[notes] 2014-05-16 Webizen Operations Discussion

Hi Webizen task force,

Below are notes from the Webizen operations discussion [1] of Friday  
16-May. I met with Ted Guild (head of W3C Systems team), Veronica Thom  
(Chief Financial Officer), Susan Westhaver (Head of the Administrative  
staff at MIT) and Ralph Swick (Chief Operating Officer, Jack Of All  
Trades).

These notes complement, and in a few places override those from mid-March:
   W3C Systems team perspective for Webizen TF
   http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-webizen/2014Mar/0006.html

I'll update the wiki (<https://www.w3.org/wiki/Webizen>) with a pointer to  
this message in the web archive.

Coralie

[1] https://www.w3.org/2014/05/16-webizen-minutes.html [team-only, hence  
the summary below]


======

* We need an automated system for renewals with reminders.

* Annual fee: Should we allow donations above $100? vs. current one-stop  
shopping proposal
** Suggestion: radio button vs. pull down so folks don't make the first  
less expensive choice
** Ted: "it would be easy in payment system to have a drop-down and a way  
for people to add on to that"
** Suggestion: Revisit the question at W3C Management meeting in June.

* Material goodies:
** Ted: "I want to be away from order data collection and 3rd party,  
automating that is going to be a challenge."
** Suggestion: Out-sourcing
** Suggestion: Webizens get goodies if they pay above a certain threshold

* Application process:
** Request for a direct line type of process.
** Veronica emphasises: the Webizen application and payment process needs  
to be simple.
** Ted: "We can probably do the workflow. No approval, from team or  
Member. When credit card is clear, you're in."
** We debated: Ted proposes to re-use existing infrastructure which  
requires checks be performed if individual is affiliated with a W3C  
Member. Ralph argued that it's not W3C's place to police  
misrepresentations. Ralph suggested to provide a checkbox "are you just  
applying to the Webizen program" which by-passes the verifications. Any  
user flagged as webizen and nothing else, we know their affiliation is not  
necessarily reliable. The question is posed. Trust and verification needs  
to be part of a later conversation.

* Webizen profile needs to show renewal date (among other things).
** Ted: "Certainly. User profile is not done yet; new person on board soon  
has the design profile, we'll have a prototype. That level of  
implementation detail will come later."

* Payment: we want a payment system that can confirm receipt of payment in  
real time.
** Ted: "Invoicing can be all electronic. Paypal bridging requires more  
programming."

* Webizen ID allocation: Can a Webizen actually get a number of their  
choosing?
** Ted: "That would be a pain, but do-able. We do unique IDs automatically  
generated for users. We'd have to come up with a scheme for mapping. [...]  
We can come up, if numbers have value, with another numbering system."
** Veronica: "Early adopters might be interested in a low-number."
** Ralph: "+1 for automatic sequential ID numbers, starting at 1000.  
Reserve the two-digit and three-digit IDs for people who want to pay extra  
:)"

* Roll-out: If W3M approves the project in June, do we launch in time for  
the November W3C20 Symposium, or in 2015?
** Susan: "If we roll something out that doesn't work, we're not going to  
look too good at the Symposium. It's something to keep in mind."

* Discounts: The challenge is that both W3C Validator Suite and W3  
Training use payment systems that do not currently integrate well.
** Suggestion: Move the discounts benefit to the intermediate or long term  
benefits
** Ralph: "another challenge would be renewals (and making sure discount  
still applies or not) and allow for multiple year payments."

* More detail is needed from the TF for Ted to determine deployment and  
operations costs for:
** privileges for electoral college,
** write-access to blog,
** more granularity on AC privileges

======

-- 
  Coralie Mercier  -  W3C Communications Team  -  http://www.w3.org
mailto:coralie@w3.org +336 4322 0001 http://www.w3.org/People/CMercier/

Received on Tuesday, 20 May 2014 17:01:57 UTC