Re: [dita-adoption] dita.xml.org: Re DITA Getting started

Hi,

The page is my personal favorite. It's a great place to get started, but there's scope for improvement. I think that the page should serve as an authoritative reference to both beginners and seasoned DITA users. We need to reorganize the excellent content on this page to cater to different audience types. Let me take a stab at this tomorrow (it's almost midnight in Bangalore :) )

Matt

On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 8:35 PM, Kristen James Eberlein <keberlein@pobox.com> wrote:

(E-mail sent by Kris Eberlein on 25 August to subset of the DITA Adoption Committee)
Hi, David.

Thanks for getting a conversation started about the site! I was offline this weekend or I would have responded sooner. See my inline comments 
below enclosed in <kje> tags.

I want to also give some background about my involvement in dita.xml.org. I joined the board last January and so was a relatively 
new member, still struggling to understand how the site functioned and the roles and responsibilities of the Ed Board.

A question for all of you:

Should we return this discussion to the main dita-adoption list, until we become a formal subcommittee? We could use a prefix on the subject 
line so that people who are not interested could skip the e-mail -- but we might get some additional, helpful feedback from others on the Adoption 
committee.

Kris

Kristen James Eberlein
David J. B. Hollis wrote:
> Hi, All
>
> I noticed this on DITA-Users, and at first I was delighted that the
> message is getting across. The page is also an excellent starting
> point for adopting DITA.
<kje>We need to make improving and maintaining this page
(http://dita.xml.org/book/getting-started) a very high priority, if this
is where dita-users are going to send people who want to "get started
with DITA." It's gotten 7896 reads since it was posted on the site.</kje>
>
> However, after a small amount of investigation, it does seem to
> encapsulate the scope of the task ahead. For instance:
>
> 1. If I landed on the homepage for dita.ml.org, how would I navigate
> to this page? There seems to be very little navigation built into the
> site. I think the route would be either of these:
> Browse - Categories : Introduction : Getting started
> Wiki Knowledgebase (orange top line) : Setting up DITA : Getting started

<kje>Navigating the site is neither intuitive or easy. A reader can arrive at any page, and so the immediate navigation aides are the top header:

HOME | WIKI KNOWLEDGEBASE | NEWS | EVENTS | PRODUCTS | SERVICES | RESOURCES | FORUMS | USER GROUPS | BLOGS

Or whatever is displayed in the right-hand panel, which I think might vary depending on the type of page the reader has landed on.</kje>
>
> I think the topic headings in the Wiki Knowledgebase are great, and
> wonder if it would be possible to bring some or all of them into the
> 'Browse' listing?

<kje>Carol, do we have the capability to modify what is displayed in the Browse menu for the separate areas of the site? Now the Browse menu has the following options:

* categories
* Recent posts
* Recent changes
* Most popular content

For example, could we add additional entries that would be displayed under Browse if the reader was on a Wiki Knowledgebase page -- but not displayed if the reader was on the Events page?</kje>

>
>
> 2. I don't know what the 'book' sub-directory is supposed to contain,
> but even it doesn't contain a link to the getting started page.
> http://dita.xml.org/book/
>
> 3. A little bit of browsing further, and I came across a few out of
> date links:
> http://dita.xml.org/uk-dita-user-group - the event has happened!
> http://dita.xml.org/book/dita-ot-design-documents - out of date
> information
>
> The first I've edited. The second I'm not sure about. I'm sure there
> are many like this.

<kje>There certainly are. It's tricky having a site where readers post a lot of content. People don't necessarily return to the site and update their content. People post their stuff in the wrong place to begin with. And sometimes people post spam. This is one key reason why we need to divide up responsibility for maintaining various portions of the site.

Carol, can you clarify for me whether Ed Board members had any "more-than-usual" privileges? For example, to change the type of a page, delete spam, or contact the individual who posted specific content?

Another point: It's neither necessarily easy or intuitive for a reader to add content to the site, I think.</kje>
>
> 4. The Categories page is very peculiar, and there are a number of
> howlers. 'en Français' and 'Kéroack' caught my attention. These appear
> to be the same, and are a mis-placed blog posting.
>

<kje>Until I had a conversation with Carol Geyer after the last Adoption Committee meeting, I didn't understand what this page was. To clarify, this page is where you land if you click "Categories" in the right-hand pane, which is the first list item under "Browse." I'd describe the content of this page as a "tag cloud." And yes, it has some really bizarre entries, especially about marina development in Thailand :(

Based on my discussion with Carol, users adding or editing Wiki or Blog pages can add tags to specify metadata about the content. (I wonder if this is one of the reasons why we get people misusing Blog pages so often ...)

Interestingly enough, if you click "categories" listed down towards the bottom of the right-hand pane, you get something totally different -- it looks like a aggregation of feeds ...</kje>

>
> I apologise if I'm being overly critical - I really don't want to
> offend anyone. There's clearly a great deal on the site, and we
> shouldn't underestimate the task ahead.

<kje>David, critical is absolutely what we need. And yes, there is a lot of work to be done -- but I think the goal is worthy. We can take the work in stages :) </kje>

>
> I'm sorry if this puts anyone off, just as Kristen is trying to
> recruit folks! ;-)
>
> David
>
> (I'm just waiting for someone to point out that my own site is
> absolute rubbish, and completely out of date! "People in glass houses
> ..... ")
>
>
>> From: Paul Masalsky <paulmasalsky@yahoo.com>
>> Date: 21 August 2008 14:11:03 BST
>> To: dita-users@yahoogroups.com
>> Subject: Re: [dita-users] DITA Getting started
>> Reply-To: dita-users@yahoogroups.com
>>
>> Lately the place of choice for getting started has been:
>> http://dita.xml.org/book/getting-started
>>
>> Paul Masalsky
>> EMC
>>
>> Paul Masalsky - paulmasalsky@yahoo.com
>>
>>
>> --- On Thu, 8/21/08, chaitra venkatesh <chaitra_babloo@yahoo.co.in>
>> wrote:
>> From: chaitra venkatesh <chaitra_babloo@yahoo.co.in>
>> Subject: [dita-users] DITA Getting started
>> To: dita-users@yahoogroups.com
>> Date: Thursday, August 21, 2008, 5:16 AM
>>
>> Hi Folks,
>>
>> I am new to this Group and new to Dita also.
>> How do I get started with Dita.
>> Can I get some links or book references so that I can get some hang
>> of it.
>> It will be a great help for me.
>> Thanks in advance.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Chaitra
>
>
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