Re: Tools plea

On 05/06/2015 03:50 PM, Adrian Hope-Bailie wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have just migrated the manifesto to the ReSpec format on GitHub:
> http://w3c.github.io/webpayments-ig/latest/manifesto/index.html
>
> It was a pretty time-consuming job so I'd suggest moving between 
> formats is only done once. I see your motivations Pat, but I think the 
> work of the editors will become very onerous if all of the feedback 
> given into a Google Doc must be regularly pushed to the Wiki and then 
> GitHub (or even just to GitHub).
>
> It's definitely unfortunate that Google Docs isn't working for a lot 
> of folks, perhaps there is a similar, more user friendly tool than the 
> wiki someone can suggest to try?

+1 to Google Docs or a similar fast collaboration tool.

It would be much easier if we could just hop into a collaborative editor 
and make quick changes to these docs before they're ready to head into a 
more stable/edit-process-heavy environment like github. Submitting a PR 
to fix up some grammar/spelling issues just takes an unnecessary amount 
of time. I just did it (https://github.com/w3c/webpayments-ig/pull/18) 
and saw I missed another typo ... now I'd spend another 5-10 minutes 
fixing that when it could be a simple key press otherwise.

I do think it's important that everyone can access these documents, but 
we also don't want to start slowing down our ability to move quickly. I 
fear that moving early-stage documents out of these quick-paced editing 
tools will be a much greater detriment to the work than the current 
inconvenience Google Docs presents. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of a 
tool that has the feature set we desire that is less restrictive in 
terms of accessibility.

>
> Adrian
>
> On 6 May 2015 at 19:26, Adler, Patrick <patrick.adler@chi.frb.org 
> <mailto:patrick.adler@chi.frb.org>> wrote:
>
>     Hi All,
>
>     Just wanted to add my $0.02 to the thread.  I¹m in a similar boat
>     as Erik
>     and Nick in that there are restrictions on a number of
>     collaborative sites
>     I am able to use due to the current (and necessary) security
>     climate that
>     has sadly become a way of life to protect the organizations we
>     work for.
>     That being said, and speaking as a heavy contributor of materials
>     to the
>     group, I do think the approach that Manu (+10 to Manu too :) )
>     outlines
>     has been very effective in helping us to make progress quickly.  As an
>     editor, I have had to work through some minor inconveniences
>     (working on a
>     standalone machine) to make edits to the early drafts on google
>     docs, but
>     have found the inline comments and edit suggestions worth the pain of
>     doing so - at least for the earliest period of editing where there
>     is a
>     lot of discussion around certain topics.  To Nick¹s point (and I
>     think it
>     is a great one[+10 Nick]), we should be much more clear about that
>     process
>     and tools that are being used to edit the documents so that those that
>     wanted to contribute know how and where the artifacts are and at which
>     state they are in.  Also, I think it would be good to establish
>     some kind
>     of cadence to the editing process internally, so that if we are using
>     multiple tools, there would be an easy way to know when to look for
>     updates.
>
>     Perhaps to add to Manu¹s suggestion below as a proposal, what
>     would the
>     group feel about the following?
>
>     1. Rough editors drafts and updates made daily to google docs
>     (this is in
>     a sense the bleeding edge of the document for those closest to it to
>     structure thoughts on content and key material) - Likely this is most
>     useful to core editors of the document
>     This would provided the value of allowing editors to formulate
>     content and
>     thought process very efficiently at the expense of some barriers
>     to direct
>     access to this version from restrictive networks. Comments from all
>     document locations are incorporated into this version (Google
>     Docs, Wiki,
>     Git/ReSpec)
>
>     2. On a minimum of a weekly basis, document is ³synched² to the
>     wiki where
>     they are accessible to the whole IG in an unrestrictive way, with a
>     dedicated wiki page which contains feedback/content suggestions to be
>     included in the next incremental update.  This would make it easy for
>     editors to look for feedback, and since the whole document is
>     regularly
>     refreshed on a defined cadence, it helps people to know when they
>     should
>     look for new content without requiring the whole IG to respond to
>     every
>     minor incremental update (unless they wanted to)
>
>     3.  Once a draft has reached a fair level of stability, it could be
>     migrated to Github and the Re-spec format and made visible as an
>     editors
>     draft or FPWD.  This prevents the editors from having to do a lot
>     of extra
>     formatting on material that may or may not make it into the final
>     draft
>     had we used only the respec format.
>
>     Like Manu, I¹m open to working in a way that the group feels is most
>     productive and inclusive and would welcome others thoughts on
>     whether the
>     outlined approach makes sense, or whether there are other options
>     that we
>     should pursue.
>
>     Best regards,
>
>     Pat
>
>     On 5/6/15, 11:25 AM, "Manu Sporny" <msporny@digitalbazaar.com
>     <mailto:msporny@digitalbazaar.com>> wrote:
>
>     >On 05/06/2015 08:28 AM, Telford-Reed, Nick wrote:
>     >> Can we please standardise on where we are working?
>     >
>     >There is a method to the madness... :)
>     >
>     >In general, W3C groups tend to use the tools that make the people
>     >contributing most effective.
>     >
>     >Google Docs are used for documents that are in the formative
>     stages and
>     >require a lot of collaborative editing and commenting. Documents live
>     >here for a month or two and then move onto the Wiki or into Github.
>     >
>     >The Wiki is used for shorter content that requires less collaborative
>     >editing and commenting. Content that we intend to publish lives
>     here for
>     >2-3 months while it is refined and then moves into Github.
>     >
>     >Github is used for documents that have stabilized a bit and will be
>     >published via W3C. This is the long-term repository for the content
>     >we're officially publishing as a group. ReSpec is the editing
>     tool that
>     >helps us format the content into the proper W3C publication format.
>     >
>     >So, the pipeline we have right now is:
>     >
>     >Google Docs -> Wiki -> Github
>     >
>     >Things move left to right as they reach certain levels of maturity.
>     >
>     >As for the firewall issues - yes, that sucks and if it's an issue and
>     >you want to contribute to a Google Doc, we can move the doc into the
>     >wiki (but we lose a good chunk of our collaborative ability in doing
>     >so). The alternative being, use a non-firewalled network at work
>     or at a
>     >local coffee shop.
>     >
>     >I think everyone is open to finding something that works better for
>     >contributors, so if you have a better idea, let us know and we'll
>     try to
>     >make it happen.
>     >
>     >-- manu
>     >
>     >--
>     >Manu Sporny (skype: msporny, twitter: manusporny, G+: +Manu Sporny)
>     >Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc.
>     >blog: High-Stakes Credentials and Web Login
>     >http://manu.sporny.org/2014/identity-credentials/
>     >
>
>
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