2025-09-16 Documentation Interest Group meeting notes
Participants
@Heather Greer Klein
@Former user (Deleted)
@Sarah Proctor
@Nick Steinwachs
@Rebekah Kati
@Morgan McKeehan
@Sudha Anand
@Nic Don Stanton-Roark
@Juliet Hardesty
@Mark Bussey
Goals
Any questions or topics to discuss, from IG participants?
Proposal to relocate Hyrax developer focused Github documentation from Github wiki to documentation within the code base - Rebekah
Summer Doc Days - update from HGK
takeaways/lessons learned? how did the format/approach work for people? how was turnout?
Also potential for future “Doc Sprints”
Anything from DocIG for discussion at Metadata IG (time allowing)? such as any issues needing input, or feedback requested on docs-in-progress?
update on Permissions in Doc Tasks Board
rest of time: for Categorizing tickets/organizing Doc Tasks Board
Meeting facilitator: Sarah P.
Notetaker: Morgan
Discussion notes
Proposal to relocate Hyrax developer focused Github documentation from Github wiki to documentation within the code base - Rebekah
Github wiki: https://github.com/samvera/hyrax/wiki
rationale:
devs might feel unsure how up to date documentation in wiki is - because it’s not attached to a version, the way that docs in code base would be
so far, Hyrax dev team is open to making the change, no strong preference
Q: who would move these docs?
Q: how would the docs be migrated? (from gh wiki to doc folder in code base)
Q: Some tech-oriented docs that were in the Samvera KB have been recently moved to the gh wiki. But these might not all belong in the new codebase location. Would we move these back into Samvera Hyrax Docs confluence pages?
DocIG team: unsure whose call this is - members don’t feel like it’s our say about where these docs should be.
Q: would like to have consistency across projects - so this would mean consistent gh docs approach in Hyrax, Hyku, other Samvera projects.
approach for dev-facing docs that was used previously:
differentiating docs about code, vs. docs about usage. Wanting docs about code to be closer to code. Determining version applicability is a chief concern. Esp for new devs, new adopters.
Q: If dev docs stay in the gh wiki, could there be a process of harvesting docs from the wiki in alignment with a new version? (to ensure version accuracy of wiki docs.) Who would do this work, and would it be time-consuming such that it would net get done?
Concern: Devoting the time necessary to check for validity/accuracy of docs, with a new release?
proposed: part of definition of done: Review applicable documentation and update accordingly
proposed: Since this would ideally apply to all projects, Mark could start by checking thru Hyku gh wiki docs - as a pilot/test of how challenging/feasible it would be to check for doc currency in other projects.
Other places to get buy-in for the proposal to relocate these docs?
Tech call - next step.
Decision:
will discuss at Tech call next. Mark will propose the Hyku pilot / assessment of feasibility. Mark will join October DocIG call to discuss outcomes from those discussions/Hyku pilot.
Summer Doc Days and Community Doc Sprint- update from HGK
varying participation from 2 - 10 people. Good participation, got thru a lot of requests, the group aspect was also helpful - so ticket-workers could have other folks around to ask for feedback. For future - HGK would like to have 1X/year Doc Sprints, and ad hoc/as-needed Doc Days. Proposing May 2026 as next Doc Sprint.
facilitating responsibilities: be around to onboard new folks, assist them in getting oriented to the Board and picking tasks to work on, being available for check-ins.
Q: Would we want to try to align Doc Sprints with major releases?
This timing would be great to consider for scheduling ad hoc/as-needed Sprints!
Q: potentially have new releases and related testing activity on radar of DocIG, to check out for Docs that need updating (and/or questions to ask if review of Docs/Release testing isn’t aligning with expected behavior?)
Action items
Mark B will propose the Hyku pilot / assessment of feasibility at September Tech call. Mark will join October DocIG call to discuss outcomes from those discussions/Hyku pilot.