Subject: [Revampers] Review of Revampted IETF Website Requested by 10 December 2017

From: Russ Housley <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 1 Dec 2017 09:47:46 -0500

Hello,

After further discussion of the revamped IETF website around IETF 100, I want to share three things:

1) the main points of feedback received recently from the IETF community and proposed actions to address them

2) an update on the current status of the revamped website’s development

3) an outline of the plan to move the revamped website to production

Details of each are below. 

Comments are encouraged. Please provide them by 10 December 2017. On 12 December 2017, I expect to provide an update to the IETF community with the plan to move the revamped website to production in the first few days of the new year.  The current target is 4 January 2018.

Sincerely,
  Russ

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www.ietf.org revamp update 2017-11

1) Feedback received from the IETF community around IETF 100

Several comments were generated after my note to [email-masked] and conversations around IETF 100.  Here are the main comments and possible actions to address them.

a) The information at https://beta.ietf.org/links is difficult to parse.
RESPONSE: Provide a vertical layout for displaying the items/links. This will be developed and shared with the community.

b) Make all the links on a meeting page immediately visible.
RESPONSE: Update the meeting page template so that  sub-items under the meeting headings are ‘expanded’ by default.

There were a few comments about the crispness of font display, vertical padding, and font sizes but it is not clear to what extent these are general issues or what action might be taken at this point to address them.

2) Current status of website development

a) There are three open tickets with Torchbox (the website developer). None affect the core function or usability of the website. Fixes for all of these are expected to be deployed this week or early next week. There may be one further item for development based on 1b) above that will implemented before the move to production.

b) Second-pass review of all content for the “top 100” pages has been completed. All pages are have been shared for review by the relevant “Content Review” groups. Requests for input have been sent for the handful of pages require further input (e.g. Topics of Interest), and some content is in the process of being updated by the relevant group (e.g. Tutorials by the EMO Directorate, sponsorship information by the IAOC Sponsorship Committee).

Further details are here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LCk9Fn2kdeJPNPg5z5yIDmHs8KM_HEKbDS4k2PVLNSo/edit?usp=sharing

c) URL continuity is an area of focus during the transition. In consultation with the AMS IT team, most redirects are expected to be implemented using the capabilities within Wagtail (the contenet management system we are using). Torchbox have provided a possible solution for processing these as a batch. There are few areas of note:

i) While the goal is to anticipate and implement measures for as many URLs that require continuity, the expectation is that there will be additional URLs that require addressing as the new site comes into use. The Secretariat is planning to pay extra attention to fixing these quickly in the week after the cut over to production.

ii) Due to the experience of previous IETF website transitions, there will likely be some URLs that end up resolving differently after the new website goes into production. For example, to maintain meeting proceedings in their current state, https://www.ietf.org/proceedings/74/ will resolve to (something like) https://www6.ietf.org/proceedings/74/

Specific plans for maintaining continuity for all the URLs specified the SOW, as well as others identified in the process of the website development, will be documented and, to the extent possible, readied before the move to production takes place. 

Further details will be available here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1m0gUvkJBc3f5QrIAEVDBP9FWRrjgWeB08wYLJApkpJc/edit?usp=sharing

3) Plan to move to production

We hope to move the revamped website to production on 4 January 2018. The rollout plan will be shared with the IETF Tools team on 5 December 2017, and then with the IAOC and IESG on 6 December 2017. The plan is then expected to be shared with the IETF community on 12 December 2017 via a note to the [email-masked] email list and a post to the IETF Blog. Along the way, input and feedback will be taken into account as possible.

We need to stop maintaining two websites are soon as possible.  The Secretariat and Torchbox are both prepared to provide extra attention in the weeks following the cutover to rapidly address any issues that arise. Also, the existing website will continue to exist in its current state, accessible in some manner, as the *previous* website does.  We have not decided on the URL for that yet, but it could be something lik https://www.ietf.org/old/2009/ https://www.ietf.org/old/2009/.