Re: [office] Proposals and Wiki Categories

[robert_weir@us.ibm.com]

Michael.Brauer@Sun.COM wrote on 07/04/2008 08:11:33
AM:

> Rob, all,
> 
> I have added an "CategoryNewProposals" to all proposals
we have in the 
> Wiki that use the new template. This allows us to dynamically list
them.
> 
> An example of this is the page
> 
> http://wiki.oasis-open.org/office/CategoryNewProposal
> 
> It list all pages that are in the category "CategoryNewProposal".
The 
> list of pages is dynamically created.
> 

Wunderbar!  I was hoping something like this
was possible, but didn't see how to do it.  Where did you go to define
a new Category?


> We could also use that feature on the page
> 
> http://wiki.oasis-open.org/office/List_of_Proposals
> 
> If we replace the list of proposals that we currently maintain manually
> by the expression below, then all new proposals would be listed 
> automatically:
> 
> [[FullSearch(r:CategoryNewProposal\b -r:CategoryCategory\b)]]
> 
> The only difference is that the list is sorted alphabetically and
does 
> not reflect the order in which proposals have been added. If this
is not 
> an issue, then this dynamic list of pages could actually safe us some
> administrative work. All that TC members that want to add a proposal
> would have to do is to create a new page and to add the term 
> "CategoryNewProposal" to it. The page then would be listed
automatically.
> 

That would work fine.  We're not necessarily
processing proposals in order of submission.  The rules, as they are
drafted now, say that the proposals will advance at a pace determined by
the proposer.  

Would I be able to add the "CategoryNewProposal"
to the template itself?  So all new proposals are automatically classified?

I think we will soon require the use of the new proposal
form template.  However, it may be a good idea to add the category
annotation to the legacy proposals that are still under consideration,
so they show up in the same list.

> Well, as long as we have only new proposals the effort to add a link
to 
> the initial page is the same as to add a "CategoryNewProposal"
to the 
> new page. But when it starts to get interesting is if we add additional
> categories, like a category for approved proposals.
> 
> Right now, if a proposal gets approved, we would have to modify the
> metadata in the proposal, and we would have to maintain the list of
> proposals. This is very similar to what we do currently on the 1.2
> ActionItem page, except that the meta data would be tracked on the
page 
> of the proposal itself, rather than on the page that lists the proposal.
> 
> If we switch to categories, all that is required is that the category
of 
> the page is changed. The lists of proposals would be updated automatically.
> 

Is there anything that gives a timestamp to when you
change or add categories?  We need to be able to track when something
moves from one state to another.  Maybe that is a manual step.

> A page may belong to multiple categories. This would allow us to create
> additional categories for proposals that shall be discussed in a TC
> call, or which shall be voted on. We may for instance agree that TC
> members that wish to discuss a proposal in one of the next calls add
the 
> category "CategoryToBeDiscussed" (or something similar)
to the proposal 
> page. We could then list these proposals automatically on a particular
> page, and could take this ad basis of our meeting agenda. However,
this 
> list would not reflect the order of which we get requests. As long
as 
> the number of proposals to discuss is limited and if we maybe agree
on 
> some time limits for the discussion of proposals in the calls, then
this 
> may not be an issue.

Some interesting possibilities here.

-Rob