Kristjan Jansen Interaction designer and social activist. Contact: kika at trip.ee

Vastuseks mitmetele küsijatele: ei, ma ei kuulu Rahvaliitu ega kavatse kunagi ka kuuluda. Seal tegutsem minu veidi noorem nimekaim (linki ma talle ei lisa, kes teab mis seose Google sealt veel välja kaevab).

Kirjutasin kooli jaoks lühiülevaate maailma alternatiivrahadest: ametlike rahasüsteemide kõrval tegutsevatest väärtusvahetussüsteemidest, mis heidavad kinda tavamõtlemisele. Mis on raha, miks me seda vajame, kas ilma selleta ei saa läbi?

PDF-kujul slaidid asuvad siin ja koolitöö siin.

Ahjaa, Henri Laupmaa, üks esimesi alternatiivraha entusiaste Eestis on pannud püsti infoveebi samal teemal: Raha lugu

I am breathless: considering Estonian astonishingly slow Drupal pickup rate, a first big-name site has launched: Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Was it the Drupalgate affair making diplomats finally move faster?

Edit: the conversion was made in-house, with Canadian company Liefa Communications doing design as Photoshop comps.

Portugali saatkond Eestis korraldab Saaremaal festivali, mille üks osa on Portugalaktika pidu Kuressaare kuursaalis. Näha ja kuulda saab Denise Fontoura 't, plaatidel Jazzitup DJ-sid ning ka allkirjutanut DJ Mosaiik nime all.

Plaanin mängida Brasiilia funk- ja diskorariteete ning teha varase Airto Moreira spetsiaali.

Vt. ka pressiteadet ja flaierit.

Ahjaa, kes on pildil? Vastus: Brasiilia 70ndate muusika ühed oluliseimad nimed Flora Purim, Airto Moreira ning Hermeto Pascoal.

The title may suggest a bit medieval setting, but do not get wrong about it: in true e-Estonia fashion, every decent wooden shack around Estonia has a WiFi access and a projector to run meetings.

In one rainy Friday, 12 July, first ever Estonian Drupal convention gathered in a forest hideout near capital Tallinn. In addition in lengthy debates on Drupal latest developments and sharing best practices (Artisteer was mentioned, the usual Views and CCK gospel shared), we also talked about infrastructure of Drupal Estonia: g.d.o. group vs regional domain drupal.org (usual debate in every country's community?), releasing a proper Estonian translation (we are almost there) and founding a nonprofit organization to support Drupal Estonia activities. There was even a talk about EU funds to support regional translations of Drupal.

Meet the mighty pioneers of Drupal in Estonia – the detailed links with names and links can be found here.

Saime kokku 12. juuni uduvärskel reedeõhtul Lahemaal, elasime üle elektrikatkestuse, arutasime Drupali teemasid kella kaheni öösel ning siis oli aeg tünnisauna minna.

Millest me siis rääkisime? Mina tegin ettekande Drupal 7 kasutasõbralikkusest (slaidid leiab siit 3MB PDF), mis baseerusid osaliselt mu hiljutistel Helsingi DrupalConi slaididel. Kaido T tutvustas Drupali eestikeelse tõlke seisu, Jaak ja Marek näitasid oma Drupali-kogemusi ius.ee ja elektroskandia.ee lehekülgedel, Ivoga arutasime drupal.ee domeeni tulevikku ja muidugi jagasime palju-palju väikeseid praktilisi Drupali-soovitusi.

Lisaks legendaarsetele CCK ja Viewsile mainiti hulgaliselt ka väiksemaid vähemtuntumaid mooduleid: SpamSpan, Blocks404 ja Search404. Lisaks demonstreeris Jaak Artisteeri, mille abil tema kliendid ise lihtsa visuaalkeskkonna abil Drupali kujunduse loovad – näiteks mithio.com.

Mis edasi? Plaani sai võetud Eesti tõlkeserveri liigutamine drupal.ee domeeni alla, MTÜ Drupal Eesti loomine ning võimalik tõlke toetamine Euroopa liidu tõukefondidest.

Tänu veelkord kõigile tulijatele, Lahemaa Puhkekeskuse peremehele ning ürituse toetajale Looduskalendrile!

Kokkutuleku seltskond, vasakul paremale:

1. Merike Valner
2. Uuno Valner riso.ee
3. Jaak Ungro ius.ee
4. Ainar Prääm
5. Kaido Einama am.ee ja reisijutud.com
6. Tiit Lepik loodusring.ee ja looduskalender.ee
7. Kaido Toomingas minuleht.net
8. Marek Soans elektroskandia.ee
9. Ivo Nellis veebitehas.ee
10. Aivar Sool raamatumaailm.ee

Leidsin arhiivitolmust 2008. aasta aprillist ühe oma lühida kasutajamugavuse analüüsi: Peeter Marvet kutsus tookord asjakohaseid inimesi üles relvi haarama tallinn.ee uue veebi nimelise hädamere vastu.

Analüüsi leiab siit: kristjan_jansen_tallinnee_kaideldavuse_analyys.pdf (500kb PDF)

Teaduslikum ja tuumakam oli toona Marveti enda video-analüüs (video ja slaidid).

Kas aasta hiljem on tallinn.ee paremaks muutunud? Veidi küll: kohmakast küljemenüüst on loobutud ning enimkasutatavad lingid on esiküljele toodud – kuid tõeliselt kasutajasõbraliku ja kaasaegse veebini on veel pikk tee.

Samm-sammult, järk-järgult hiilib sisuhaldus-raamistik Drupal ka Eestisse. Esialgu näeb teda küll üsna madalaprofiililistel veebilehtedel, kuid vaadates teiste maade kogemusi, on vaid aja küsimus, millal mõni suurem ja tuntum sait Drupali kasutusele võtab.

Tasub ennast ette valmistada ja Drupaliga kurssi viia ning uusi nippe omandada kuid kes viitsib seda kuskil kontorikuumuses teha? Suvi on käes ja miks mitte ühendada meeldiv kasulikuga: ajada tehnojuttu otse looduses?

Reedel, 12. juuni õhtupoolikul saavad Eesti Drupali-huvilised kokku Peterburi maantee lähedal Loobul (veidi enne Viitnat) Lahemaa puhkekeskuses.

Vaatame esitlusi ja peame diskussioone, õhtu edasine käik on vaba, isegi saun ja tünnisaun on olemas!.

Üür ja ööbimine on sponsorite poolt makstud, kuludeks ainult oma transport kohale. Kaasa võtta söök-jook, hea tuju ja vajadusel laptop – wifi ja esitlustehnika leiab kohapealt.

Lisainfo, kaart ja registreerimine http://groups.drupal.org/node/22186

Kohtumiseni!

When I was asked to talk about user experience in DrupalCamp Finland in Helsinki University, I first came up with the long-winded presentation title ever: “Drupal UI challenges: Creating better user experience for Drupal 7 and beyond” – to cover my back obviously – since I did not had much of an idea what to talk about.

I tried to narrow it down to two things: introducing D7UX to Finnish Drupal community and talking about my recent pet peeve: re-usable interaction patterns and user interface components.

You can download the presentation here (2 MB)

Some credits: The font is free Rabiohead. Dude and angel pictures are from Flickr and picture of Chucky is well…from the hell of course!

Recently I was called to help a very special initiative in Estonia: a grassroot non-commerical project My Estonia, a 1-day country-wide brainstorming session designed to provide all citizens to gather around issues that matter to them – from local neighborhood to larger-scale concerns.

I volunteered to help them in data visualization: to take geodata about “My Estonia” brainstorming locations (all 500 of them), split them by county and deliver freely printable maps to usein event headquarters and also distribute them in local newspapers. Since the whole thing had to be without restrictive license, I couldn't use usual “Google Map + KML on top of it” route. So, what to do then? I only had half day to come up with solution.

I turned to Mapping Kit, Drupal's plug-in suite what I noticed in DrupalCon DC presentation – and I was blown away. Although a bit complex at start (especially because of cryptic terminology of geoinformation systems) I was quickly up and running, creating maps, embedding marker layers and querying mapping servers. All I needed was there, and more.

I addition to great backend I was also blessed by very helpful individuals: Andres Kütt and his team to provide a KML with source data (view in Google Maps) and allowing to split it up by county using URL parameters.

Next step was to embed the data to the open source map: OpenStreetMap source map and OpenLayers map rendering – both supported out of the box by Mapping Kit – were both natural fit. I attached each county to separate marker layer so the client could hand-pick the any data combination he needs.

There was still more to tweak: the markers. KML source had a minimal markup and no styling whatsoever. I tried several Google's default markers but they tend all to be too complex and unsuitable for print. I finally decided to create my own simple marker (available here: marker_ball_white_32×32.png).

Now, my map was looking something like this (county layers were accessible under “+” sign):

But something was still missing: the county borders to give a clearer overview what locations belong to what region. I checked out Estonian Land Board, as they are running some geoweb public services. I tried to query their Web Map Server for county borders using Drupal's Mapping Kit and use it as WMS layer in my map. Querying part worked like a charm, but unfortunately the border data was not in the presentable format: filled polygons instead of lines, data scattered across several layers etc.

At that time I was almost running out of time so I gave a call to Land Board where Raivo Alla provided me a helful tips to fix the problem and rendered me a decent KML file with the county borders. The 5MB KML file was unfortunately too big for Google Maps and OpenLayers to crunch (Google Earth made it) so I had to cancel the effort to add county borders to my map. But nevertheless big thanks to Land Board (I am working with them to make the border file simpler and publicly available in their website).

The bottom line is this: if something makes you from zero to “homegrown geoweb expert” in half a day, it must be one hell of a tool. Also, I am glad I live in Estonia where organization structures are not too hierarchic, it's easy to avoid bureaucracy and get the public data you need fast. Thanks to all!