Update: Both VMD and Rosetta have now build instructions in the Debichem (VMD) and DebianMed (Rosetta) subversion repositories.
Improve portals of Debian Pure Blends
Mentor: SteffenMoeller
Summary: Establish and evaluate the collaboration on packaging non-redistributable source-accessible software
Required skills:
- good reading and writing skills
- source code management with svn and git
- web programming
- Debian packaging
Background: As a community we share our interest in Debian as a core IT infrastructures. But computing is also about having all the tools at one's disposal to help solving your daily routine at work - with applications that may aim at a less general audience. The sub-communities of Debian (Blends [4,5]) all have their particular portal-like home page to give the distribution a particular flavour, i.e. for pre- and post-clinical research and practice management (Debian Med [6]), various sorts of molecular or astronomical sciences (Debian Science [7]) and others. Our users report that those pages are too much aiming at ourselves who we are packaging the software and not enough at those who would need to use it. They do not find us and if so, they do not feel motivated enough to understand it. Much of the pages are created by an abstract description of the packages we provide. Many other parts are on wiki.debian.org or www.debian.org. We now need someone with an unbiased mind to work through our site and come up with a way to present more clearly what a particular blend is all about. The developed infrastructure would then be offered to all blends to use.
Description of work: The project shall start with an analysis of strengths and weaknesses of the current system. Missing features for our users shall be identified and an implementation plan developed. Main issues are
- simplification, i.e. a complete overhaul the auto-generated home pages of the blends (like that of Debian Med [6])
- user feedback and discussion
- problem-oriented education - by users for users