[Evergreen-web-team] Easy On-Ramp doc for website and the questions it raises

[Jim Craner]

So there are a few process-related issues raised here...

Our recommendations doc (draft here: http://evergreen-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?
id=webteam:webplan:2011:section6_recommendations) recommends the creation of a Website Team for 
adding new content, helping other people NOT on our team add new content, and maintaining existing site 
content and features.  In addition, in the content requirement recommendations, we identified the need for 
an "EG 101" / "Intro to EG" set of content, which this specific doc of Bob's is logically a part of.

In this specific case, Bob is on the Website Team by virtue of joining the mailing list and expressing interest 
in helping.  He created content (that we know is needed).  Given the current (lack of) process, I'd be fine if 
he just added it to the wiki and notified folks, inviting them to contribute improvements.

I think there is something to be said for the simple do-ocracy model: "I want to add/improve content" -> 
"Get a wiki account, click Edit, type your content, and done!"  As long as everyone is open to working from 
a common base of content for purposes of improving and collaborating and avoiding having little fiefdoms, 
that can work.  It's not very regimented or orderly and is subject to chaos, but it can work - and chaos isn't 
necessarily bad :)

The phrase "gatekeeper" has some baggage, especially if our goal is to encourage a broad base of 
contributors and lower the barriers to their contribution.  "Editor" is a much better word for what the 
Website Team folks should be doing on an ongoing basis: soliciting new content from the community and 
from other Website Team members, maintaining existing content, maybe making style/content/tech tweaks 
to content that new folks contribute.  "Facilitator" should also be an important role of these folks.

Going forward, if the Web Team and community consented to the recommendations I've drafted (and any 
others that you all want to add in there :) we might assign the Web Team to adding all our recommended 
content over a 3 month period.  They would either write it themselves and/or coordinate community 
members writing it.  They would help get that content onto the site (maybe using a new user-friendly 
content management system as opposed to a mix of PHP, HTML, and Dokuwiki).  They would then have a 
schedule for keeping that content up to date on a regular basis.  The details of the process would still have 
to be worked out depending on the platform/tools involved.

Thoughts?
Thanks,
Jim



>  -------Original Message-------
>  From: Lori Bowen Ayre <lori.ayre at galecia.com>
>  To: Evergreen Community Web Team Email List <evergreen-web-team at list.evergreen-ils.org>
>  Subject: [Evergreen-web-team] Easy On-Ramp doc for website and the questions it raises
>  Sent: 20 Jun '11 12:17
>  
>  Hi All,
>  
>  
>  From Bob Molyneaux for you comments:
>  
>  
>     I have put a draft of an "on ramp" here for your consideration:
>     [LINK: http://www.evergreen-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=scratchpad]
>  http://www.evergreen-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=scratchpad.
>  
>     I made one slight change in a URL in the glossary. I had it wrong
>     for the Evergreen support page--I left out an 's' on "faq"
>  ==>
>     "faqs" in the URL.
>  
>     I also noticed this page:
>     [LINK:
>  http://www.evergreen-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=scratchpad:glossary]
>  http://www.evergreen-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=scratchpad:glossary.
>     It has been around since December, 2007. I think the information
>     could be added to the glossary as a link to ODLIS and this page
>     discarded. Note the link to the "acquisitions/serials effort."
>     That page is also dated and, I move, should be deleted.
>  
>  
>  This begs the question of workflow.  Bob has provided a nice starter kid
>  for someone interested in learning about Evergreen.  We don't
>  currently have a place for that to live.  How do we figure out where to
>  put things that come in this way?
>  
>  
>  Also, is there some protocol that should be instituted for processing
>  content like this?  Do we have gatekeepers?  Editors?  Monitors?  
>  
>  
>  It's just not as simple as...Bob has a wiki account so just put it up
>  there.  Or is it?
>  
>  
>  Maybe you can provide some advice, Jim?
>  
>  
>  Lori
>  
>  
>  --------------------
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