UPDATE: There will be no BIENE AWARD in 2007! Reason: The organizers want run a scientific study so as to update the award criterias to web 2.0 applications such as wikis (see: http://www.einfach-fuer-alle.de/blog/eintraege.php?id=2073_0_1_0). So we are too fast for BIENE! The contest will be restarted with a conference on "Accessibility on Web 2.0" in spring next year.

BIENE Award 2007

"I have a dream ... a dream that Moin participates at BIENE 2007 ... and wins one of these sought-after awards for their effort to turn their wiki into a really accessible wiki engine .. and thus gain a great publicity effect leading hopefully to more users, programmers, supporters of Moin."

The so called BIENE Award is a famous award for web accessibility mainly in the German speaking countries. However the award is gaining more and more international standing and reputation over the last few years. BIENE is an acronym for "Barrierefreies Internet Eröffnet Neue Einsichten" which means in English "barrier free internet opens up new perspectives" (something like that).

As you might have noticed, some work for this has been already going on since a few months on AccessibleMoin. However we are running short of time now and need some help and support of Moin developpers and other people interested in that topic, people which have a hart of corn, people which want to engage themselves in some human and social stuff.

So here are the hard facts:

• We are running short of time, since application for the award starts in March and will end by mid/end of July. This means: Till end of July we need some prototypical, running proof of AccessibleMoin. The content of the wiki is provided by our team at the University of Stuttgart (Institut for Visualization and Institute of Philosophy). It will mainly comprise the results of the diploma thesis on wiki and accessibility.

• We all do that in our leisure time because it's much fun to unite people of different realms (programming and computer scientist, designers, philosophers..) trying to achive together some goal. I don't know whether the award is also rewarded with some money. So you won't probably get a wage except a lof of fun and maybe some great days in December in Berlin on the award gala (provided we succeed to get in the final round), or some press photos of you, some interviews, I don't know...

Where help is desperately needed

• A webspace for the prototypical wiki
  • The webspace should have fixed url so that people can access the wiki also years after BIENE. Of course the wiki should also reside there for some years

  • AccessibleMoin won't run on a farm since vast parts of the source code needs patching

  • It should be a fast installation (not CGI) since we should expect very hight server loads when succeeding in BIENE. Experience is currently missing in setting up other configurations than standard CGI..

• People helping to check and assure the demanded accessibility criteria for BIENE, see http://www.biene-award.de/award/kriterien/ (German only). Maybe we should do some extra pages on that, translating the stuff to English?? I think I will start this..

• Some code repository where we altogether can built up AccessibleMoin in the next months step by step.

• Help is urgently needed on theme redesign!! For BIENE we need to brush up some existing theme. As far as I can see, for BIENE we need to use some rightsidebar theme since a lot of new stuff like a complete text/image zoom functionality and other styleswitch options and ways to regulate contrast of images will move in there. Also the usage of drop-down boxes should be avoided (one BIENE criteria, so no chance for modern theme here). Thus people experienced in design and webdesign who can help creating an optical demanding theme are very well come and are urgently(!!) needed for success..

Further questions on BIENE? Please contact OliverSiemoneit.

BIENE Team

Feel free to add yourself here as participant in our effort to run for BIENE and tell us, how you can support AccessibleMoin running for BIENE

• University of Stuttgart: NicoWeißer, MartinRotard, ChristianeTaras, OliverSiemoneit: Content, vast parts of code for an accessilbe theme like serverside textsize-widget, vast parts of new macros and actions, testing of AccessibleMoin with handicaped users..

• ...

Planing

• High priority
  • Find supporters, espcially people wanting to contribute code and designers(!!)
  • Have a code repository and start assembling the building blocks. Further planing is needed here, e.g. how to divise work and tasks..
  • Start translating BIENE criterias and builing of webpages where discussion to topics can go on
• Medium priority
• Low priortiy
  • Finding of an appropriate webspace

  • Providing an exe-standlone of AccessibleMoin for Win ('Moin for take away'), a python desktop and a normal server version

Links

Biene criterias

• /BasicRequirements

• /ReadabilityAndPresentationOfContent

• /VariabilityInPresentation

• /Navigation

• /ContentStructure

• /Compatibility

• /ErrorHandlingAndHelpForForms

• /ComplexForms

• ComplexTransactionsAndPayment (not of relevance for Moin)

• /Privacy

• Advertising (not of relevance for Moin)

• /DownloadFunctionalityAndEaseOfUse

• /StatisticsAndDatatables (of relevance for Moin?)

• /ComplexDocuments

• /MultimediaVideosAndAnimation

• /VideosInSignLanguage

• /EasyLanguage

Discussion