| 1 |
g2boojum |
1.1 |
GLEP: 30 |
| 2 |
|
|
Title: "Planet Gentoo" web log aggregator |
| 3 |
g2boojum |
1.4 |
Version: $Revision: 1.3 $ |
| 4 |
|
|
Last-Modified: $Date: 2004/11/10 16:15:34 $ |
| 5 |
g2boojum |
1.1 |
Author: Daniel Drake <dsd@gentoo.org> |
| 6 |
g2boojum |
1.4 |
Status: Final |
| 7 |
g2boojum |
1.1 |
Type: Standards Track |
| 8 |
|
|
Content-Type: text/x-rst |
| 9 |
|
|
Created: 24-Oct-2004 |
| 10 |
g2boojum |
1.4 |
Post-History: 25-Oct-2004, 10-Nov-2004, 11-Mar-2005 |
| 11 |
|
|
|
| 12 |
|
|
Status |
| 13 |
|
|
====== |
| 14 |
|
|
|
| 15 |
|
|
The new `Planet Gentoo`_ came online 10-Mar-2005, so this GLEP is now Final. |
| 16 |
|
|
|
| 17 |
|
|
.. _Planet Gentoo: http://planet.gentoo.org/ |
| 18 |
|
|
|
| 19 |
g2boojum |
1.1 |
|
| 20 |
|
|
Credits |
| 21 |
|
|
======= |
| 22 |
|
|
- `Stuart Herbert`_ for the original idea |
| 23 |
|
|
- `Alexander Plank`_ who also has put effort into promoting this |
| 24 |
|
|
|
| 25 |
|
|
Abstract |
| 26 |
|
|
======== |
| 27 |
|
|
|
| 28 |
|
|
This GLEP proposes the creation of "Planet Gentoo", a new section of the |
| 29 |
|
|
gentoo.org website. It would aggregate weblogs (commonly known as "blogs") |
| 30 |
|
|
written by contributing Gentoo developers onto this single page, available to |
| 31 |
|
|
the public. I will refer to this new website section as "the planet" in this |
| 32 |
|
|
GLEP. |
| 33 |
|
|
We would also provide an installation of a weblog engine for developers that |
| 34 |
|
|
do not currently have their own weblog. |
| 35 |
|
|
|
| 36 |
|
|
Motivation |
| 37 |
|
|
========== |
| 38 |
|
|
|
| 39 |
|
|
I'm trying to reduce the gap between the Gentoo user and development |
| 40 |
|
|
communities. |
| 41 |
|
|
|
| 42 |
|
|
Many large open source projects and software distributors have their own |
| 43 |
|
|
Planet where contributors weblogs are aggregated. See the `Planetplanet`_ |
| 44 |
|
|
homepage for a complete listing. These other aggregations appear to be |
| 45 |
|
|
successful and bring their relevant communities together. |
| 46 |
|
|
|
| 47 |
|
|
These aggregations are often quite interesting to read, since they contain a |
| 48 |
|
|
variation of topics, not all of which are related to the project. |
| 49 |
|
|
|
| 50 |
|
|
The planet would add another method of user interaction with developers, as |
| 51 |
|
|
most weblogs allow readers to post comments. |
| 52 |
|
|
|
| 53 |
|
|
Readers would get more interested in the Gentoo project, and would get a feel |
| 54 |
|
|
for the personalities of the contributing developers. Although I am not |
| 55 |
|
|
suggesting this should be used as an announcement tool, developers could also |
| 56 |
|
|
use this to get general messages over to the user community. |
| 57 |
|
|
|
| 58 |
g2boojum |
1.2 |
This would also benefit our development, as developers would also be able to |
| 59 |
|
|
keep track of what other developers are working on and promote more |
| 60 |
|
|
collaboration amongst each other. |
| 61 |
|
|
|
| 62 |
g2boojum |
1.1 |
Specification |
| 63 |
|
|
============= |
| 64 |
|
|
|
| 65 |
g2boojum |
1.2 |
The proposed design is an installation of `Planetplanet`_ at a part of the |
| 66 |
g2boojum |
1.1 |
gentoo.org infrastructure, e.g. http://planet.gentoo.org |
| 67 |
|
|
|
| 68 |
|
|
We would also provide an installation of `Wordpress`_ or a similar weblogging |
| 69 |
|
|
engine, for developers that do not have their own weblog or would wish to |
| 70 |
|
|
move their log to an official Gentoo hosted website. This could be provided |
| 71 |
|
|
at (e.g.) http://weblogs.gentoo.org |
| 72 |
|
|
|
| 73 |
|
|
Rationale |
| 74 |
|
|
========= |
| 75 |
|
|
|
| 76 |
|
|
`Planetplanet`_ is simply a weblog aggregator written in python. It is |
| 77 |
|
|
executed as a cronjob and fetches content from all the weblogs it has been |
| 78 |
|
|
asked to, postprocesses and aggregates them into a single html file (based on |
| 79 |
|
|
a template), and outputs that html content to an area provided by a webserver. |
| 80 |
|
|
This should allow for ease of integration with any existing infrastructure. |
| 81 |
|
|
|
| 82 |
g2boojum |
1.2 |
Planetplanet is configurable through a single configuration file, which lists |
| 83 |
|
|
the log feed URL, real name and user name for each contributing developer. |
| 84 |
|
|
|
| 85 |
|
|
`Wordpress`_ is a weblogging engine written in PHP. It relies on MySQL for |
| 86 |
|
|
the data store. After the initial setup, all configuration is done through a |
| 87 |
|
|
web-based interface. |
| 88 |
|
|
|
| 89 |
g2boojum |
1.1 |
A group of people would be assigned the responsibility/CVS access to maintain |
| 90 |
g2boojum |
1.2 |
these two services. I would suggest the existing infrastructure team to have |
| 91 |
|
|
this responsibility. If required, I will assist with the initial |
| 92 |
|
|
configuration. |
| 93 |
g2boojum |
1.1 |
|
| 94 |
|
|
The planetplanet installation would fetch and aggregate developers weblogs |
| 95 |
|
|
only, we would not accept non-developer logs. |
| 96 |
|
|
|
| 97 |
|
|
Developers do not have to host their weblogs with us, practically all blogging |
| 98 |
|
|
packages provide an XML feed (typically RSS) which planetplanet will happily |
| 99 |
|
|
fetch and process. Other feed formats are also accepted, examine the |
| 100 |
|
|
planetplanet documentation for more info. |
| 101 |
g2boojum |
1.2 |
In the event of a contributing Gentoo developer leaving the project, their log |
| 102 |
|
|
would be removed from the aggregation. If their log was hosted by ourselves, |
| 103 |
|
|
it would be closed. For this reason, some developers may choose to host their |
| 104 |
|
|
log elsewhere - this is not a problem and is left to the decision of the |
| 105 |
|
|
individual developers. |
| 106 |
|
|
|
| 107 |
|
|
It is true that the addition of the planet to our website collection would add |
| 108 |
|
|
yet another source of Gentoo information to our collection; our users and |
| 109 |
|
|
developers are already overwhelmed with IRC, mailing lists, forums, and the |
| 110 |
|
|
central website. In contrast, a lot of information is currently replicated |
| 111 |
|
|
over those mediums, but the planet would provide a taste of something new. |
| 112 |
|
|
Developers can choose their own topics and are free to write about things that |
| 113 |
|
|
perhaps would not fit into our existing communication mediums. Additionally, |
| 114 |
|
|
the planet will attempt to bring some existing content together by linking to |
| 115 |
|
|
recent commits, bug lists, and dev.gentoo.org webspace for each contributing |
| 116 |
|
|
developer. |
| 117 |
g2boojum |
1.1 |
|
| 118 |
|
|
It has been suggested that the activity of the planet may be an issue: |
| 119 |
|
|
although a lot of activity would make the planet very successful, it may look |
| 120 |
|
|
bad on us as a whole if the planet is inactive. |
| 121 |
|
|
|
| 122 |
|
|
`Alexander Plank`_ started a `gentoo-dev discussion`_ back in August regarding |
| 123 |
|
|
this exact idea. Alexander set up a `Planet Gentoo mini-survey`_ to see which |
| 124 |
|
|
developers have weblogs or would be interested in obtaining one to be |
| 125 |
|
|
aggregated on the planet. At the time of writing, the survey yielded a list |
| 126 |
|
|
of 21 interested developers. |
| 127 |
|
|
|
| 128 |
|
|
Looking at the other planets available, a contributor count like this would be |
| 129 |
|
|
more than enough to keep the planet active and interesting. Through my |
| 130 |
|
|
experiments of finding developers existing weblogs through google and |
| 131 |
|
|
aggregating them on my local Planetplanet installation, I have come to the |
| 132 |
|
|
conclusion that just a small quantity of active weblogs is enough to keep the |
| 133 |
|
|
planet going strongly. |
| 134 |
|
|
|
| 135 |
|
|
I also note that the list of 21 interested developers was built up over a |
| 136 |
|
|
short space of time, and it was only mentioned once in a rather large thread |
| 137 |
|
|
on the gentoo-dev mailing list. I predict that given more publicity amongst |
| 138 |
|
|
the developers, this idea would be even more popular. I also predict that if |
| 139 |
|
|
such a planet were to go live, other developers would be motivated to join in, |
| 140 |
|
|
and new developers joining the project would be keen on contributing. |
| 141 |
|
|
|
| 142 |
g2boojum |
1.2 |
The success of the planet will be evaluated by examining the number of hits to |
| 143 |
|
|
the planet. 3 months after launch, one weeks worth of logs will be recorded, |
| 144 |
|
|
and hits will be counted. If the hit count for that week is below 1000, the |
| 145 |
|
|
planet will be deemed as not having met its target, and appropriate action can |
| 146 |
|
|
be taken if the planet appears to be harming our image. |
| 147 |
|
|
|
| 148 |
g2boojum |
1.1 |
Backwards Compatibility |
| 149 |
|
|
======================= |
| 150 |
|
|
|
| 151 |
|
|
No issues. |
| 152 |
|
|
|
| 153 |
|
|
Reference Implementation |
| 154 |
|
|
======================== |
| 155 |
|
|
|
| 156 |
|
|
See `Bug 63160`_ for a template file mimicking the current gentoo.org design |
| 157 |
|
|
plus a sample config file. |
| 158 |
|
|
|
| 159 |
|
|
References |
| 160 |
|
|
========== |
| 161 |
|
|
|
| 162 |
|
|
.. _Stuart Herbert: stuart@gentoo.org |
| 163 |
|
|
|
| 164 |
|
|
.. _Alexander Plank: alexander@gentoo.org |
| 165 |
|
|
|
| 166 |
|
|
.. _Planetplanet: http://www.planetplanet.org |
| 167 |
|
|
|
| 168 |
|
|
.. _Wordpress: http://packages.gentoo.org/search/?sstring=wordpress |
| 169 |
|
|
|
| 170 |
|
|
.. _gentoo-dev discussion: http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.devel/20480 |
| 171 |
|
|
|
| 172 |
|
|
.. _Planet Gentoo mini-survey: http://penguincluster.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl/BlogInterest |
| 173 |
|
|
|
| 174 |
|
|
.. _Bug 63160: http://bugs.gentoo.org/63160 |
| 175 |
|
|
|
| 176 |
|
|
|
| 177 |
|
|
Copyright |
| 178 |
|
|
========= |
| 179 |
|
|
|
| 180 |
|
|
This document has been placed in the public domain. |
| 181 |
|
|
|
Parent Directory
| 
Revision Log