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Article miniseries (Dev Blog)

(1)

As an eco-conscious web developer fed up with a planet-burning industry,

I want to understand how we approach ecological web design,

So that I can apply it to my own practice and/or join ecobytes.

(2)

As a community organizer in a non-commercial/anarchist/eco farm,

I want to maintain an accessible web-site and potentially more internet-based tools — independent of google&co,

But I don't know how, and it's hard for me to know where to start and what to expect.

(3)

As a bourgeois Degrowth enthusiast from France living in Bulgaria (unlike Flupsi),

I'm enthusiastically using Google Docs for everything (like Flupsi),

But a success story around decentralized, common software would inspire me to get in touch with ecobytes.

(4)

As an ecobytes member happily using a Drupal instance for many decades,

I need to know whether anything is happening or if the association is hibernating,

So that I don't ever, ever need to switch to another server provider.

(5)

As a black-hat commons militia,

We want to connect with fellow infrastructure activists

In order to unleash our army of irreverent PIs.

(6)

As an esthetically-minded climate lobbyist,

I am looking for the lates in ecological home page design

So that I can tell my colleagues about that forward-looking one-stop shop called ecobytes.

(7)

As a freelance gitHub developer just discovering the the horrendous externalities that for-profit corporations cause,

I want to find an easy-to-understand, in-depth, up-to-date, well-researched, and practice-minded article about FOSS licenses

So that I can make sure my code won't ever be used for profit.

(8)

As a developer working on the overhaul of ecobytes.net,

I need high-quality, relevant, typical content

So that I can finalize the feature-set and design requirements.

(9)

As a web designer with writing skills, being a member of the ecobytes association,

I would love to know how to contribute

In order to support the association and its cause.

(10)

As a research-minded infrastructure specialist,

I am looking for a budding community that shares my lofty eco-ideals

And envisaging hacking together, caring for each other, and enjoying our delightful co-presence in the world.

—

Each Article...

  • Is 1-3 pages long
  • Links, in a well-balanced way, relevant information
    • All links are descriptive. If links need preamble, an interstitial or aside provides it.
  • Uses, in a well-balanced way,
    • the main column for one narrative flow and topical sub-heading
    • the rubric column for thematic and indexical sub-headings
    • the marginal column for asides (sidenotes, branching, and hyper-content)
  • The writing is accessible, actionable and well-written

Editorial Guide

  • The first few articles have provided the necessary experience to formulate an editorial guide
    • If there are steps defined in the editorial workflow, these steps have been taken, in order.

Review — Publication — Evaluation

  • Each article has gone through a review with at least one peer and one non-involved target reader
  • Each article provides an actionable and accessible path for feedback from any prospective reader
  • After the publication, the article is promoted on all channels where that seems beneficial
  • 2-4 weeks after the publication, the performance of the article is measured in an evaluation session with the author and Flupsi:
    • What was the feedback?
    • Evaluation according to one or more quadrants model(s)
    • Meta-evaluation and adaptation of the evaluation process
  • Feedback from readers, author and evaluator is archived as non-public metadata on the article item in directus
  • In case the author publishes a significant edit later, we can do another evaluation

—

Our Scope

  • self-dogfooding ("what for?")

As we develop the site, we generate and publish content, which in turn informs our development and editorial processes and targets -> use case (8)

  • self-descriptive ("how?")

Writing on the page about the page communicates the purpose of the page in a show-don't-tell way — both for external readers and for future-us (the developers in 6 months when the code we are writing now will inevitable look obscure to us)

  • self-deployed ("with whom?")

The context of our miniseries is a quest to explore today's viable possibilities of a content-driven website outside of the dominant silo-style publishers. We are exploring and adopting fellow foss projects and workflows. This reflects and leverages ecobytes' trajectory towards a hub of decentralized, independent, libre (?) infrastructure.

In turn, these three decisions already outline the full scope of the articles we want to publish. We write about —how—with whom—what for— we make the website. No more, no less. The content is already there, and growing. It only needs to be mapped into a series of accessible and actionable articles.

Where to go from here: maturing into a community.

Progressively, we are inviting more members and comrades into the process. Perhaps ecobytes.net will become a fruiful platform for fellow developers to publish about their journeys? Or a Wunderkammer of gems for prospective selfhosters? The key in any case will be to keep our scope within the resources we have, to continue on the actual trajectory, and to increasingly embrace feedback, critique, support and intervention from a growing pool of co-authors and co-developers.

Edited by Flupsi