Re: Question

Hello Peter,
Adrian,

I am glad to learn of your interest!
I have answers to most of your questions and will follow-up as soon as I’m able when I have answer for questions 10 and 13.

See inline.

> On 26 Nov 2019, at 14:37 , Peter van Grieken <peter@frozenrockets.nl> wrote:
> 
> Hello Coralie,
> 
> Thank you for putting out the RFP for the website redesign. We were very excited when we heard about it and we hope we get the chance to work with you on this project. We’ve carefully reviewed the RFP and we have some questions before we’re ready to write a proposal.
> 
> 
> 1. You plan to become an own legal entity in 2021. How does it impact the redesign process and its planning?

It does not. Or rather, it further motivates the redesign project.


> 2. Why was the 2014 redesign not fulfilled? What did you change to ensure the success of this project?

The funding for this project had to be prioritized elsewhere. To expand the answer to the previous question, I’ll add that we have needed a redesign for many years and the upcoming relaunch as our own legal entity provides us an anchor in time for when to have accomplished a visible (phase 1) redesign of our website.


> 3. What are your primary drivers of sale currently? Are you looking to involve the site more in that?

The site is not a driver of sales. We are a non-profit and intend to remain so, and our income is principally W3C Membership dues and then grants and other funding sources such as participation in European Commission projects. To drive W3C Membership applications, our website is one entry point (in addition to the “sign up for Membership” forms) and then we have a small Business Development team that concludes sales. So our website needs to be appealing to prospect Members (both visually and at the information architecture level) as well as other of the audiences we list in the RFP. We are indeed looking to involve the site more in driving crowdfunding. The existing “donate” page and experience isn’t very successful.


> 4. How do you currently measure the website’s effectiveness, how do you plan to do that in the future?

We don’t but we’d certainly like to.


> 5. What does W3C currently do in terms of content design? Who will be responsible for this in the project? What is and isn’t working in that process?

I don’t think we do that and if we do, we don’t do it well: we have a wealth of information and suffer from people often not finding what they need.


> 6. Who is responsible for doing the content migration?

I expect that our systems team may be involved in the content migration, details TBD.


> 7. One current issues you mention is there’s “too much content that’s unsorted.” How do we remedy that and who will be responsible for that?

We have a good grasp on content inventory, but it may still be part of the scope of work, as it may be related to the information architecture work. For example, we may have some ideas regarding migration that a vendor may make us revisit as part of their migration strategy advice, or we may have ideas of elements for future phases that the vendor may advise we re-prioritize. I expect that our systems team may be involved for that aspect as well.


> 8. If content is archived, how is that processed on W3C’s end? Who is responsible for this?

That may depend on the choice of CMS. For this as well, I expect that our systems team may be involved.


> 9. What about W3C blog’s siblings like podcast/video/newsletter/etc.? How does the scope work exactly? I ask because the consortium
> subpages are explicitly mentioned, but nowhere else.

The vendor may suggest this ought to be part of phase 1.


> 10. How do you rate en compare performance? (Load time? File size? First meaningful content?)

@@I’ll follow-up as soon as I can


> 11. Are there better use statistics than just lists of most visited pages? Search queries, time on pages, bounce rates etc.?

We have been using Matomo for a year or so, perhaps more. The vendor would have access (real-time access possibly) as part of the collaboration.


> 12. What is in the “draft W3C style guides”?

The draft W3C style guide aims to be a comprehensive place that compiles, and keeps all of the essential aspects that pertain to the W3C style. Its sources include documents and guidelines there were written by Tim Berners-Lee at the start of the Consortium 25 years ago, graphical elements of the W3C brand, our manual of written style for specifications, best practices for CSS, HTML, etc. It also currently includes a number of additions that are opinions and preferences of its author (Bert Bos, co-inventor of CSS and W3C Staff member). 

That document has gotten limited internal review due to its “draft” nature and due to limited bandwidth and the lack of a great opportunity for wider internal review.


> 13. What are the W3C-maintained backend services? How many are there? What do they do?

@@I’ll follow-up as soon as I can


> 14. Is the aim to merge all different language sites into one style?

Perhaps. We are open to suggestions from the vendor.


> 15. How much of the work needs to be published in the open? In what form?

Enough that significant milestones are understandable. Working in the open does not have to be a barrier or add too much overhead.


> 16. Who can give feedback? Who has mandate to approve design decisions?

Our stakeholders and interested parties. For example, the core W3C Staff is a group of 50 to 60 people; our Members is a group of 400+ organizations; our work group participants is a group of 10-12K people. And then, we may get feedback from people we do not interact with in the same fashion we do with the previous groups, but are part of our audience (and a subset of our site is for the public).

There is one project manager and owner of the website (me as head of W3C Marketing and Communications). For tough decisions I may consult internally as appropriate with the oversight team which includes the W3C systems team Lead, the W3C CEO and W3C COO, and the W3C Business Development Lead; and possibly with other groups in our close circles.


> 17. Who is in the oversight team, what are their competencies? Who is the project owner?

See answer to previous question.


> 18. Who is allowed to give feedback when “working in the open”? We don’t mind explaining our choices and clarifying them, but designing by committee is slow, tedious, and does not provide good results in our experience.

I concur! I propose there is one single person who is the interface between W3C and the vendor.


> 19. When are the sign-off moments?

I suppose this is TBD. The vendor is expected to propose a timeline that would work with their methodology and proposed plan. There probably are “natural” sign-off moments. 


> 20. Are there going to be interviews before awarding the project? Can you elaborate on the selection proces a bit more?

My colleague Vivien Lacourba (he’s the W3C systems team lead) and I may want to schedule meeting time with bidders individually before awarding the project. 
The oversight team will look at costs, review portfolios, compare how the proposals are presented, and how close they are to what the RFP identifies. I may consult with selected Members of the W3C Advisory Board who volunteered time and expertise for this.


With kind regards,
Coralie

> 
> Thanks in advance for taking the time to answer our questions.
> 
> Best regards,
> Peter van Grieken
> 
> —
> Frozen Rockets
> Stadhouderslaan 9
> 2517 HV Den Haag
> 
> url: https://frozenrockets.eu
> — 

--
Coralie Mercier  -  W3C Marketing & Communications -  https://www.w3.org
mailto:coralie@w3.org +337 810 795 22 https://www.w3.org/People/Coralie/

Received on Tuesday, 26 November 2019 17:32:32 UTC