Toolbox, members, groups, voting: a cursory estimate

This inquiry was passed to Agaric by colleagues with a client seeking open source solutions. (Same request that had good extra questions answered here.) Below, in the resolution, is our quick cost estimate.

Summary: seeks a website design firm to develop, maintain, and
host its new website. The attached site map outlines the four areas of this
new website: About, Toolbox, Members section, and Groups section.

Timeline: work will begin immediately and be completed by
early December.

Design Recommendations:

Revamp site navigation (see attached site map) to make it easier to find
content, especially by combining the existing resources sections into a
single “Communications Toolbox” section where resources are searchable by
type, issue, skill level, or org-generated.
Redesign the site with a greater focus on images and color.
Feature content that demystifies org: “Meet a Member” profiles that show
members pictures and a description of their work. Some of these could also
include streaming video in the future. Issue news/updates about org using a
blog format.
Create “Group” pages that highlight the work of specific regions or
issue-based working groups and allow flexible levels of cooperation
(document sharing, threaded discussions over email).
Replace the unused central calendar with the option of more specific
group-oriented calendars available to groups on request.
Create some members-only content (member directory, ability to initiate a
working group collaboration space).
Allow a simple yet flexible system where logged-in users can participate in
different activities ranging from rating toolbox resources to posting
calendar events to a group to creating new online groups. Users can have the
option of posting a photo of themselves to accompany their comments or
having a star or other icon by their username on comments to indicate that
they’re a moderator or frequent contributor.

Required Features:

org is primarily interested in using open source tools to manage our
website.

Content
A content management system that provides the ability for current staff to
create content and update content on all pages
A searchable Communications Toolbox featuring a variety of different types
of resources (links to websites, downloadable files, etc) that can be sorted
easily by visitors
A well-indexed search feature available site-wide.
Ability to embed streaming video and images throughout site content
Independent calendars for use by working groups.
User Accounts
Ability for staff to create user accounts with varying levels of permission
for posting resources, comments, ratings, sending and receiving emails as
part of the group, and participating in working groups: See the “user
permissions” described later in this document.
Ability to designate some user accounts as super-users with permission to
manage content in some sections of the site.
Members should easily manage user accounts. (Simple login, simple password
resets, options to stay logged-in to site across separate browser visits,
option to upload a photo of themselves)
Home Page Layout
Featured Toolbox Resources (1-2), highlighted in a right-hand column
“Meet a Member” with image and tagline that links to a rotating member
profile in About section, highlighted in center / main part of webpage
“New from” (this may be a Toolbox resource or a link to a blog post)
highlighted in right-hand column
Top bar / horizontal navigation
Use new logo (see heading on page 1 of this document).
Online Membership Application
The site will allow for visitors to submit an online application to become a
member. Upon acceptance, staff will send a link for dues payment using a
secure third-party provider such as Paypal.

Web standards
Content should be able to be easily indexed by leading search engines.
Site should provide a clean and attractive appearance for all common
browsers released in the past three years (including IE, Firefox, Opera,
Netscape, Camino).
Support for syndication of content (RSS)

Resolution

Thanks for thinking of us! We just started working on the World Social Forum 2008 web site so we're a little pressed for time. However, we're also working with an expanded network of people, Drupal looks like a very good match for the design recommendations and required features outlined here.

And I liked their additional questions so much I made a quick draft of answering them for possible inclusion in future proposals!
http://agaricdesign.com/note/topics-and-questions-agaric-from-request-proposal

We could meet their timeline of early December, pushing off beginning major work to a few weeks from now, for about $9,000 as a rough estimate. If they want a very involved design or if there are complexities of importing data or other unstated requirements it could be more, but for the most part I would say this estimate is on the higher end.

A great benefit of Drupal and the open source free software community around it is of course the functionality they would get that they haven't asked for, and the possibility of extending it with even more powerful tools such as CiviCRM for contact relationship management.

For maintenance we can do hosting for $15 to $25 a month for what my guess of size and traffic of this site might be; this is on our dedicated server that we manage all parts for best performance and flexibility, and our service plan which is simply above and beyond for what we do to keep the site current and answer questions runs $25 to $75 a month for our guess of this site's needs.