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Idea Percolator Implementation Options
At the 10/27 Web Team meeting, we discussed implementation options for an Evergreen community idea percolator application. The following list of potential applications is listed below, along with the Web Team member(s) responsible for investigating and reporting back to the Team about each application's suitability for implementing Idea Percolator Workflow (Draft).
a) IdeaTorrent (Amy/Kate)
b) Standalone (or RSCEL-hosted) Drupal app (Jim/Lori)
c) Redmine/RT/other open source request app (Jim/Lori)
d) Use a set of wiki pages for this (June)
Steps based on the Idea Percolator workflow
Step 2. User searches percolator to see if the idea has already been suggested or is being implemented. – If this is on the Wiki, you can use the site search for that's already in place. – Percolator summary page that includes Name / Organization, descriptive title, developer and links to page with full information. – Link from developer page to percolator summary page for potential developers looking for projects
Step 3. User submits the idea, also using tag or category to identify cases where the user is willing to contribute funds, but is seeking co-sponsors or is planning to fund it, but is first seeking community feedback. – Use a custom template for idea percolater pages that would include the following information: Name / Organization, Descriptive Title, Date Proposed, Description, Keywords/Tags, Use Cases, Evergreen components impacted, Developer, Development Status, Funding Status: (i.e. funded, looking for co-sponsors, etc.), related links (examples, demos, specs, etc.)
Step 4. Once sumitted, percolator analyzes keywords to determine if it may be a duplicate. Presents possible duplicates to users. – Need an individual to monitor percolator for duplicates – If a duplicate is found, merge the two ideas into one page and delete the duplicate.
Step 5. Community maintainers and other interested individuals are alerted to the new submission – Email EG community with link to percolator page.
Step 6. Others interested in the enhancement case a vote for the idea and add comments /use cases for how it might be implemented in their organization. – Comment on Wiki page
Step 7. Ideas with the most votes / activity float to the top of the percolator – Votes would need to be manually tabulated
Step 8. Idea moves forward (or not) – Remove the Wiki page when the idea moves to Launchpad?
Pros for Wiki pages:
- Dokuwiki already in place, don't need to create any new except a dokuwiki template
Cons for Wiki pages:
- Essentially free form text, can only search for keywords and can't query like a database
- Requires manual intervention at many points: posting ideas, identifying duplicates, merging duplicates, tallying votes, purging implemented ideas
- Users are likely to comment by replying to the email posting - that doesn't get back on to the wiki page unless someone adds it
e) Launchpad Blueprints (Kathy)