OASIS Mailing List ArchivesView the OASIS mailing list archive below
or browse/search using MarkMail.

 


Help: OASIS Mailing Lists Help | MarkMail Help

dita-adoption message

[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index] | [List Home]


Subject: [dita.xml.org] Fundamental Changes


I'd like to propose the following changes to the dita.xml.org site:

1. That the home page has more permanent content which provides a very  
brief introduction to DITA, and an introduction to the site, with  
hyperlinks to key areas. This should be written with search engines in  
mind, as much as site visitors. If agreed, we need to discuss what  
this content should be. A review of search engine metadata can go  
alongside this.

2. That the style sheet is changed such that more content can be  
fitted onto a page. Something more like the coverpages site: http://xml.coverpages.org 
  . This may, of course, just be a Mac thing. But, then again, there  
should be as few 'browser penalties' as possible. The same style sheet  
is used across the whole xml.org domain, so this could impact quite a  
few sites. However, it surely should be possible to have a modified  
style sheet for the dita.xml.org site?

3. That permissions are changed such that contributors to the site  
should be paid up OASIS members. See below.

4. That someone with a knowledge of Drupal investigates whether it's  
possible for calendar events to be automatically removed when they're  
over. This would reduce quite a bit of site administration.


dita.xml.org Site Contributors

Currently anyone who registers with dita.xml.org can contribute to the  
site. There is no checking, nor is there a fee for being able to  
contribute to the site. At least, the only checking is a valid email  
address, but this only needs to be valid whilst registering.

This policy of anyone being able to contribute may seem to follow the  
spirit of an open source community, but has lead to a certain amount  
of abuse. This in turn makes work for those administering the site. As  
interest in DITA grows, so will dita.xml.org site traffic, and with it  
the amount of abuse.

'Dita' is also the first name of the artist Dita von Teese. It is  
quite possible that some of her fans visit the dita.xml.org site.  
Especially as dita.xml.org goes up the search engine rankings. There  
is currently nothing stopping them from contributing to dita.xml.org,  
whether from ignorance or malice.

When someone visits the site, they should only see quality  
contributions from people who 'have something to say'. There should be  
a cachet to contributing to the site.

Setting the bar such that only OASIS members can contribute would put  
the dita.xml.org site on an equivalent level to joining an OASIS TC. I  
do not think this is expecting too much, and surely it's what visitors  
to the site would expect?

Note that there are also OASIS mailing lists, and these can be where  
non OASIS members can make contributions or ask questions. List  
moderation is easier than site administration.

Implementing this would require some sort of tie up between the main  
OASIS site and the xml site. An extension to the TC joining procedure,  
for instance. It should at least be necessary to log-in to an OASIS  
Account before registering as a dita.xml.org site contributor. This  
would need to be secured such that anyone with a knowledge of Drupal  
couldn't abuse the registration process.

Depending upon reaction to raising the bar, it may be possible to  
introduce an 'entry level' OASIS membership. This would offer the  
ability to contribute to such sites, but not participation on a TC.  
This is obviously for OASIS to decide, but the point is that site  
contributors should only be 'paid up' OASIS members. I don't think  
this would be necessary, I'm just raising it as a option. Being able  
to contribute to xml.org sites would become a benefit of OASIS  
membership.


Carol/Mary:

Would you please forward to OASIS Management and your techie folk for  
their comment.

Would it be possible to generate a list of current dita.xml.org  
contributors, and then compare this with the OASIS membership list? It  
would also be interesting to correlate this with DITA related TC & sub- 
TC membership.

David


[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index] | [List Home]