Re: Questions for W3C website redesign RFP

Hello Simon and Carlos,

Please find inline the answers to the questions I was not able to address previously.
Carlos sent two additional questions today <https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-website-redesign/2019Nov/0026.html>. Please, see at the bottom answers to questions re-labelled 10 and 11.

> On 25 Nov 2019, at 14:54 , Coralie Mercier <coralie@w3.org> wrote:
> 
> Hello Simon,
> 
> I’m very happy to hear about your interest!
> I have partial answers to your question and will follow-up as soon as I hear back from my colleagues from the systems team who are at meeting this week.
> 
>> On 22 Nov 2019, at 16:00 , Simon R Jones <simon@studio24.net> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi Coralie & the rest of the W3C team,
>> 
>> This is a really interesting opportunity, I’ve been using the W3C site since I first got involved with the web over twenty years ago! My team at Studio 24 are very keen to respond to this RFP, I have a few questions I hope you can help with...
>> 
>> 1) Will there be an opportunity to talk to your team about this project either before the proposal deadline or after (e.g. a conference call)? We strongly feel getting to know an agency is an important part of finding the right supplier. 
>> 
> 
> Yes. Our next opportunity for a conference call is after this week (which unfortunately is the last week of the open Q&A period).
> 
> 
> 
>> 2) Do you have any technical requirements for a new CMS (e.g. platform) apart from a preference for open source? Or are you happy to review this as part of the project? 
>> 
> 
> A bit of both. We avoided to mention any technology or system in our RFP so as to keep our options open and because we expect vendors to make proposals. 
> We are open to tools and platforms suggested by vendors, but would need to understand those we would need to adapt to our needs.
> Please, note that we will move our infrastructure to the cloud and therefore need to think about the features that come with cloud-based hosting.
> Also, unlimited data versioning would be ideal.
> It would be nice if the CMS provided a way to integrate data from various sources without requiring us to customize said sources.
> 
> 
>> 3) You note a requirement for the CMS to be long-life and performance is a key requirement. Given the range of content on the W3C site one approach we would look to explore would be a Headless CMS, where we read in data from a CMS to build a robust, performant, standards-based front-end site. Is this an approach you are happy to explore?
> 
> (I will follow-up as soon as I’m able)

Yes, we would be open to explore this kind of approach.


>> 4) I presume you are not expecting a fixed CMS solution and approach to be recommended in the initial proposal, we would expect this to be explored and defined in the project itself. Is that OK?
>> 
> 
> Yes, of course.
> 
> 
>> 5) You note you use a “custom CMS” at present. What sort of content export options exist (e.g. XML) or can you tell us what database or content storage method the CMS uses?
> 
> Our current website relies on a solution developed in-house that aggregates HTML fragments coming from different sources (Wordpress, Symfony, manually maintained files, in-house tools, etc.). 
> 
> The fragments system relies on well-formed XHTML for XSLT.
> Wordpress is used for the blog part of the website. It is also used to feed some data to our custom-made "CMS".
> Mediawiki is used for the wiki part.
> Some pages are generated using Symfony framework.
> 
> 
>> 6) How well structured are the content models in your existing CMS, or does this just require a complete review as part of this project?
> 
> (I’ll follow-up as soon as I’m able.)

A large amount of our content is not well structured and we believe it would need a complete review.


>> 7) Do you have an estimate for the number of pages that will need to be migrated from your existing site / CMS? Do you expect the chosen agency to take responsibility for content migration?
> 
> We have a good grasp on content inventory, but it may still be part of the scope of 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 in the content migration, details TBD.
> 
> 
>> 8) You currently use DuckDuckGo for your site search. Is there a requirement to review site search with this project, for example to add site search directly within your website?
> 
> Perhaps, but not necessarily.
> 
> 
>> 9) You note possible face-to-face meetings in other email responses. Do you have any idea what country these would take place in? Please note we’re also very happy to do conference calls and use this with many clients.
>> 
> 
> We are very used to conference calls too. For face-to-face meetings, if those are needed, the country that makes the most sense in terms of cost and practicality will be chosen; not particular preference.
> 
> 
> Coralie
> 
>> Best wishes,
>> Simon
>> 
>> ---
>> Simon R Jones
>> Managing Director
>> 
>> Studio 24
>> digital design + technology
>> 
>> www.studio24.net
>> 01223 328017


For the sake of flow, I have re-labelled Carlos’ questions as 10 and 11:

> On 27 Nov 2019, at 17:27 , Carlos Eriksson <carlos@studio24.net> wrote <https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-website-redesign/2019Nov/0026.html>:
> 
> Hi Coralie and W3C team,
> 
> Please find additional questions in reference to Studio 24’s interest in working together (previous emails from Simon R Jones).
> 
> 10) How will existing content affect content migration? Is the intention to keep the content in its current form or are you expecting to update this based on recommendations, technical or otherwise?

We are open to recommendations. For some portions of the site, we may wish to move some part and “snapshot” others, it isn’t determined yet.
We may be creating new content, but not a lot compared to existing content.


> 11) When will you give access to the Draft W3C style guide? How much of its current form should infer design decisions for the website (or vice versa)?

The draft W3C style guide 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 yet.

That document 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). 

Vendors should be allowed to propose changes.

Coralie

--
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 Thursday, 28 November 2019 10:31:08 UTC