Transition Network web service update 13/11/13

Transition Network web serviceStaff ‘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

Transition Network web serviceStaff ‘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 • Wiki2009 • 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, strategy2011• Gradual complicated-ification of site and products with ongoing releases• Nominet and Project Sharing Engine project £35,0002012• Ed and Laura job share 11-12• PSE and project form issues• Bit of a hiatus really2013 • 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 web service history

Transition Network web service history

Transition Network board approved plan 2009

‘Ttechs’ – Transition Technologists circa 2009

Transition Network crack squad: testing: January 2010

Transition Network web serviceStaff ‘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 mediaand newsletters. There is process for projects and core services to promote themselvestoo, 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

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

Maintenance: ongoing project management

Puffin: LIVE Penguin: ADMIN Parrot: PROJECTS ETC.

TN.orgNews.TN.org

Transition Research Network patterns siteSpace: collaborationWikisStatic: storeTRAC: tech ticketingWeb stats: Piwik: users etc.Webalizer: all trafficMunin: performance

ReconomyEarthinheritorsIntransitionmovieTransitionTownTotnesTransitionstreets

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 +0100Subject: puffin.transitionnetwork.org Munin Alerttransitionnetwork.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

Transition Network web serviceStaff ‘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

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

Transition Network web serviceStaff ‘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

… 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

Roles/Web Elements Editorial Support Relationship management

Transition DNA X

International Development X X

Secretariat to International hubs

X

UK National Hub X X X

Mapping TN’s roles to the web service’s high level components

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

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 (??)

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 EngineEdit exiting site to make it relevant and useful now – particularly support

Budget preparation and funding blurb writing for 2014International Initiative Registration Service (IIRS) build

Core comms concepts: Transition DNA/story

Winter(Jan-Mar 2014)

Site users’ surveyEdit exiting site to make it relevant and useful now – particularly support

International Initiative Registration Service (IIRS) trial: PortugalInformation architecture: Tis, People, Projects

Support framework designRelationship ‘deal’ agreed (Tis’ status, engagement model)

Migration planning: rigorous and disciplined packingSecure budget for development

TNv3 site development incremental roadmap

Spring(Apr-June 2014)

Start TNv3 site buildTNv3 site migration

Summer(July-Sept 2014)

…

When, what, roughly?

Transition Network web serviceStaff ‘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

1. How to collaborate and on what and who and when: Staff agreement on how to collaborate2. Transition DNA/story/building blocks: Strategic TN3. Relationship/Engagement/'Membership' model: Strategic TN4. Information Architecture: Strategic TN5. Support framework design: TN support6. 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?)

Key questions for us all