Re: How to reach AC Newbies and why is there such a Large "Silent Majority"? [Was: Re: Don't disclose election results]

FWIW, I’d caution against just writing more FAQs, etc. in the hope that the message will get through; this is how the IETF got into their current mess, with multiple resources saying slightly different things and confusion reigning. 

Fixing this sort of thing needs a deep look into UX, not just band-aids.

Cheers,


On 4 Jun 2014, at 9:06 am, Robin Berjon <robin@w3.org> wrote:

> On 04/06/2014 14:57 , Arthur Barstow wrote:
>> On 6/4/14 8:03 AM, Robin Berjon wrote:
>>> Maybe we should do some AC training. When I ran for TAG I was
>>> surprised at how many reps wrote to say "I'd like to vote for you but
>>> I don't understand how".
>> 
>> Oh dear. That's really {s,b}ad. The closest thing I know about related
>> to AC Newbies is <https://www.w3.org/wiki/AdvisoryCommittee/NewbieInfo>.
>> If there is some additional info that should be added, please do update
>> that doc or send me the details and I'll be happy to update it. That
>> said, perhaps there are better ways/medium to reach Newbies (f.ex. a
>> 5-10 minute video that address the issue you raise as well as other AC
>> Newbie FAQs). (I just filed a related issue in the AC tracker
>> <https://www.w3.org/Member/track/issues/7>).
> 
> I'd add to the wiki but I couldn't get a sense for what wasn't working 
> for them — I sent some instructions in the hope that something would happen.
> 
> Voting is basically clicking on a link in an email that comes to you, 
> then ticking someone's name and hitting Submit.
> 
> I guess there could be several reasons (possibly mixed):
> 
>   • Email never got read, is lost somewhere in Inbox/Trash.
>   • Rep does not know about http://w3.org/Member/, etc.
>   • Lost password
>   • Confused by WBS UI (I think it's pretty readable, but it's old 
> school so might confuse some?)
>   • Laziness (could figure out how to do but would rather be told)
> 
> That's why I think it would be useful to reach out to non-voters 
> (perhaps also to non-posters?) to get a feel for what the barriers are.
> 
> I'm willing to bet that in many cases the fact that one would need to 
> get approval, but it's not seen as important enough to call a meeting, 
> is a barrier. I'm not sure what we could do to help here. Make 
> membership more expensive for non-voters? ;-)
> 
> -- 
> Robin Berjon - http://berjon.com/ - @robinberjon
> 

--
Mark Nottingham    mnot@akamai.com   http://www.mnot.net/