion on rephrasing this one: "Improve documentation and presentation/communication of KDE's work and structure"

The change: It will make it easier for outsiders to understand how and who does what in our community and various projects.

The story: KDE is a complex community of various projects and teams. We want to make it more appealing to outsiders to find out how we do things and how and where they can get involved.

neofytosk updated the task description. (Show Details)Jul 21 2019, 3:51 PM
lydia added a comment.Aug 3 2019, 4:06 PM

Are you going to adapt the description based on the comments to get it ready for voting? Once done please move it to the ready for voting column.

lydia assigned this task to crozbo.Aug 3 2019, 4:09 PM
lydia updated the task description. (Show Details)Aug 3 2019, 4:17 PM

Here is a tool that may be useful with all the different components: https://github.com/cncf/landscapeapp

example

lydia added a comment.Aug 13 2019, 8:51 PM

Quick reminder that there are two days left before the voting starts. Please make any changes you still want to make soon and let's move it to the ready for voting column.

lydia renamed this task from Reorganize KDE ecosystem to Reorganize the KDE ecosystem.Aug 22 2019, 5:43 PM
ndavis updated the task description. (Show Details)Aug 22 2019, 11:20 PM
ndavis added a subscriber: ndavis.
lydia added a comment.Aug 24 2019, 3:39 PM

Vote invite were sent to everyone subscribed to the KDE community mailing list and everyone with a developer account. Any contributor who didn't receive one please subscribe to the mailing list to not miss future announcements and send me a quick email (lydia@kde.org) and I'll send you a vote invite.

[spam comment removed by sysadmin]

lydia added a comment.Sep 9 2019, 8:22 AM

Unfortunately this goal wasn't selected as part of this round. If there is a critical mass of people who still want to push it forward please do! If support like financing a sprint is needed please reach out to the board.