If you're an artist, you've been there: applying that final touch or minor adjustment that finishes the piece off. You're done! Everything looks exactly as you'd imagined it, and you can't wait to put it out there and show your prowess to the world. In the few years that I've been working on websites, I've found the building process to be strikingly similar. My latest assignment, the recently updated Open Font Library, placed me in a position I have never quite been in before: the "Code Middleman". Along the way, I learned a lot about the process of a singular developer and how encouraging collaboration in this medium can be.
The task sounded simple enough. Manufactura Independente had been contracted to craft a visual upgrade to Open Font Library. They did so (and quite well). My mission was to take the series of HTML/CSS/JavaScript mockup pages and apply them to the existing work our own Christopher Adams had done in building the site in it's initial form.
What I hadn't anticipated was the hair pulling and sleep-deprived nights that would lay ahead as I began to untangle the two webs and retie them into a functioning whole.
The Open Font Library was built on an open source web software called Aiki Framework. While Aiki is continually growing and gaining in popularity, it wasn't a software that Manufactura were immediately familiar with. The visual upgrade was only one of a number of features that were to be included in the upcoming release, so it soon became necessary for an Aiki-experienced developer to apply the completed redesigns to the site as work on the additional upgrades was going on behind the scenes.
Trial and error was key. I dove in pasting some design code here, amending an existing Aiki-built widget there, as the site slowly began it's metamorphosis. Things often broke, but communication with both Chris and Manufactura Independente helped me stay on course by establishing the commonalities between the two sets of code and ways of thinking. The veil of mystery often surrounding web development began to lift, in the process.
Why is collaboration so difficult in web development anyway? I think the software, as well as our processes and perceptions are at the heart of the issue. To many in my everyday circles (parents, peers, etc), what I do is a very ambiguous thing. I've described my work process in such vague terms that I began assuming the role of a wizard holed up in a tower solemnly researching and brewing his next potion. Sites are increasingly about speedy deliveries and giving clients dynamic control. Management systems like WordPress have evolved to make these solutions easier, but nothing has excelled at allowing real-time collaboration between multiple developers. Standard procedure often involves a repetitive process of a single developer designing, setting up, and configuring a site for general use.
With the completion of Open Font Library's latest release, I found myself leaving behind my worst working tendencies. I lost the desire to forge ahead in solitude or to be overly attached to work I completed and hyper critical of other's work. The necessity of communicating between multiple groups through a new software and meeting a tight deadline has helped me grow as a developer. It stopped feeling like a competition and started being about learning from and helping others.
Is Aiki Framework the ultimate collaborative solution? Not in it's current form, but each release brings us closer, and each project is another opportunity to build together.
