Python.org Website Redesign OpenSpace - PyCon 2003

Kevin Altis would like to see a 10x increase in the Python user-base in the
next 2 years.

Promoting Python
   leverage evangelism
      (what are the tenets of evangelism)
   website is very high visibility
      - don't have phone number or press contact

I suggest that people interested in learning more about effective evangelism
watch and read what Guy Kawasaki has to say on the subject. All of his books
are quite readable, pretty short, and contain many amusing anecdotes. See
the link below for more info; the signal to noise ratio is very good. [ka]

  http://pythonology.org/pipermail/marketing-python/2003-March/001124.html

The main point about the website is that since we don't have traditional
marketing and PR dollars, nor do we have normal phone and email contacts for
people to get immediate answers about Python, the website needs to do that
work for us. The site is the face of Python to the rest of the world. [ka]

Who is the customer?
    people who don't use python today
    people who do use python today
        - information source
    lots of different types of customers
       identify use cases for groups of users

We need to establish metrics
   track usage
   to ensure modifications that are improvements

Adoption rate of python
   increase in traffic and new users of python

By establishing some metrics in the web site stats such as total unique IP
addresses, page views, and downloads per month, etc. we can see how our
"popularity" is growing. Metrics should also tell us whether some of the
"improvements" made to the site really did what we thought they would or
ended up having a negative impact on usage. That way we aren't just guessing
and modifying blindly. [ka]

Not focused on technical solutions
   identify problems
   identify customers
   how are people using website
   what is missing
   what are websites we like
      (similar customer bases)

At the Open Space, I didn't want to focus on the technical issues of
implementing the site, but that conversation is okay to carry on in parallel
here on the list. [ka]

Kevin is comfortable with the site redesign process

Product
   Mockups
   templates
      estimate work to estimate effort

Before implementing any actual changes, we should make templates and mockups
to get feedback before making the changes live. [ka]

Current implementation problems
   No database backend
I expect Aahz, Steve, Thomas, and other pydotorg maintainers to articulate
the current problems they have maintaining the site, time sinks, and ideas
for where we might make site maintenance easier and improve their lives. :)
[ka]

Make recommendations to current web maintainers and PSF members

Process
   establish a working group empowered to make changes to the website
   the website is owned by PSF

That's what this mailing list is about. [ka]

Problems
   ownership of domain
   clarifying process to change website
      get authority delegated from PSF to implement changes

Opportunities

Recommendations
   5-6 people
   balanced between management and implementation

Python.org Website Redesign OpenSpace - PyCon 2003

Organizer

Attendees

Notes

Meeting minutes