Re: My concerns regarding publication

On 2012-03-15 15:06, Userite wrote:
> Hi All,
> Sorry if I appear awkward but following our recent conference I am 
> even more worried about publishing this draft than I was before the 
> conference.

Please, do not be sorry, real democracy is a great thing.

> I believe that we have a good document as far as it goes (down to Step 
> 3 of section 3) However after that there is nothing. No indication of 
> what sort of guidance we will provide, how we expect evaluators to use 
> and apply WCAG nor, crucially, on how we think we might report the 
> evaluation findings. These areas are of major importance and therefore 
> deserve at least some indication of where we are going, or at least 
> thinking of going. Even amongst ourselves we are asking questions 
> about things like conformance, how much more would the public be 
> asking if all they have available is the current document?

In my point of view, I think this is a good thing because we might 
receive comments that are really out of the box... since the box is 
opened on each side! ;)

> I am not suggesting that we provide the same level of detail yet in 
> steps 4 and 5 etc. as we have in the earlier parts. But we should be 
> able to outline our approach in a couple of weeks so that the public 
> get a more complete draft and we are clearer about the overall process 
> we are developing.
> So my request is to hold off publication for a couple more weeks so 
> that we can put some more flesh on the document.

I would like to read more on this. What are the cons of publishing right 
away?

Here are some pros that I see to early publication, coming from my 
development experience:
It allows the document to progress faster;
It enables the community to define what the document will become (so 
that the document will be of better use to the community, being closer 
to what the community really wants out of that kind of methodology);

You see those pros everywhere in the Free and Open Source Software 
community and Agile community. If you wish to read more on the subject, 
The Cathedral and the Bazaar is a must read 
(http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/). Are those 
applicable to our methodology development? I let Eval TF express it's 
opinion on that one.

In my opinion, early feedback is good feedback: less work for us, better 
work for the community! ;)

My two cents.

Best regards to all,

Samuel