Re: Proposed Blog Post for MSDN JS Contribution

Hi, folks-

Patrick caught me on IRC:
[[
so the interesting stat is most people check the website 11-2 their 
local time (browser time). which means most people check it around lunch 
time !!
now i want to see which timezone gets the most traffic
so 11-3 eastern time seems to be the best time to post. i would suggest 
you make a post at 9am pacific time on a monday.
]]

So, that gives us some time. I'll tighten up the wording (it's a bit 
long, I think), and add some reassuring statements that contributors 
won't be on their own.

Regards-
-Doug

On 4/18/13 8:24 PM, Patrick D'Souza wrote:
> We can look at piwik and look at data for the best day and time. I'm
> on my way home. I can look into piwik when I'm on my laptop.
>
> Patrick
>
> On Apr 18, 2013, at 8:19 PM, Doug Schepers <schepers@w3.org> wrote:
>
>> Hey, folks-
>>
>> Thinking of timing... should we post this on Monday instead of
>> Friday? When are we likely to get the best result?
>>
>> Also, do we want to identify specific individuals who will drive
>> it? It might look good if we had one Microsoft person (so it
>> doesn't seem like a "dump-and-run") and a person from some other
>> company (to give it more neutrality)... Alex, from the templates
>> side, you might be a good candidate.
>>
>> [1] https://twitter.com/nsteinmetz/status/324748962080886784
>>
>> Regards- -Doug
>>
>> On 4/18/13 8:13 PM, Doug Schepers wrote:
>>> Hi, Eliot-
>>>
>>> Great point. Any suggestions?
>>>
>>> Regards- -Doug
>>>
>>> On 4/18/13 8:06 PM, Eliot Graff wrote:
>>>> Thank you, Doug.
>>>>
>>>> I like this a lot. I think we could show a little more
>>>> emphatically somewhere that we have people who will act in
>>>> leadership roles in the migration but that should leaders
>>>> arise, they're welcome, too. As it reads now, it's a little
>>>> daunting. Who's organizing the migration? What am I getting
>>>> into? If I want to really drive this area, can I? Those seem to
>>>> be unanswered questions.
>>>>
>>>> Eliot
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message----- From: Julee [mailto:julee@adobe.com]
>>>> Sent: Thursday, April 18, 2013 4:56 PM To: Doug Schepers;
>>>> public-webplatform@w3.org Subject: Re: Proposed Blog Post for
>>>> MSDN JS Contribution
>>>>
>>>> +1 on this blog post and communications idea! Thanks, Doug. J
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ---------------------------- julee@adobe.com @adobejulee
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message----- From: Doug Schepers
>>>> <schepers@w3.org> Date: Thursday, April 18, 2013 10:23 AM To:
>>>> "public-webplatform@w3.org" <public-webplatform@w3.org>
>>>> Subject: Re: Proposed Blog Post for MSDN JS Contribution
>>>>
>>>>> Hi, folks-
>>>>>
>>>>> One more thought occurred to me.
>>>>>
>>>>> Maybe we can get some well-known JavaScript luminaries to
>>>>> help with this integration, retweet it, review it, endorse
>>>>> it, and write complementary materials (tutorials, and so on)
>>>>> to amplify the message here?
>>>>>
>>>>> Regards- -Doug
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 4/18/13 1:18 PM, Doug Schepers wrote:
>>>>>> Hi, folks-
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Our original tweet [1] came late in the (East Coast) day
>>>>>> yesterday; it's gotten 117 retweets, but I think we can do
>>>>>> better.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Rather than just retweet it again from @w3c during EU
>>>>>> hours, I thought it would be better to write up a blog post
>>>>>> with a more detailed call to action, and tweet that, then
>>>>>> get partners to retweet a bit earlier in the day.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> So, I took a first stab at a blog post [2] (text below,
>>>>>> without links).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Constructive criticism welcome, as are suggestions on the
>>>>>> body of the corresponding tweet. I propose to post the
>>>>>> final version of this tomorrow morning ET (afternoon UTC).
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> [1]
>>>>>> https://twitter.com/webplatform/status/324645876536598529
>>>>>> [2] http://blog.webplatform.org/?p=335&preview=true
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Regards- -Doug
>>>>>>
>>>>>> [[ JavaScript Docs from MSDN Apr 18 2013 by Shepazu
>>>>>>
>>>>>> A Web documentation site without JavaScript is like a
>>>>>> browser without JavaScript.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The JavaScript topic on Web Platform Docs is sparse,
>>>>>> especially our reference articles. That¹s why we were so
>>>>>> thrilled when Microsoft offered us their excellent
>>>>>> JavaScript documentation from MSDN.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> We briefly discussed how we should integrate it into Web
>>>>>> Platform Docs, and quickly decided that it would be most
>>>>>> appropriate for Microsoft to simply donate the HTML
>>>>>> documents, and we would let the community have ownership
>>>>>> over the integration. After all, this is a community-based
>>>>>> site, and we want the community to be involved in decisions
>>>>>> major and minor.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> So, this is where you come in!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> What can you do?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Integration is not a trivial task. It¹s not difficult,
>>>>>> either, but there are lots of moving parts.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> First, we have to settle what on the URL structure. How do
>>>>>> we want to organize the different pages within our
>>>>>> information hierarchy, so that it¹s consistent, easy to
>>>>>> find and reference, and avoids naming clashes?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Second, we have to make MediaWiki templates. We need to
>>>>>> define how each page type (object, property, method, etc.)
>>>>>> is structured, again for consistency and to make it easy
>>>>>> for an API to extract just the information needed.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Third, we have to come up with a methodology to convert the
>>>>>> HTML content into the wiki. Converting 400+ pages by hand
>>>>>> would be tedious, but an automated import script is likely
>>>>>> to be error-prone, even with consistent and well-structured
>>>>>> HTML like the export from MSDN. Which sections do we use?
>>>>>> What do we do if we need to add structure that doesn¹t
>>>>>> exist in the original? How shall we review all the
>>>>>> converted documents? Should we import first into our test
>>>>>> wiki instance, then transfer into the main wiki? In some
>>>>>> cases, there may be duplicates of content already in the
>>>>>> wiki; how shall we resolve that? What import script should
>>>>>> we use (and can we revise and reuse the script from our
>>>>>> original MSDN mass-import back in October)?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> You can help us answer these questions, and ask questions
>>>>>> we didn¹t think about. And you can volunteer to help do
>>>>>> the conversion, review, or other parts of the project. To
>>>>>> help manage this process, we created a special sub-project,
>>>>>> MSDN-JS, in our issue tracker/project management tool.
>>>>>> Create a WPD account, subscribe to our public-webplatform
>>>>>> mailing list and introduce yourself, and we¹ll help get you
>>>>>> started. What have we already done?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> A couple of days ago, Microsoft¹s Kathy Shoesmith and her
>>>>>> team exported the whole JavaScript branch of their MSDN
>>>>>> content from their CMS as well-structured HTML; they also
>>>>>> provided some support files, including a hierarchy index in
>>>>>> XML, and an Excel file with the correspondence table
>>>>>> between file names (e.g.
>>>>>> ³1b512146-1e8a-44a4-89da-6cc5338d15cb.htm² shudder) and
>>>>>> article title (e.g., ³getMilliseconds Method (Date)
>>>>>> (JavaScript)²).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I converted that spreadsheet file to a JSON object, and
>>>>>> used node.js to rename all the files (e.g.
>>>>>> ³getMilliseconds-Method__Date.html²) and convert the XML
>>>>>> hierarchy index to an HTML nested list to serve as a table
>>>>>> of contents, then pushed everything to WebPlatform¹s Github
>>>>>> msdn-js repo.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> So, there¹s where we are. Where we go next is up to you.
>>>>>> Why not use MDN¹s JavaScript docs?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> MDN, the Mozilla Developer Network, already excellent
>>>>>> JavaScript documentationŠ as well they should! Mozilla¹s
>>>>>> Brendan Eich invented JavaScript, and Mozilla continues to
>>>>>> drive and improve JavaScript in their browser and in Ecma
>>>>>> standardization. Moreover, they¹ve had 8 years of expert
>>>>>> JavaScript developer contributions to MDN, so it¹s
>>>>>> rock-solid. And Mozilla is one of the Web Platform
>>>>>> stewards. Why not just reuse their JavaScript content?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> As Mozilla¹s Janet Swisher explains, that content was
>>>>>> contributed to MDN under the CC-BY-SA (Creative Commons
>>>>>> Attribution Share-Alike) license, rather than the more
>>>>>> permissive and reusable CC-BY license that WPD offers, so
>>>>>> for the long-term goal of making and keeping WPD as open as
>>>>>> possible, we needed another solution. Microsoft donating
>>>>>> their content is an ideal starting point for comprehensive
>>>>>> community-driven documentation.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> And JavaScript is still evolving (rapidly!), so WPD
>>>>>> community engagement by JavaScript experts will help us
>>>>>> evolve our content along with it. You want to future-proof
>>>>>> our documentation by adding a tutorial and examples on
>>>>>> JavaScript Futures? Go for it! We need you!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Even with big content contributions like this one from
>>>>>> Microsoft, this site will never succeed in our mission
>>>>>> without consistent contributions and engagement from our
>>>>>> community. So, consider your effort in integrating these
>>>>>> documents a ³matching donation² and help us make WPD the
>>>>>> documentation site we all need. ]]
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>

Received on Friday, 19 April 2013 02:55:51 UTC