Highlights

• This work is the beginning of phase 3 of TN.org
• Drupal 7 (still a bit early for 8)
• Requires a vision of how TN sees the international picture
• New roles and responsibilities for people outside tech/support/staff team - in other countries
• Opportunity - and decision point- to see this as a really international web project for different countries sharing services
• If we go down a federated route, we will be introducing a new technical and financial decision making body with national hubs
• Each language will require people to take responsibility for the roles
• We think that doing one language first is do-able for September

Immediate things to do

• Describe options and issues succinctly: Jim and Ed
• Get decision about strategic options from TN: Ed
• Explain TN's strategic goals for International project for options elucidation: Ed/TN
• Create working plan in excel: Ed
• Create working budget in excel: Ed

Money

• £7,000 set aside for this work
• £6,000 at £40 p/h is 18.75 days
• £250 for 1 day theming
• £750 for another developer to 'on ramp'
• Jim at £40 p/h
• Ben at £31.25 p/h

Dates

• First meet: 15/7
• Outline proposal to Ben for sharing with hubs: 19/7
• Outline documentation: week commencing 22/7
• Jim holiday: 24/7 - 28/7
• Second meet: 31/7 or 01/8
• Build begin: week commencing 5/8
• Option 2/3 decision point: mid-August
• Build to product before hub meet: August/September?
• Hubs meeting: mid-September

People

• Lead developer: Jim
• Design/theme: Ben?
• Learning developer/EC friendly: another

Jim availability and meeting days

• July: Monday and Friday
• August: Monday, Tuesday, Friday
• Monday or Tuesday meetings
• NB: Ed not work on Fridays
• NB: Jim will do occasional hours at evenings and weekends

IIRS walkthrough

Registration service for initiatives in local language:

1. Local language user and initiative registration functionality on TN.org
2. #1 as embeddable 'widget' functionality on National Hub website

Also discussed:

1. CRM features for 'National Hub Profile Administrator'?

Roles required per country

• Administrator

1. to provide user support and manage the service and data per country
2. exists currently as the 'National Hub profile administrator' - might be an extension of that role

• Translator

1. a dedicated service administrator per country to translate content that drupal doesn't do automatically

Issues

• Need clear boundaries around what is translated - e.g. having the main navigation in English (non-negotiable) will confuse
• Translating core functionality (user acct and initiative profile) vital - no point making them register user acct in English
• BIG question: Is this a small section of a UK hub site, or the beginning of a range of international sites sharing a service?

Options

1: Multi-lingual capable widget-friendly service on existing drupal 6 platform

• Will meet basic requirement in existing framework
• Most easily achievable but not future proofed
• Exists in current 'UK as centre' model
• No integration required (i.e. less backend work)
• Drupal 6 weak on international/translation/location
• Is extending a BIG website on a platform at the end of its life (Drupal 6)

2: Build new initiative feature in new Drupal 7 platform

• Will meet basic requirement on new framework
• Assumes existing 'model' - i.e. monolithic UK site is the centre, Int'l as subsections
• Starts from a clean base, but bringing the best of what we have already done.
• Integration required (ie. more backend work to port new platform back to old platform with existing directories)
• Could be some overlaps in language (e.g. between menus) and administration (e.g. country admin sends msg to other country initiative ppocs)
• Could well lead to an international landing page pointing to different country areas with related features

3: Build new initiative feature in new Drupal 7 platform with new 'distributed' international architecture

• Will meet basic requirement on new framework
• Assumes new 'distributed' model - i.e. de-centralised approach enabling separate country-specific features using a shared services platform - and UK is not the 'centre' site
• Assumes a view where hubs can and will take responsibility for their own inter-dependent country service which shares the core data and services but not necessarily any/all of the features
• Shares much of the earlier development work of option #2 - there will be a fork in the development path when we reach user administration
• Could well lead to an international landing page pointing to different country areas with related features
• Allows the Transition Network platform to be worked on by more interested parties.
• Gives a choice of hosted by TN or self-hosted whilst still keeping the network connected and synced.

First draft of tech tasks

• NB: this doesn't cover management time for meetings, documentation etc.
• Core stuff:
• New site - Panopoly and D7: 1 day
• Add initiatives and views: 1 day
• Rebuild widget in D7: 2 days
• Sync for 2 way services: 5 days
• New service theme: 2 days
• Editorial and other workflow: 1 day
• Import data into D7: 2 days
• User authentication/SSO: 2 days

• Internationalised stuff:
• 1nternationalisation and views work etc.: 3 days
• Build country home pages etc.: 1 day