Hi,
On Fri, Apr 19, 2013 at 5:29 PM, Greg Grossmeier <greg(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
Mostly it is the function of multiple people editing the document
together at the same time in the same room. Until that problem can be
solved on wiki, then a big wiki table probably won't be functional, at
least in the current form that we've taken for this.
But, I also don't know the full capabilities of what could be done,
here, so if someone has a suggestion on how to work this on wiki that
allows easy multi-user simultaneous editing, please do let me know.
Off the top of my head, and without thinking too much about it:
Solution #1: All the content lives in [[Projectname/Roadmap]] pages,
in monthly sections labeled with Labeled Section Transclusion. They
can be transcluded into other pages (like a big all-encompassing
Roadmap page, or smaller roadmaps per team / subdepartment). A
JavaScript gadget allows for easy editing of roadmap items (i.e.
cells) directly from the Roadmap page (and other transclusion pages)
using a modal overlay, like the StatusHelper does (
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Gadget-WmfProjectStatusHelper.js
)
Pros:
* Everything is and stays on wiki.
* The roadmap for each project can be maintained by the project's team
more easily, because it's closer to the project page.
* The JavaScript & template hackery needed to make this work is
probably not too complicated and can be inspired by the existing
StatusHelper.
* No edit conflicts, since people are editing different pages.
Cons:
* People can't simultaneously edit the same roadmap item (cell for a
given month and a given project).
* People need to refresh the page to see edits made by other people
with the gadget.
* Some template / LST / JavaScript dev work is required.
Based on my understanding of how the roadmap is currently updated
(each Tech director updates the roadmap for the projects that fall
under their supervision), the "cons" don't seem unsurmountable.
* Solution #2: All the content lives in a big table at [[Roadmap]]
that can be edited simultaneously by users using a yet-to-be-developed
round-tripping tool to an ethercalc instance in labs. Someone opens
the page for editing in ethercalc, everyone makes their edits, and the
content is saved back to the wiki page.
Pros:
* Everything lives on wiki.
* People can simultaneously edit all parts of the document, including
the same cells, and immediately see each other's changes
Cons:
* This requires significant dev work, probably not trivial considering
the difficulties encountered when we tried to integrate regular
etherpad with wikipage editing a few years back.
* How do we handle edit conflicts?
* This poses other questions like who is attributed for the edits, etc.
An alternative to #2: the round-tripping is done manually by
copy/paste or similar (as it used to be done when tech directors
updated the roadmap in etherpad) if the conversion between formats
isn't too lossy; This avoids having to develop an integrated
round-tripping tool.
Solution #3: A combination of #1 and #2: for example, the content
lives in a big table at [[Roadmap]], and there's a round-tripping tool
to an ethercalc instance in labs for collaborative editing, but
there's also a JavaScript gadget to edit individual cells of the
table.
Note: LST can probably be replaced by Semantic MediaWiki if it's
available on the wiki we're talking about.
In a nutshell: I understand that the way the roadmap is currently
updated (in a meeting of all tech directors each updating their
sections) requires simultaneous editing of the /page/, but I'm not
sure concurrent editing of /each cell/ is as crucial, so compromising
on that may greatly simplify the problem.
HTH,
--
Guillaume Paumier
Technical Communications Manager — Wikimedia Foundation
https://donate.wikimedia.org