31 Oct 2011 Developer Meeting Notes
Attendees
Andy H. (co-moderating), Myrt (co-moderating), Christine E., Geir T., GeneJ, Robert B., Roger M., TamuraJ.
--We welcome Myrt back and hope she will soon be feeling better
Announcements
1. Wiki statistics now show 222 unique visitors per day, the highest this year by a large margin.
2. Daylight Savings Time ended in the UK and Norway on Sunday, Oct 30; it will end in the US next Sunday, Nov 6.
Note: Early in the meeting, we realized there were some technical problems with GoToWebinar audio, but continued on.
Agenda items
Item 1: Planning for the renewal of Wikispaces account
Andy H. has arranged to become the sponsor of the BetterGEDCOM wiki and is making arrangements for the renewal. --We all thank Andy.
Item 2: Membership Survey
Andy H., volunteering to act as the BetterGEDCOM Membership Committee, developed and has begun to distribute a BetterGEDCOM "Annual Membership Survey" on Weebly.com. The survey is available at
http://bg-survey.weebly.com . Notice is being sent by Andy to members in waves, using Wikispaces e-mail. Members may request that responses be kept confidential within the Membership Committee; Andy will be compiling the balance of the survey responses into a report. (During the Developers Meeting, TamuraJ tweeted the survey link and posted same to Google+.)
As part of developing the survey, Andy tabulated some of the activity on the Wiki over the past year. His survey announcement includes the following summary, "During the past year the membership of the Build a BetterGEDCOM Project has grown to 123 members. The BetterGEDCOM Wiki now contains 103 files which have been uploaded and 192 pages have been generated. There were 3,302 posts and 4,626 page edits done by members."
Item 3: Indexing of Wiki Pages
Andy has noticed inconsistencies in wiki page naming conventions (dates sometimes lead the name, sometimes follow; different date styles are used). He volunteered, and those attending supported, to develop a page naming system and make the one-time modifications. Some discussion and explanation about the date stye he intends to use. He will use a style that places the year first, followed by month and finally the date, such as 2011 10 30--this will allow alpha dates to sort chronologically in the wikispaces "pages" index (Manage Wiki > Pages). [Note: His date method appears consistent with
ISO 8601]
Item 4: International Sources & Citations
This agenda item was again postponed to our next meeting, in the hope Dovy might be able to join in the discussion.
See former discussions on the wiki:
message/view/Sub-Project+SourceTemplates/43916580
For the nitty-gritty details:
An+architecture+for+sources%2C+reference+notes+and+bibliographies
Item 5: Update about "Developing the Organization"
(a) In the 23 Oct 2011 Developers Meeting, an ad hoc committee was create to advance this topic. A restricted GoogleGroup has been created for use by the ad hoc committee. Discussion: Will the group require more than GoogleGroup tool for the purpose of developing a proposal? Should we re-new the Organizers Meetings to focus on this topic? Access GoToMeeting or GoToWebinar? Generally decided the group may find a need to use other communication tools, but such additional needs can be discussed on the GoogleGroup list.
(b) The topic, "Developing the Organization," was added to wiki "Home" and the Navigation bar. GJ placed it under the "Goals" heading.*
(c) A wiki page was created to summarize the past years' wiki pages and discussion about topics related to "Developing the Organization." The various wiki links, including summaries of the comments for most, were posted to "
DTO Wiki Links." Members may supplement the list or improve upon the summaries using the wiki page "Edit" tab.
(d) A second wiki page was created to document a second review--mostly of wiki postings and comments. This new wiki page, "
DTO Starting Summary," pulls together postings and observations about the current organization in terms of Gordon Clarke's eight (8) "Instruction" points. (These eight items are topics relevant to a group's charter setting process.) Again, members may supplement the comments posted to DTO Starting Summary by wiki page "Edit" tab.
(e) A third wiki page has been drafted, "DTO Forward Looking," also organized in terms of Gordon Clarke's instructions. This page presents an initial framework supporting rather tightly written missions/goals statements. The framework presents a relatively flat organization with three standing committees--Membership, Technical and Steering. The initial work also advances the concept of consensus as a consensus building process where materials to be considered are circulated for voting and comment; how votes are tallied and what constitutes consensus. The "DTO Forward Looking" page will be posted to the Wiki, but a more complete proposal will be developed by the ad hoc committee. [See,
DTO Forward Looking.]
Discussed:
1. GJ should explain the acronym "DTO" on the pages where it has been used--ala, she will add "Developing the Organization (herein, "DTO")." [Done]
2. We should cover how this group will interface with other groups, including how we interface with SourceTemplates.org.
3. Important members see how they contribute to the result ... that there be an obvious path for their participation
*GJ forgot to ask if members in attendance would have preferred some other placement on the Nav Bar.
Open Mic Discussions
1. Discussion-Unique Visitors/SiteMeter results and reporting.
We reviewed and discussed site visitation patterns, using the GoToWebinar screen sharing capabilities. Discussed what the domains reported actually mean. Observed some substantial visitation patterns. Reviewed pages entered and out-clicks, also.
Orignal posting by GeneJ. Members in attendance are welcome to supplement, improve or correct the notes by clicking the "EDIT" tab at the top of this Wiki page.