EOWG met for the first day of a two day face to face meeting with the following overarching goals:
EOWG reviewed the charter and noted group responsibility to do outreach for all WAI resources - beyond the products of this group work. In taking a long range look at development and maintenance fo our resources, EO first considered a resource developed without external funding - Easy Checks - and then considered the WAI-Dev resources and how the process of development and maintenance was similar and how it differed. Consideration was given to the typical stages of document review and if some of the detailed word-smithing type of discussions were the most productive use of participant time. WAI-Dev resources that were the product of WCAG and other group input were considered as well.
In order to maintain the viability of the WAI-Dev resources over time, we will consider this process and extend it to include longer term sustainability. The idea is to have a review schedule so that every document is reviewed at least once a year on a rotating schedule each quarter. Each resource will be assigned to one "Resource Manager" (RM) who will determine or consult with others as needed to determine document status. Every EO participant will assume the role of RM for the materials of most interest and/or be part of the support team related to that document.
Using WAI-Dev resources as the poster child of this new approach, we will assign each an RM who will schedule for periodic review as discussed and identify if additional work is needed at any point and what resources will be needed accomplish it. For example, many expressed interest in extending the scope of the tutorials, introducing new topics and keeping the existing modules current to new technologies and development techniques. Since these are publicly available resources, there is interest in pursuing grant funds to support the effort. The following ACTIONS were logged:
https://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/2015/charter6-2015-09
Sharron:Our goal is to leave here with plans and process in place for promoting the WAI-Dev and other EO resources going forward and maintain their currency and relevancy with sustainability planning.
James: The Visa UX lab can be used for EO projects as needed. My personal goal is to develop outreach taht is not just focused on people who want to learn accessibility but also on those who don't know they need it. To reach developers who are not yet on the bandwagon
... don't necessarily want to be educated or reached out to
... how to we make them want it?
Susan:Right now, the W3C and WAI website design is a turn off. My own goal is more awareness of our resouces, love evangelism
Howard:My goals have to do with the tutorials, I think the tutorials are great - more visbility. easy checks, BAD, etc....and make it easier to find things on the WAI site
Denis:My goal is to be able to send people to one resource/place -- but it doesn't yet have everything that I wish it has to be a one stop shop. everything you need to know to understand the basics and get started
and fundamental resources and what to do next. make resources available and usableWayne: want better clarity for funded projects, make resources more reader friendly
Eric: - I would like to see a plan for developing resources and keep them current. general understanding on current resources and prioritization. publish more. agile workflow
<shadi> [[shadi goal - have a set of aligned resources, that address different audiences, and build onto each other in a building-block model (that is, some audiences may need different sub-sets of resources); reducing the gaps between our resources; and addressing broader audiences (eg. accessibility in developing countries and rural regions etc.)]]
Brent:My goal is for the materials and site to look more innovative and modern. More awareness of group work!
... awareness - outreach - for people (inlcuding W3C Members) to see value of EOWG
... plan for outreach - new resources, upodated resources, retired resources,
[ Brent pulls out German-English dictionary for when Eric spews ]
WAyne: once you get the idea across that it's a technicaly interesting and cool THEN they get going on it
<yatil> Developer Outreach is very important.
Richard: reading by people with print disabilities
... when we are asked to go in by a funders, we are asked about web accessibility (in addition to reading / publishing)
... make sure what we're delivering is most helpful and appropriate
... publishing born accessible when born digital
... also do outreach work to publishers
... (DAISY site has some similiar issues as WAI site :-)
... important that we don't operate in silos or duplicate work (not confuse people)
<Brent> Shawn: Been in WAI for 13 years. Bring that experience but also work through the transition - Help the working group...
<Brent> ... step up and take on more editor role and lead in the working group activities.
Shawn goal - optimimze input of workinng group participants
<scribe> ACTION: Wayne investigate EO grant [recorded in http://www.w3.org/2016/03/21-eo-minutes.html#action01]
<trackbot> Created ACTION-334 - Investigate eo grant [on Wayne Dick - due 2016-03-28].
Shawn: Introduces WAI resources, https://www.w3.org/WAI/highlights/archive and https://www.w3.org/WAI/gettingstarted/Overview.html and https://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/components.php as well as several others
Susan: different UI on https://www.w3.org/standards/webdesign/accessibility, who made that?
Shawn: Yes
... questions on Getting started?
James: Tips for getting Started, in nav not on page.
Shawn: Yes, maintenance issue.
... Section on Designing for Inclusion...walk through
Richard: Seems quite tech heavy, hard for those who don't learn from walls of text and the other questions is the language issue?
Shawn: We have several resources in various languages
... much is volunteer
... a dropdown with list of translations might help that
... Continues walk through left hand navigation,expanding each to show documents within.
<yatil> [Shawn bragging about the great graphics on the WAI site]
Shawn: Continues to walk through
All: These are overwhelming, is there a lot of duplication?
Denis: The first ones or example in the eval section seem recent but some are so old (2002!) assume they must be irrelevant.
Shawn: But the date is important for people to understand context. Many other public resources that people like and refer to are actually older but not dated.
Eric: Reminder for maintenance discussion: Add review date. ie: Updated: 2002, Reviewed: 2016
Shawn: The problem seems to have been well illustrated. The work that we have done creates stepping stones, but they have not been put together into a clear path for people to follow, how to put it all together and give context. We need now to make the pathways clear.
Brent: and the fact that we need multiple paths, guideposts to point people to the resources they need.
Wayne: need a dimension of analysis in how we plan the management of these resources. For example, I had to change the course outline radically every three years or sooner when teaching CS in university. We must remember that some core principles and documents that don't change. Timliness of documents and then the specific structural considerations.
Richard: we are a dedicated group and have been getting overwhelmed, so how to present this to people who are new and finding their way?
James: do we have personas?
Shawn: we do for the website redesign.
<shawn> https://www.w3.org/WAI/redesign/personas.html
Eric: Core set of users that we map our new resources to.
Shawn: walks through the current status of docs...
Denis: I am so interested in the Quick Start Tips, I have many for developers and the equivalent for testers, was going to create spec sheets. Relevant for tutorials maybe but I have a bunch of basics developed and could use them here.
... this work I have done maps so perfectly to this.
James: Can we put the group goals here as well now...get people trained to take on the roles they are most interested in.
<inserted> Scribe: James
Shawn is stepping through all the documents and discussing status. Mobile A11y needs updating/editor(s), WCAG 2.0 at a glance printable versions could be a quick win, Policies is also a high priority for updating.
Shawn: easy Checks - new check needs editing
... there are a few items that may be or are perceived as out of date, possibly leading to our "clutter issue". Examples: Specific Contexts, Selecting Eval Tools, Combined Expertise.
... 3 tutorials done, 3 more that need thorough language edit and WCAG WG review.
Susan: I'm very interested in language edits, helping improve language.
Shawn: WAI presos need CSS expert to clean up presentation.
<yatil> [EricE note interest to update CSS for Presentations]
<yatil> ACTION: EricE will put WAI pages status and update notes on GitHUb. [recorded in http://www.w3.org/2016/03/21-eo-minutes.html#action03]
<trackbot> Created ACTION-335 - Will put wai pages status and update notes on github. [on Eric Eggert - due 2016-03-28].
eric: there are some that need little work, all we need is to get them out.
Brent: How do we catagorize our resources; some are tools; some are guideance;
Wayne: Categorize by audience
Denis: One of the first comments; communicating the W3C format was to normal users; We are not addressing needs according to the way they are used.
... Look at all content; and view it modularly.
... For examples: for developers we talk about concepts relate to developers; not for policy developers
... All this introductory content... if we have too much content, some could be combined. Use existing documents to reconstruct single docuents.
... We would be breaking it by role; or content by category; we could filter
Susan: There is something to be said for structuring it in more than one way.
Denis: All content could be at one level; It could be approchaed by different paths
Eric: What is the audience; what is this page about;we need a tag system
Denis: Audience, expertise level, role, type of content, Steps in the process
group: The idea may not address sustainability, but it would improve findability
... What does sustainability mean?
... Documents that are relevant, we have resources
Issues: Sustainability and management of resources.
Presenting material
If we find duplication, how to we organize it,
We start with sustainability, then look at how we do it.
I have lost track (wayne)
<Sharron> Eric: maybe work like the tags taxonomy group, trust us, check in briefly and allow the editors or TF to make good decisions
<Sharron> ...without people won't trust themselves as editors.
<Sharron> Wayne: reiterate Susn's comment that we all ahve work cycles in which we have time to dedicate. Discouraging to bring things along and then have it drop into limbo. Must give people the sense that what they do is important and something happens with thier effort.
Susan: it is more useful to recognize that our times will vary, that time to sepnd on EO will fluctuate
Shawn: Historically that has happened, example the CSS. It is part of the challenge
Susan: it has to be a commitment, an agreement to complete
Wayne: and it goes both ways, when participants decicate time and talent we must as a group commit to move it forward.
Susan: we will be more productive moving forward
James: can we take the spreadsheet from earlier and assign names.
<dboudreau> Denis: piggy backing on Susan's comment - our commitment should implicitely mean being accountable to deliver on whatever it is we sign up for
Eric: we put our resources on an update cycle - make it clear on the documents and which are updated when. transparency
<dboudreau> +1
Eric: evergreen documents as well have a note that they are not updated on a regular basis.
Brent: let's start documenting the things we want to take away from this meeting. Is one of them a document review cycle?
Eric: publishing cycle
James: One thing on the must do list is define the publishing cycel since it includes products in progress, not done, complete need review, etc...if you have 30 products, they will be built into the cyle.
<yatil> ach h
<Zakim> Howard, you wanted to say - have we resolved the issue of time spent on minutia on calls. If not, add to Must Do list
Shawn: Important to realize as a group that some things warrant more time and others don't.
... showcase did require the time.
<Zakim> yatil, you wanted to say survey
<Zakim> shawn, you wanted to say "not my preference, but I don't object"
Eric: Would involve five levels: 1. resource updated every 3 months. 2. every 6 months 3. every 12 months 4. evergreeen 5. retired
... as resoruces are developed we categorize them as 1, 2 or 3.
... maybe need to develop plan for bringing resources out of retirement and how to approach evergreens.
James: Merge 3 and 4, we may find that the 'evergreens' just need less change.
... what about the resource list...each of them and the list of steps the EO review process that is a separate set of requirements. In the review process, there is status assignment. That is different from how often it needs review.
Shawn: Someone sent in a typo on a long published document, I fixed it and published it and told WAI-editors list - it was done.
Eric: yes, good but the problem we are fixing is a different one.
James: This process makes sure that it gets looked at not sure we need dates.
Eric: I like dates because that keeps us in sync.
Howard: can make correction to already published docs and re-publish
***Note that this section was captured on flip charts and converted to a flow chart graphic to be posted to the EOWG wiki***
Susan: How about if we start with a 12 month review for everything and then determining if it needs review more often?
Wayne: So we will not need to wait for the Q1 marker to publish things that are ready to go.
<Zakim> shawn, you wanted to say 1. what needs to be updated & finished - priorities. 2. then when does it need to be looked at and to call this sub-point
Denis: I see no need to wait either, publish things as they are ready with the Qx marker being the deadline. Publishing ahead would be OK and if we have extra time, we can do more. The more often we publish, the more attention we get.
Shawn: But what we really need to do is figure out what we need to do now. Maybe the maintenance will be the easy part.
Howard: Does any document need review every 3 months?
Sharron: But we have to get things out of draft, etc before we put them on a review cycle.
James: The things that need clear attention become Q2.
... priority 1 is Q2
<Brent> https://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/Drafts/wai-pages
<Zakim> yatil, you wanted to note that this train left the station without me
<yatil> [Eric found the way back on the train :-)]
Howard: Maybe we need to be more realistic and put these on a two year cycle.
Shawn: Or take the highest priority and assign it out.
Wayne: We have to commit to the cycle, it may be more important than the urgency of the fixes needed to particular documents.
Susan: I agree, not sure I know enough about the documents themselves to determine the importance.
Brent: we must define the resource development maintenence process before we assign them.
James: It begins with the EOWG document review stages...where are all these documents within that process?
Brent: and where are steps 10, 11, 12 etc. We need to take each resource, assign a resource manager to it, and see where it is within the life cycle process.
Eric: and do we only need to publish it? or do we want to consider how to maintain?
Wayne: and identify when a resource is tied to a funder and has different constraints.
James: So then lets identify what happens to new reosurces that are developed that way.
<shawn> Resource Manager
Eric: wanted to bring to the discussion that idea of updating and renewing resources.
James: can we walk through a new resource and see what happened?
Sharron: I have a candidate - the Easy Checks.
Brent: OK, let's look at it from the inception.
Shawn: EO had conceived of Easy Checks based on community input.
Susan: and does the group have to agree?
Sharron: yes
Brent: and then assign an editor?
Sharron: yes
Eric: and the editor can change after a while, does not always have to be staff
Brent: In defining this - let's say that the resource manager does not necessarily have to have the technical skills but must pull in the resources needed to complete the resource.
James: part of the requirements analysis? so what has to happen there - recruit, identify...what?
Eric: identify audience, scope, needed resources
<shawn> https://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/wiki/EOWG_Participation_Info#EOWG_document_review_stages
Eric: minimum viable product.
Wayne: Relative to these things, how did it play out in easy checks
Sharron: I had more fun doing Easy Checks than anything we ever did.
Eric: Once we had the requirements analysis, we had a go-no go decision.
James: Next will be design
Susan: no we have a site, and the design is set. Structural design maybe
... establish the structure but rough draft is next.
Wayne: well maybe if it is 10 pages of text, it still needs design
Susan: I feel like we are saying the same, just using different terms
James: Conceptual design, conceptual approach
... etc from James note