[aprssig] Bulk Re: APRS Foundation Inc. - Opportunities

[Jeff Hochberg]

 Erik,

That’s awesome! You’re making me have to do a partial unveiling before the
announcement is ready. :-)

It’s all good! I think everyone is going to like this.

I’m sure you will agree that having many different versions is not a good
thing, especially from a version control standpoint.

What I’m about to cover has primarily been driven by John WB2OSZ, author of
Direwolf. John is also a member of the APRS Working Group and a Foundation
officer.

John and George worked together on maintaining the documentation in the
past, and I believe he is still working with George in the background.

The idea is to have one official source instead of many copies of the
specification floating around. The APRS Foundation will manage the source
of truth.

Additionally, there is a backlog of additions/moves/changes to the spec
made over the past few years that were not officially merged into the
official document. The desire to merge changes has been mainly hindered by
concern that not everyone would be working off the most current information
by the large number of copies of the spec floating around. That needs to
change, and this is the prime opportunity to do so.

We are targeting using version number 1.1, but I would have to defer to
John WB2OSZ on that matter.

Technically, it’s already posted, but access is currently restricted until
we finish the formatting and changes. Again, you cannot get to it right
now, but the restriction will be lifted once we finish putting the final
touches on it.

While we cannot/will not prevent others from posting their own versions,
we'd like to ask that references point back to the official source as part
of the license, which we are still discussing. We are currently looking at
the various versions of the Creative Commons, Apache, and GPL licenses.
...more to come on that.

The content is already on GitHub. Any time a commit is performed,
the content gets published to the web automatically via Cloudflare Pages
<https://pages.cloudflare.com/> (similar to GitHub Pages but better) in
conjunction with MkDocs <https://www.mkdocs.org/> (Material theme/feature
set <https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/>). Cloudflare will
present a Google Trust Services SSL/TLS certificate to the world and enjoy
all of the benefits that come with Cloudflare's platform.

The intent is to allow others to fork the repository
<https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-pull-requests/working-with-forks/fork-a-repo>,
make changes, and then submit a Pull request
<https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-pull-requests/proposing-changes-to-your-work-with-pull-requests/about-pull-requests>.
Once approved, the Pull Request
<https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-pull-requests/proposing-changes-to-your-work-with-pull-requests/creating-a-pull-request>
will be Merged into the repository
<https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-pull-requests/incorporating-changes-from-a-pull-request/merging-a-pull-request>,
and Cloudflare Pages will do the rest (in roughly 30 to 60 seconds).

I already wrote a draft of the entire process. The final version will be
included when the site is officially launched (ideally within the next
week).

Just so there are no concerns here - the idea is to have a single
authoritative source - not an organization that controls what does/doesn’t
get incorporated into the specification or any of the documentation
maintained by the Foundation. APRS is community-driven and always will be.

We are interested in building a structure around APRS from a current and
future standpoint. This has never been done before. Ultimately, I think
we’d all like to see something similar to what the IEEE does. The IEEE's
charter is "dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity."
The Foundation's charter is "dedicated to advancing technology for the
benefit of hams around the globe."

I just made that part up - we need a charter - that could be "Charter v0.9"
for now. :-)

Stay tuned! We are VERY excited to launch the new site!!!

-JeffH



On Sun, Mar 31, 2024 at 11:43 AM Erik Beck <erik at n7fyo.net> wrote:

> Just a few quick observations on the points below:
>
> https certificates are easily done with Let's Encrypt.  The fairly new
> webserver caddy integrates https and Let's Encrypt out of the box.
> Apache and nginx webservers use Let's Encrypt with a 'plug-in'.
>
> There is a complete RST (like Markdown) translation of the aprs101.pdf
> at my github site (https://github.com/N7FYO/ge0rg-aprs101) which is
> cloned from the original by Georg Lukas
> (https://github.com/ge0rg/aprs101).
>
> I am also working on a more expressive (in terms of formatting) version
> of the APRS spec in LaTeX
> (https://github.com/N7FYO/N7FYO-APRS_spec_101.Refactor). This is slowly
> ongoing, and any assistance is appreciated.
>
> Regards,
>
> Erik
>
> N7FYO.
>
>
> On Fri, 29 Mar 2024 14:17:59 -0400
> Jeff Hochberg <jeffh at aprsfoundation.org> wrote:
>
> > Great! Now What?
> >
> > The APRS Foundation intends to build a solid foundation for APRS to
> > build upon - no pun intended. You have to admit…that was a little
> > “punny.” I couldn’t resist! :-)
> >
> > We can head in countless directions, but much cleanup must be done to
> > establish a baseline.
> >
> > A mix of technical and non-technical work needs to be done. Some
> > won’t be fun, but it’s a necessity and will be rewarding! It’s long
> > and daunting, but please read through the opportunities to find a
> > place where your skills can help.
> > Define Use Cases
> >
> > In line with last week’s comment about asking ten ham radio operators
> > what APRS is… We live and breathe APRS. We’re amongst the best suited
> > to put together a list of use cases. Ensuring the entire ham
> > community is on the same page is essential. The last thing we should
> > get is hesitation when someone hears, “What is APRS?”
> >
> > Hopefully, this will be the most straightforward task of all!
> >
> > Opportunity - Start APRS Use Cases Thread
> >
> > If someone wants to start a thread here on aprssig titled “APRS Use
> > Cases,” we can start to gather this information immediately! That
> > way, we collect everyone’s ideas in one thread.
> > Rebranding
> >
> > How many would like to see a new logo for APRS? The current logo is
> > dated at best. We are confident that some hams out there also have an
> > artistic side. If anyone has ideas on rebranding APRS to give it a
> > fresh look, we would love to see it!
> >
> > Opportunities - Rebranding
> >
> > If you or someone you know is skilled at brand management, brand
> > awareness, graphic design, and/or typeface design, please email
> > info at aprsfoundation.org with “Rebranding” in the subject line.
> > Website
> >
> > The APRS.org website needs a COMPLETE overhaul! It’s a mess, and the
> > site looks like it was created in the early/mid-90s.
> >
> > Hams need an authoritative location to get information on APRS. We can
> > think of no better place than aprs.org.
> >
> > According to Steve Dimse, the web server hosting aprs.org has over 5
> > GB of files stored on it. Part of me can’t help but think the server
> > became a place for Bob to store stuff, most of which likely never
> > made it onto the website.
> >
> > When I first spoke with Steve, he expressed interest in turning the
> > website to the Foundation. We hope that is still the case.
> >
> > Opportunities - Web Design & Content Review (Multiple opportunities)
> >
> > We need folks who can review the existing aprs.org website and define
> > the structure for the new website. It’s kind of all over the place
> > right now, and there’s a ton of content.
> >
> > Users have expectations of what an authoritative resource should look
> > like, and suffice it to say that what it is today doesn’t fit their
> > expectations.
> >
> > If you have good organizational skills and are up for a challenge,
> > please email info at aprsfoundation.org with “Web Design & Content
> > Review” in the subject line.
> > Webmaster
> >
> > We would love to have at least one webmaster who is well-versed in web
> > design and several others to help review and organize the content.
> > With that much data sitting on the server, there’s bound to be much
> > to go through. It doesn’t all need to be done in one fail swoop.
> >
> > We need to pick a place to start. The most logical place to start is
> > building a new site parallel to the existing one. We can start by
> > deciding what to keep/eliminate, then cleaning, organizing, and
> > migrating the most relevant content to the new site.
> >
> > Once the new site is established, we can continue to build upon it.
> >
> > We assure you there will be an SSL certificate on the new website.
> > Practically, the entire Internet has embraced the “HTTPS Everywhere”
> > movement. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is right—HTTPS is
> > Actually Everywhere—just not on http://www.aprs.org. That will change!
> >
> > The new URL will be https://www.aprs.org whenever we switch the
> > domain to point to the new website (assuming TAPR allows us to take
> > it over). Don’t click this link yet - it won’t work due to the lack
> > of a certificate right now). Continue to use http://www.aprs.org for
> > the time being. Opportunities - Webmaster (1 to 2 opportunities
> > available)
> >
> > This is THE prime opportunity to build THE authoritative source of
> > information on APRS!
> >
> > If you have basic web development skills and are familiar with the
> > fundamentals of web development, Markdown
> > <https://www.markdownguide.org/>, MkDocs <https://www.mkdocs.org/>,
> > and GitHub <https://github.com/>, please email
> > info at aprsfoundation.org. Please ensure “Webmaster” is in the subject
> > line.
> >
> > Oh, and if you know Markdown, you’re 90% of the way to understanding
> > MkDocs! It’s awesome!
> > Documentation
> >
> > John L. and Lynn began a project to convert the APRS 101 spec from
> > PDF/Word to Markdown format. The ultimate goal is to utilize GitHub
> > as the documentation repository.
> >
> > GitHub is an excellent application that provides version control and
> > distributed development, allowing multiple contributors to work on
> > the same projects.
> >
> > This effort will also include consolidating enhancements/extensions
> > to APRS 101 that were never merged into the official specification.
> >
> > This will allow the Foundation to update the documentation and
> > provide a facility for others to submit and contribute through Git
> > and GitHub.
> >
> > We already have an application that automatically detects changes to
> > the repository and publishes the content to the web in a gorgeous
> > format! We will share the publicly accessible link soon!
> > Opportunities - Documentation Editor (4 to 6 positions available)
> >
> > This project is almost complete. However, there are some elements
> > that we could still use help with. If you know Markdown, please email
> > info at aprsfoundation.org with “Documentation Editor” in the subject
> > line. Project Management
> >
> > To anyone who wants to help but doesn’t feel they have enough
> > experience with APRS, we still need you! You don’t need to be that
> > savvy with APRS to support our efforts, but Project Management is a
> > skill we’ll need.
> >
> > Case in point - I’m passionate about APRS but am not even remotely as
> > well-versed as I would like. My talents include business, leadership,
> > information technology, and security. I’ve held my ticket since 2015
> > and still consider myself new to ham radio.
> > Opportunities - Project Manager (# based on demand)
> >
> > We want some assistance from folks with managing deliverables and
> > milestones. We need to make sure we deliver on what we decide to do.
> > It’s one thing to say you will do something, and it’s something else
> > entirely to deliver. That cannot be accomplished without even the
> > most basic project management skills.
> >
> > We also need people who are good with tracking those interested in
> > helping the Foundation and their interests.
> >
> > And you don’t even need to be great with Project Management! If you
> > can maintain a list of deliverables and a timeline and feel you can
> > help keep folks on task, you’re hired!
> >
> > Please email info at aprsfoundation.org if you are interested in helping
> > manage the aforementioned projects and/or any future projects.
> > Volunteer Work - Not Employment
> >
> > While APRS Foundation Inc. is a non-profit organization, please do not
> > perceive these opportunities as an offer of employment. John, Lynn,
> > John, Jason, and I are board members, but we do so on a voluntary
> > basis and are not compensated in any way.
> >
> > The work we are requesting assistance with is on a volunteer basis
> > only.
> >
> > Keep in mind that we are all working towards Ensuring the Future of
> > APRS! There is no better way to give back to the global amateur radio
> > community than through work of this nature! It’s extremely important,
> > and the rewards are that you get to say you worked on it!
> > A Lot To Do
> >
> > As you can see, there’s a lot to do. We're looking for a few good
> > hams!!! We are just getting started! But we cannot do this without
> > YOU!
> >
> > To make this point abundantly clear, our door is open to any licensed
> > amateur radio operator worldwide interested in contributing to the
> > effort! If one of the areas above strikes a chord with you, please
> > join the conversation and come along for the ride!
> >
> > Please be patient—we may take a week or two to reply, but I assure
> > you we will!
> >
> > Thank you for taking the time to read this message. We look forward to
> > working with you!
> >
> > Best Regards and 73,
> >
> > Jeff Hochberg - W4JEW
> >
> > President
> >
> > APRS Foundation, Inc.
> >
> > Ensuring the Future of APRS
> >
> > P.S. Discord Invite
> >
> > We’ve also set up an APRS Foundation Discord server for those who
> > prefer more chatty-type communications.   Join us at
> > https://discord.gg/5SqCJQAU and say hello!
> >
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> aprssig mailing list
> aprssig at lists.tapr.org
> http://lists.tapr.org/mailman/listinfo/aprssig_lists.tapr.org
>

-- 
Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU) 2016/679, we have 
a legal duty to protect any information we collect from you. Information 
contained in this email and any attachments may be privileged or 
confidential and intended for the exclusive use of the original recipient. 
If you have received this email by mistake, please advise the sender 
immediately and delete the email, including emptying your deleted email 
box.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.tapr.org/pipermail/aprssig_lists.tapr.org/attachments/20240331/ad0f6120/attachment.htm>