[Eg-oversight-board] before next board meeting

[Andrea Buntz Neiman]

>> 2) Andrea and Shauna - if you're still interested in playing 
>> wranglers to help front end users supply documentation for developers 
>> I'm sure that would be welcome so let's try to find some time to chat 
>> about it.  The obvious goal (to me) would be test cases but there may 
>> be other opportunities and there will definitely be a need for some 
>> structure I think.
>>
>> http://www.open-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=qa:eg_test_cases
>>
>> Here is an example of some already up on the WIKI.  They can be 
>> structured a bit differently but this shows you the fundamentals.  It 
>> may seem obvious to front end users what has to be done but those 
>> kinds of accurate repeated steps are very important.  After those 
>> looking at automated tools for testing like selenium 
>> http://docs.seleniumhq.org/projects/ide/ is the next step.
>>
>> My personal opinion is that once we have some people willing to wear 
>> official wrangling hats that they start working with the developer 
>> community to identify priorities and what would be most helpful.
>
> Sorry to answer a question that wasn't directed at me, but my 
> recollection from the meeting at the conference was that the goal was 
> to engage the community in helping in many different activities, not 
> just in developing test cases, though I do think the test cases are 
> important. I'm guessing there are those who will be happy to 
> contribute to the test cases, but others may not find that it is the 
> right fit, and I wouldn't want to miss out on the other opportunities 
> for involvement.
>
> Having said that, even though I didn't volunteer to wrangle, I would 
> be happy to work on a set of acquisitions test cases. 


Speaking for myself, I am indeed interested in test cases, but more 
broadly I am interested in guiding non-tech people like myself in ways 
they can contribute, whether that be documentation, test cases, bug 
reporting, etc.; and also in providing outreach to new community members 
either at the conference or on the wiki, wherever, with a "So you're new 
here" page/seminar/whatever.

With all due respect, the Contributor page on the wiki is very densely 
wall-of-text and dev-focused.   Librarians are by nature helpful people 
who like ferreting out information, but there's this sense that I get 
from this page that things like bug reporting and documentation are 
solely the domain of people who know the code.  I understand why knowing 
the code is good in these cases, but is it necessary?  I would very much 
like to bridge the gap between "I want to get involved but I couldn't 
code if my life depended on it" and "Here's what the project needs that 
can be done knowing no code", since that is the gap in which I 
frequently find myself w/r/t the project (and based on conversations 
with others I'm not alone in this gap).

This could involve things like What makes for a good/useful/helpful test 
case/bug report/bit of documentation?  Or even pulling back a little, 
What makes something a bug?  What kinds of things might be caused by 
bugs?  The Bug Wranglers FAQ page is a bit more helpful to this end,  
but I feel that these things should be made more widely known.

Another important factor is time -- can we identify things that would 
help EG that can be done with a minimal time commitment?  I know that 
ideally organizations would encourage or even require their staff to 
give back to the project, but if we're realistic not all organizations 
can/will do this.  What are some quickies we can ask for help with?  
What about breaking down test areas into small, bite-sized pieces?

These are just my unrefined & dashed-off end-of-the-day thoughts, but I 
hope it gives a little insight into what I was thinking about outreach.  
I am very interested in a dialogue about ways to get a broader segment 
of the community involved and making the ways they can help seem 
friendlier and more approachable.

A.


Andrea Buntz Neiman, MLS
Librarian II, Public Services
Kent County Public Library
408 High Street
Chestertown, MD 21620
410-778-3636 x2115
www.kentcountylibrary.org

On 5/30/2013 2:34 PM, Kathy Lussier wrote:
> Hi Rogan!
>
> Quoting rogan at roganhamby.com:
>
>> I wanted to bring up a few things before the next board meeting to 
>> get them out of the way so that perhaps the time in the meeting can 
>> be more discussion.
>>
>> 1) I had to miss the last meeting and when I reviewed the IRC log I 
>> admit to having some concerns.  Engagement seemed low.  I admit that 
>> I'm comfortable with IRC but I want to make sure the board feels 
>> comfortable discussing everything that we need to. If anyone feels 
>> like it would be better to move back to phone calls we should have 
>> that discussion.  But, maybe it was also just a fluke.
>
> I agree that the first IRC meeting didn't go as well as I would have 
> hoped. However, I think this was partially due to the fact that there 
> was some confusion over the nomination and voting process. As people 
> get more comfortable with the medium, we may find they go a little 
> more smoothly. I also see a lot of value in holding meetings out in 
> the open where anyone in the community can follow along. However, I am 
> somebody who prefers IRC meetings to conference calls, so I would love 
> to hear from others who are not as comfortable with the medium.
>
> For what it's worth, I've also found that engagement can be low for 
> some conference calls. Perhaps more e-mail discussion between meetings 
> would be warranted?
>
>
>
>> 2) Andrea and Shauna - if you're still interested in playing 
>> wranglers to help front end users supply documentation for developers 
>> I'm sure that would be welcome so let's try to find some time to chat 
>> about it.  The obvious goal (to me) would be test cases but there may 
>> be other opportunities and there will definitely be a need for some 
>> structure I think.
>>
>> http://www.open-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=qa:eg_test_cases
>>
>> Here is an example of some already up on the WIKI.  They can be 
>> structured a bit differently but this shows you the fundamentals.  It 
>> may seem obvious to front end users what has to be done but those 
>> kinds of accurate repeated steps are very important.  After those 
>> looking at automated tools for testing like selenium 
>> http://docs.seleniumhq.org/projects/ide/ is the next step.
>>
>> My personal opinion is that once we have some people willing to wear 
>> official wrangling hats that they start working with the developer 
>> community to identify priorities and what would be most helpful.
>
> Sorry to answer a question that wasn't directed at me, but my 
> recollection from the meeting at the conference was that the goal was 
> to engage the community in helping in many different activities, not 
> just in developing test cases, though I do think the test cases are 
> important. I'm guessing there are those who will be happy to 
> contribute to the test cases, but others may not find that it is the 
> right fit, and I wouldn't want to miss out on the other opportunities 
> for involvement.
>
> Having said that, even though I didn't volunteer to wrangle, I would 
> be happy to work on a set of acquisitions test cases.
>
>
>> 3) I'd like to find a couple of souls willing to work with me to look 
>> at grant opportunities.  My bias is geared towards looking at what we 
>> could do that could be large scale impacts.  To be clear, this would 
>> be an investigative function at this time that would bring 
>> information back to the board and the community about what we think 
>> the opportunities and possiblities are.  We would need to jump 
>> logistic, financial and legal hurdles that involve a lot of parties 
>> before we decided to do anything but this is the first step on that 
>> road.
>
> I'll raise my hand. At the same time we're looking for grant 
> opportunities, should we also be starting discussions on where we want 
> to focus our efforts if funding does come through?
>
> Thanks for kicking off this discussion Rogan!
>
> Kathy
>
>
>
>
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