Tool for publishing available

The Community and Business Group system now includes a feature to publish specifications. Here’s how it works:

• You must be a Chair (and logged in) to publish. There is a link to a form for publishing that is available to Chairs on each group’s home page (in the newly visible section titled “Reports”).
• Publishing a specification means (1) recording it in a database and (2) announcing it to the community. The announcement is sent to the group’s blog (and thus to the group’s public mailing list). The announcement also appears on the home page for Community and Business Groups.
• Once published, the specification is listed on the group’s home page and also on the global Reports page. Right now we are organizing specifications by group but we expect to implement other views in the future.
• There are two types of publications: draft and final. When a final specification is published, the announcement invites participants in the group to make a commitment under the Final Specification Agreement (FSA). For each final specification, there is a page that lists commitments (and also those participants that have not yet made a commitment under the FSA). On that page there’s also a button for participants to make their final specification commitment (electronically).

I invite all groups with specifications to use this tool (and report any issues you spot). Thank you!