[ZDP] Joining ZDP ! - Starting a new project.

[Maik Roeder]

Hi !



My name is Maik Röder, and I am a Python and Zope enthusiast,
and therefore I would like to join the ZDP project. I have been
exchanging some emails with Tom Deprez to see what kind of work
has to be done to make ZDP project even more successful than it
is today.

Tom told me that it is hard to see what is going on in the project
and especially who is working on what. So the first thing we could use
would be some kind of a summary page of active members and with some
information on what they are working on. He also suggested the creation
of a draft object which gets some keywords to make it searchable. 

Tom also stressed that we should keep things as simple as possible,
and as an example of the complexity he is thinking of, he gave his
News system, which collects the News Item of the week and publishes
them on the main page. Of course, ZDP members can have a look at it
on zdp.zope.org:8080.

Please have a look at my specification of the problem domain, and
give us some feedback. Once we agree upon what is needed, I will
work on designing the solution domain, where I will talk in terms of
ZClasses and ZCatalogs. For now, we just need to define the target
we will aim at for the remainder of the project. 

The following is just a draft !



   Specification of the problem domain

      The problem at the moment is that it is very difficult see who is
still
      active on the ZDP and what people are doing, because people are
      working together in an ad hoc fashion, so there is a lack of
      awareness. To raise the level of awareness,  in such a big
collaborative
      project, the ZDP members will get acess to all sorts of activity
summaries,
      which will be linked from the main ZDP page.
      It is to be hoped that once the ZDP project is better organized,
contributors
      will be more motivated, as their effort is actually noticed by the
other
      project members.

      Summaries of the current status

         The following summaries will be available for ZDP members.

            1. Show all current Drafts and some info about the people
involved
            2. Show Members active/inactive for at least x months/weeks
            3. Show all drafts in need of a
Reader/Writer/Manager/Reviewer
            4. Search in drafts by keyword

      Summaries of the status over a period of time

         The following summaries about what has happened in the ZDP
         project over the last week, or any period of time, is shown
         publicly on the main ZDP page.

            1. Show all new Drafts
            2. Show number of new members of the ZDP project
            3. Show status information of members
            4. Show roles of members

      Personal Information

         ZDP Members give some personal information.

            1. login name
            2. Internal Email
            3. Full name
            4. Company
            5. Public Email
            6. Fields of interest/expertise

      Roles

         ZDP members can assign roles for themselves which indicate what
kind
         of roles they are capable to take. According to the "open book
model",
         the skills of the ZDP members are visible to all ZDP team
members,
         but possibly hidden for non-members.

            1. Reader
            2. Writer
            3. Manager
            4. Reviewer

      Implicit Roles

         The roles of the ZDP members can change dynamically when they
take
         a new responsibility. Members don't need to actually change
their Roles
         because it is clear when they have taken over a role.

         1. Reader - Someone who can currently look at new Drafts
                     (e.g. only when not on holiday or too busy)
         2. Writer - Has edited a draft of another Editor
         3. Manager - Has already submitted a Draft
         4. Reviewer - Has already reviews a Draft or currently reviews
one

      Drafts

         ZDP members can create a special Draft object.
         Drafts can be enriched with keywords to allow for searching.
         Other ZDP members can put comments on the Draft object.
         The draft object can be in one of the following states:

            1. Needs Readers - Comments are welcome
            2. Needs Writers - Incomplete parts need a writer
            3. Needs Manager - Draft needs a new Owner
            4. Needs Reviewer - Draft needs approval

      State

         To track the status of ZDP members in the summaries, people can
change
         their state of involvement.

            1. Working on an unpublished draft
            2. On holiday
            3. Private
            4. Too busy

      Implicit State

         The status of ZDP members can be seen from the Drafts as well.
         The following additional status information is possible:

            1. Working on a draft which needs readers
            2. Working on a draft which needs writers
            3. Working on a draft which needs managers
            4. Working on a draft which needs reviewer


Please tell me what you think about it !

Best regards,

Maik Röder