The document summarizes a staff meeting at Transition Network to discuss updating their web service. It provides background on the history and growth of the web service. It then likens the current web service to an old apple tree that needs pruning to update outdated platforms and software. Ideas for pruning include focusing content around Transition Network's core roles and strategic vision, and developing a clear information architecture and support framework based on Transition principles. A tentative timeline is proposed to redesign the web service in phases over the next year through staff collaboration and stakeholder input.

1. Transition Network web service update 13/11/13

2. Transition Network web service
Staff ‘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

3. Transition Network web service
Staff ‘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

4. 2007
Transition Network web service history
• Wiki
2009
• 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, strategy
2011
• Gradual complicated-ification of site and products with ongoing releases
•Nominet and Project Sharing Engine project £35,000
2012
• Ed and Laura job share 11-12
• PSE and project form issues
• Bit of a hiatus really
2013
• 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

5. Transition Network board approved plan 2009
Transition Network web service history

6. ‘Ttechs’ – Transition Technologists circa 2009

7. Transition Network crack squad: testing: January 2010

9. Transition Network web service
Staff ‘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

11. 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 media
and newsletters. There is process for projects and core services to promote themselves
too, now, and we will continue to show everyone how to access promotion channels.

12. 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

13. Transition Projects registered in Projects Directory: March 11 – October 13
March 2011: 112. October 2013: 1,140

14. Transition Initiatives registered in Initiatives Directory: March 11 – October 13
March 2011: 715. October 2013: 1,140

15. Maintenance: ongoing project management
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

16. Puffin: LIVE
Penguin: ADMIN
Parrot: PROJECTS ETC.
TN.org
News.TN.org
Transition Research Network
patterns site
Space: collaboration
Wikis
Static: store
TRAC: tech ticketing
Web stats:
Piwik: users etc.
Webalizer: all traffic
Munin: performance
Reconomy
Earthinheritors
Intransitionmovie
TransitionTownTotnes
Transitionstreets
4GB + 4GB RAM
£1,136
(also: back ups: £290)
2GB + 1GB RAM
£644
1GB + 2GB RAM
£520
https://tech.transitionnetwork.org/trac

17. 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 +0100
Subject: puffin.transitionnetwork.orgMunin Alert
transitionnetwork.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

18. Transition Network web service
Staff ‘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

19. 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

20. Transition Network web service
Staff ‘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

21. … 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?

22. 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

23. 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

24. Mapping TN’s roles to the web service’s high level components
Roles/Web Elements
Editorial
Transition DNA
International Development
Support
X
X
X
Secretariat to International
hubs
UK National Hub
Relationship
management
X
X
X
X
This gives us a sense of the basic elements – from which we can roll different things out over time…

25. 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

26. Transition Initiative: Information Architecture
Base
Health
check
Extended?
TI
Research/
M&E
Relationship
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 (??)

27. When, what, roughly?
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 Engine
Edit exiting site to make it relevant and useful now – particularly support
Budget preparation and funding blurb writing for 2014
International Initiative Registration Service (IIRS) build
Core comms concepts: Transition DNA/story
Winter
(Jan-Mar 2014)
Site users’ survey
Edit exiting site to make it relevant and useful now – particularly support
International Initiative Registration Service (IIRS) trial: Portugal
Information architecture: Tis, People, Projects
Support framework design
Relationship ‘deal’ agreed (Tis’ status, engagement model)
Migration planning: rigorous and disciplined packing
Secure budget for development
TNv3 site development incremental roadmap
Spring
(Apr-June 2014)
Start TNv3 site build
TNv3 site migration
Summer
(July-Sept 2014)
…

28. Transition Network web service
Staff ‘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

32. Key questions for us all
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
How to collaborate and on what and who and when: Staff agreement on how to collaborate
Transition DNA/story/building blocks: Strategic TN
Relationship/Engagement/'Membership' model: Strategic TN
Information Architecture: Strategic TN
Support framework design: TN support
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?)