Blog from October, 2016

yunity heartbeat 2016-10-30
Janina Abels posted on Oct 31, 2016

The yunity heartbeat - what has each team done, what are they doing and what do they need help with.

Foodsharing.de Development.

Done

The foodsharing.de development is reopened! To keep track of what is going on in that regard visit the new foodsharing devblog.
For direct answers to pressing questions like 'What?! Why?! How?!" read this blog entry written by Matthias Larisch. Also taken from that blog post are these already completed achievements:

  • Having a development environment that is checked out, setup and running with 3 commands (using docker/docker compose)
  • Integration of Codeception for Acceptance, API and Unit tests
  • Local execution of all tests
  • Automated execution of tests in a CI system (Gitlab CI) for every push
  • Acceptance tests for a very little selection of pages, more to come
  • Open issue tracker to include the community in bug reporting and feature discussion
  • Having one contributor working on feature development
  • Having three contributors working on fixing (security) issues and refactoring the code

Some days later Matthias Larisch was motivated to move the wiki, Mumble and the media database on a new server to fix some security issues present before. More about this can be read in this blog post.

In Progress

Most of the time is now spent to make contribution as easy as possible. That will include refactoring, means touching almost every single line of code in the code base (approx. 50000 of them are there). We made the decision to slowly move in some core components of symfony and hopefully end up with a workable, fully tested code base that can be deployed from a continuous integration system automatically when a core contributor approves the changes. Having the platform open sourced is a strong wish from most contributors as it fits the vision of sharing.

Matthias Larisch, foodsharing devblog


Foodsaving Tool.

Done

Created an open chatroom, linked in the README of the GitHub repository, bridged it to the Slack channel

Included more functionality & code structure:

  • Picker for groups in navigation bar
  • Added translation support, language picker in navigation bar
  • Unified templates for main pages (e.g. group, store) and splash pages (login, signup)
  • Signup & login page in directive-free style, using ng-click
  • Convention for partials (components which are using inside pages) - they now start with an underscore (_)

In Progress

Started discussing features on a product level - look at the current questions here and contribute your ideas! (E.g. should users be required to enter first/last name, do we need a feature for trial pickups, how do we prevent abuse of powers)

Planning the foodsaving tool. Started collecting user requirements in a written way - currently only Taiwan, more hopefully coming soon.

Looking for a logo! Need to answer the basic questions: "What is the message we want to communicate? Which emotion do we want to effect?"
Proposals:

 

Post your ideas in GitHub or in Slack in #foodsaving-tool-plan!


Foodsaving worldwide.

Done

Finally we held a syscon about how to name the FSINT sections on the wiki and on Slack, which resulted in: Foodsaving worldwide! (Hence the shortened title of this paragraph... (wink))

Tilmann put the graphics and drafts for logos on the wiki to make them accessible and editable for anybody interested.

In Progress

Challenges/help needed

  • more feedback and co-creation wanted with regards to the material to get started!
  • summary of the Russian foodsharing projects visible on vk.com is still missing


IT-Service.

Done

  • setting up channels in matrix (via riot chat) incl. incoming and outgoing webhooks. (from matrix you can chat towards slack and other way around) (Tilmann, Kaiser Mikato) 
  • rocket.chat and slack integration (Paul Free)

In Progress

Challenges/help needed

  • rocket.chat import freezing while doing so 


Structure.

Done

In Progress

Challenges/help needed

  • what does yunity actually signify to its contributors individually?
  • how can we be open to everybody and still protect an atmosphere of trust if we encounter destructive and unreasonable behaviors?


WuppHouse.

Done

In Progress

  • analyzing Mietshäusersyndikat principle and formal paper (Bodhi Neiser)

Challenges/help needed

  • finding the right building
  • finding the right legal setup
  • developing a clear concept of how to live together in a WuppHouse


Translation.

Done

In Progress

  • foodsharing devblog translation via gitlab (everybody can just work on an issue... (smile))
  • translation of the first strings of the foodsaving tool via transifex (Tilmann, Janina Abels)

Challenges/help needed

  • French translation of the foodsharing devblog issued on gitlab


Public Relations.

Done

Challenges/help needed

  • do we want to paper print? (by Katia)


Community Relations.

In Progress


Future WuppDays.

In Progress

  • looking for a WuppSpace in Austria, close to Vienna (Chrisi)
yunity heartbeat 2016-10-16
Tilmann posted on Oct 17, 2016

The yunity heartbeat - what people in yunity have done, what they are doing and what they need help with.

Hackathon

The last two weeks were dominated by the yunity Hackathon in Berlin, on the weekend from 7th to 9th of October. After weeks of preparation, the event was really well-organized and focused on productive work.

To get a feeling of the event, you can watch the introduction video and task overview - here are the slides of Nick's and Tais' presentation. The Hackathon Retrospective was generally positive, with the only downsides being the short duration of the event.

We also roughly specified a few of the side projects that would be helpful to yunity: Mapping Existing Foodsharing Initiatives and Contributor Map Calendar. The yunity glocal / kickstart project was already started, contact Paul Free for more information. You can also read a more detailed /wiki/spaces/~Paul+Free/pages/66846733in his wiki space.

General

On 2016-10-07, Robert Werth also held a presentation on yunity in Frankfurt a.M. - you can have a look at the slides here.

Foodsharing.de Development.


A recent development within yunity: we are starting again with the development of foodsharing.de.

Foodsharing was originally written almost exclusively by the lovely Raphael Wintrich. He put the best part of two years of hard work and dedication into building the site. Most people would run out of motivation before completing it. [...]

There are probably many theories why development has slowed, the only one that makes sense to me is that this stuff is hard, over time I hope to learn exactly why. For now the task is breathe life into the development again.

~ Nick Sellen on the first post of the new foodsharing devblog

During the hackathon, we had a meeting on upcoming and long-term tasks, which also included a discussion on open-sourcing the code. We will review this in the beginning of November. If you are interested in it, join #foodsharing-chat on our Slack.

Matthias Larisch also wrote a statement on why he will continue with coding on foodsharing.de

The latest changes to the website are documented on this page in the foodsharing wiki, in German language. If you want to participate in the discussion, have look into our public issue tracker on Gitlab, or request access to the group to code with us.

Challenges/help needed

many things - are you knowledgeable about PHP? Then you are more welcome to join us!


Design Team.

Done

Legal clearance for using the Harabara font - Chrisi asked the author for permission and he gave it to us (look into the comments of Design Guidelines proposal for details)

In Progress

Discussion on the Design Guidelines proposal. This currently is the only well-formulated proposal for yunity design by Manuele Carlini, but there was some resistance back then when it was posted to Slack. Still, because of the (accepted) Open design proposal, it's fine for yunity members to use - or use a different design to their own liking. (Tilmann, Chrisi)

Challenges/help needed

Design for Foodsaving Tours


Foodsaving Tool.

Done

A brief high-level description about the Foodsaving Tool (Tilmann, Tais Real, Lars Wolf)

We welcome Konrad Becker in the coding team!

A lot of services are ready to talk to the backend - though they will be modified to a common style soon.

Over 94% of our code is covered by tests - tendency increasing! Yay! (smile)

In Progress

We are kickstarting the frontend in AngularJS - look at our Github issues to follow the process closely.

Challenges/help needed

Most of us still have to get familiar with AngularJS and figure out the best code architecture.


Foodsharing/-saving International.

Done

Management structure diagrams of Foodsharing Warsaw, DLC Nantes and Foodsharing.de (Tais Real, Janina Abels)

Writeup on Foodsharing Taipeh (Taiwan) on Existing initiatives from Stefan Simon.

An example of the enormous waste at festivals is documented on Foodsaving at festivals. There's a video that will blow your mind, and maybe motivate you to get active and start a foodsaving community! It's quite easy to save food and other things at those festivals if you have a few great activists.

Graphics and Drafts repository for visual things for spreading foodsaving - currently mostly drawings by Luisa from Copenhagen.

A new facebook group for connecting foodsaving groups worldwide. Many people are not active in our wiki or on Slack, so Tilmann's idea was to also gather people on facebook.

Two brainstorming meetings at the hackathon were organized by Tais Real, about the reliability of foodsavers and approaching businesses with the goal of starting foodsaving.

In Progress

A syscon on the appropriate name for FSINT and the slack channel fs-international has been started, the proposal phase is running until 2016-10-19 and the voting phase will start shortly afterwards.


IT-Service.

Done

Open up the Signup Autoresponder - that's the mail that people automatically get after filling out the join-the-team form on yunity.org. The goal is to keep it up-to-date with general information how to get started in yunity. (Paul Free, Janina Abels, Tilmann)

Updated the events page on yunity.org (Tilmann) - please write in Slack #website if you want to add an event!

In Progress

Setting up a Grafana/InfluxDB analytics setup to get nicer statistics for yunity and foodsharing.de servers. It's a really powerful tool, which might also help us in getting more insight how we can improve our software. (Matthias Larisch)


Structure.

Done

Tais Real collected many open tasks to make them visible for newcomers. Some examples: Researching existing initiatives, Organizing the Media-Kit, Translation and Contacting enthusiasts

A concise article about Awesome Active Autonomy by Douglas Webb - the basic working principle in yunity. Read it to get more insight in autonomous decision making!

Follow new applications in the Who-am-I section of the discourse forum. You can also follow the new entries on Slack in the #discourse channel.

In Progress

Collecting ideas how to improve the yunity wiki accessibility. Janina Abels created a proposal for a new FSINT landing page, and she really loves feedback on it (Lächeln)
There's also a Slack channel #improve_wiki where you can participate in the process.


Connections.

Done

Nick Sellen, Matthias Larisch and Tilmann had a short informal meeting with Raphael Fellmer and Martin Schott from sharecy. Read a short summary on Collaboration possibilities.

Paul Free made a lot's of new connections during the freemarket in Berlin. Interviews with around 40 incl. gathering their contacts.

Challenges/help needed

...networking can be exausting. (Paul Freel)


Tour.

A really extensive report about the situation in Marseille by Anna O'Neill. The city is one of the first planned destinations of the yunity tour.

Some people plan to visit Valencia (Spain) in January 2016 and spread foodsharing and -saving.


Translation.

Done

Some ideas for Grammar conventions (in which order adjective should appear), contributed by Hans-Christian Eick.

A video guide how to translate the foodsharing dev blog, with an additional written guide on Slack (Matthias Larisch, Tilmann)

Full German foodsharing dev blog (Fenja Jacobs, Janina Abels)


WuppDays.

In Progress

Planning of the Mini-Wuppdays in Chemnitz by Anja Konhäuser and fr4nk 0nf1r3.

The WuppDays#12 Witzenhausen are planned by Paul Free and are expected to happen in November. Join the Slack channel #wuppdays_witzenhausen to stay tuned!

Pre-planning of December WuppDays in Kirchheim by Philip Engelbutzeder


Culture.

The Lamâsching Availability page still gets occasional updates, which range from usual to sexually open to not-so-serious.

Slight ongoing controversy about the Sadomâsching Culture, introduced by Bodhi Neiser and Kaiser Mikato. There are worries if this should be something that is publicly visible on the yunity wiki. There has been a proposal from Douglas Webb to make it only visible to members of yunity (wiki-editors), but so far no decision making process was started.


Glocal yunity.


(what is this? - ask Paul Free!)

Done

"not organized" a freemarket in Berlin. Made lots of local connections, including people interested in glocal foodsharing in Spain.




yunity heartbeat 2016-10-02
Tilmann posted on Oct 04, 2016

The yunity heartbeat - what people in yunity have done, what they are doing and what they need help with.

Design.

Done

new logo proposals for a global foodsharing initiative that would still allow for local specifics (Luisa)
new logo incl. lettering (fritz holscher) 
 

In Progress

updating every yunity page on the internet to feature the current logo with the fade effect


Foodsharing/-saving International.

Done

reconnecting to foodsharing Warsaw and finding out about the growing foodsharing Poland (Janina Abels)

In Progress

defining and finalizing the scope and content of the media kit (Tais Real, Janina Abels)

getting more detailed info on foodsharing Copenhagen, foodsharing Taiwan and - hopefully - foodsharing Russia (Janina Abels)

Challenges/help needed

You are part or know of a foodsharing or -saving initiative outside the German-speaking realm? Please let us know!


IT-Service.

Done

setting up a discourse forum for yunity (Paul Free)

setting up a subreddit for yunity (Paul Free)

setting up https://medium.com/yunity (Paul Free)

Rework of yunity.org (Tilmann): new content on landing page, small additions to join-the-team page
 

In Progress

rethinking the content of the landing page of yunity.org, to make it more fitting to what yunity is actually working on right now

Project page: moving to the new wordpress page, made by Chrisi


Events.

Done

Reviews of WuppBreak September 2016

In Progress

Planning the Hackathon in Berlin (Tais Real, Nick Sellen, Tilmann, Philip Engelbutzeder, Paul Free)


Legal.

Done

finding out about the Polish gifting law, how it gives foodsharing Poland a hard time and ways to work around it. (Janina Abels)