Announcing: Community Server Hawaii

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Scott Watermasysk Posted: Wed, May 2 2007 11:18 AM

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Announcing: Community Server Hawaii.

Thanks,
Scott

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Tom Lynch replied on Wed, May 2 2007 11:54 AM

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Great news to see the hub/group stuff coming in Oahu.  Can't wait til October.

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Ranko replied on Fri, May 4 2007 2:56 AM

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Sexy announcements all three of them.

 BTW, whoever did the Silverlight site - sweet looking job.

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judehk replied on Fri, Jun 29 2007 9:10 AM

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Looks cool. What are the chances that this will ship with any documentation?

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Jose Lema replied on Sat, Jun 30 2007 1:01 PM

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Hi judehk,

Since we know that, historically, our documentation has been a weak point, we opted to push all documentation thru our new http://docs.communityserver.org wiki and kb. As such, beginning in Community Server 2007 (and beyond), we have/will not be "shipping" any documentation.

That said, we are daily adding to the documentation on that docs site and have every intention of getting the key components of Hawaii listed there as well. Hopefully you will agree that while it still needs work, we are getting better.

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judehk replied on Mon, Jul 2 2007 11:52 AM

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I think a wiki is a great idea for the documentation. But as it stands I think there are two problems. Firstly it is a bit thin as it stands (just 3 small FAQ's for the whole forums section). Secondly and maybe more worringly for the future it is geared towards users of  a CS based site rather than developers (very little guidance on how the software works - were to tweak/skin things that aren't accessed via the control panel).

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Jose Lema replied on Mon, Jul 2 2007 5:47 PM

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Hi judehk,

I agree that the wiki/KB is a great idea for documentation. I also agree that it's not as *complete* as we would like. (We're getting there...).

Furthermore, we recognize that we need to ultimately serve about four different audiences:

• Customers - trying to make a purchasing decision by evaluating and understanding the basic capabilities of the software
• End Users - trying to figure out how to use the software (much of the old "shipped" FAQ answered these questions)
• Administrators - trying to configure the software for their particular community needs
• Developers - trying to understand/modify/extend the platform to meet the needs of their projects/sites/clients

Since we have different folks in different roles looking at our documentation, it's true that it will look thin for any particular individual (role) while we ramp it up. But rest assured that we will continue to increase/improve our documentation until all those roles can easily find answers to frequent questions.

All that said, are there specific questions you're looking to get answered? If so, I'd recommend you start a couple new threads and we'll be sure to do our best to get you a sufficient answer.

Hope that helps...

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Dave replied on Thu, Jul 19 2007 4:55 AM

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 Are you still on target for July for the 1st release?

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mknittel replied on Fri, Jul 27 2007 2:44 PM

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 So this great wiki idea is no longer in play according to the new schedule?

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Charles Boyung replied on Thu, Sep 20 2007 11:47 AM

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I was just wondering if the Oahu release is still scheduled for October.  I need that hub/group functionality for a release, and if it will be available in October, I may be able to avoid writing custom logic to do something like that.

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Jose Lema replied on Thu, Sep 20 2007 12:59 PM

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Hi motoyugota,

As we previously announced in late July, the Groups feature will be part of Community Server 2008, set for release in the first quarter of 2008. Our first beta of CS 2008 should include the Groups feature, but there's no date around that yet.

Hope this helps...

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Charles Boyung replied on Thu, Sep 20 2007 1:45 PM

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Jose,

Well, that helps and doesn't help.  Now I know where it's at, but unfortunately, that means I'm going to have to build some custom functionality to hold my marketing people over until the 2008 release.

Thanks for the info, though.

Charlie

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Jose Lema replied on Thu, Sep 20 2007 1:54 PM

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Hi Charlie,

Understood.

I would definitely recommend that you subscribe to our announcements blog so you're aware of any course corrections (or other relevant information) as soon as they're made public.

Thanks

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Jose Lema replied on Fri, Sep 28 2007 2:38 AM

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Hi Cam,

We made some significant internal changes with CS 2007 (themes/membership), some great enhancements with CS 2007.1 (performance), and a slew of bug fixes. While you could stay on CS 2.1, my recommendation is always to move to the most current version. Otherwise, if you find a bug in CS 2.1, you're stuck until you upgrade in Q1 of 2008.

Personally, I think now is the perfect time to upgrade. You'll get all the benefits of our recent releases and the ability to stage your final upgrade to CS 2008. With the addition of Friends, Messages, Media Gallery, Groups, ... you may not want to wait until the last minute to try to manage it all.

Ultimately it's your call, but I would definitely recommend a move to CS 2007.1 now, and then jump onto CS 2008 in about six months.

Hope that helps...