Groupware Specification
This will probably be insufficient, crude and constantly changing, but at least lets start somewhere!
The Idea
The idea is that small groups that need a website can sign onto our site, and create a new web presence simply and easily. This web presence will both integrate into our website as a whole, and be able to stand on it's own. The modules we provide for websites will be as wide as possible, and include, but not be limited to: video, audio, static content pages, calendering, news posting, rss feeds, collaborative authoring, forums, contact forms, access to a map api. The groups will be able to set up some level of basic permissions for their site.
Some group schemas can be set up automatically - for instance bands will probably want a pretty specific starting point.
Integration into our site
All hosted sites will have a public profile on our page, that can be sorted in a public directory (unless they chose to not be on this). Users of the site as a whole will be able to sign up for groups in this way. Each group will have the ability to submit some or all of their new content to a site-wide feed on our main home page. Each group will have their site visible, contained within our site, much as Myspace Music or Facebook embeds information into their site.
Custom web presence
As bigger groups generally want their own website design, it also needs to be possible to view all their information on it's own, looking to all intents and purposes like a separate site. They can have the option of including content off our main site, news feeds, events, etc, but they will be off by default. We will supply a set of themes customizable from the control panel, as well as allow groups in special cases the ability to upload their own phptemplate styles.
In this way, sites we host will get the best of both worlds. On one hand, they will have a common sign in with a whole load of other stuff, making it really easy to publicize their new group and the like. However groups that need a bit more can still have their own custom front end. Even experienced drupal users will have the advantage of being able to use a centrally maintained, all signing all dancing installation with loads of modules installed!
I'm visualizing this as replacing all the myspace and facebook functionality with a more group rather than people centered approach. Hopefully it'll also be much more flexible in letting people choose how they want their site set up.
Interface
I want the group page to be highly customisable, flexible and easy to use (yeah yeah). Here's how I'm thinking about it at the moment. The whole system will be control with panels to make it extra easy to control. There will be several default panels and layouts available. The group will have control over everything but the left hand column and the og tab menu (could be convinced otherwise on this)
Some examples of panels to be made available:
- Recent content lists
- Events
- News
- Blogs
- Gallery
- All email lists
- Calendar & mini calendar
- Some way of letting groups create menu blocks
- Custom content type with lots of node refs?
- Custom taxonomy?
There will be several "preset" panel layouts for different uses. Some of these can be:
- Band
- Promotor/events based
- News/blog based
- Full fledged group with everything
