[seul-edu] Schoolforge ready for Prime Time?

["David M. Bucknell" <david@members.iteachnet.com>]

Dear Schoolforge Coalition Supporters,

I am hesitant to bring this up, but I think we should delay the coalition
announcement slightly. I would not bring this up, but as Doug wants to make an
announcement and have the site up by Sunday, I think I'd better speak up.

My point in what follows, is that the purpose of the coalition is to make our
efforts more effective and efficient. The _way_ we do things must represent
this. To be ready for Sunday, we will have to have three things ready: the
site, the mission statement and the announcement. These must be developed
together and agreed upon, at least in a loose consensus, because we will
effectively be signing them.

But we need a bit more time to do this right.

For example, as much as I _really_ appreciate and admire Bergo's efforts, I do
not think the site, as it stands, (and I know it is only a start, a work in
progress) appropriately represents the coalition. As I understood it, it was
meant to be a gateway to other sites, not to be a replacement for them. It
should not, therefore, have a "Resources" section at all, as resources _are_
what the coalition members are. In my thinking, the site should have only a
few things:

*A header (and logo)
*A mission statement
*An unordered, alphabetical list of links to coalition members' sites
*A footer, such as the one Paul Nelson has on the k12os site.

That's it. The functions in the present resource list should be carried out by
members' sites. _Nothing_ else should be on the schoolforge.net front page.
Everything should point people to coalition members' efforts.

This is my thought. The simple page _could_ be ready by Sunday, but we may
need time to discuss it and see other mockups.

Another thing we must work out, or at least approve, is the mission statement. 

And last, but not least, we should work on, or at least approve, the
announcement.

The site should embody our goal of complementing, not replacing each other's
efforts. If it doesn't do that yet, then it isn't ready.

These are my thoughts. I apologize for their lateness, but I feel strongly
enough about them to think they have to be raised.

I look forward to your replies.

David 

-- 
David M. Bucknell
http://members.iteachnet.org/~david
http://www.OpenSourceSchools.org
http://members.iteachnet.org/webzine/
Fax: (US) 775-244-0803