[Eg-oversight-board] before next board meeting

[rogan at roganhamby.com]

I see test cases as something that is useful and people can see an impact with their efforts but I think everything that you brought up is valuable.  And where there isn't already an effort to contribute to I would applaud anyone who wants to take up the flag and lead that effort.

>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.

I don't think you'll offend anyone by saying that a lot of content is dev-focused.  Developers know that it is.  Frankly, historically they have been those who are more comfortable with the open source contribution model and those that have pitched in.  What I'm seeing is I hope a move towards a lot of non-developer contributions and as those folks do that will change many things in the community including those pages.  Although any shift is difficult I think the devs as a whole will welcome the new contributions.

>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).

Agreed!

>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.

In my mind test cases are one of these but that doesn't mean there aren't more of course.

>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.
>