Objectives and Targets for Hydra Connect
- Bill Branan
What are the target audience and objectives (planned take aways) for Hydra Connect #2?
Who: Partners, Users, New & Potential Adopters. Managers, Developers, Specialists.
Why: Hydra Connect (hashtag #HydraConnect) is a chance for Hydra Project participants to gather in one place at one time, with an emphasis on synchronizing efforts, technical development, plans, and community links. ...ensuring cross-connections across the community. Adopters of Hydra, or those considering its adoption, who are not yet Partners are equally welcome to attend and a significant number of the meeting sessions Tuesday - Thursday will be specifically tailored to their needs.
The meeting will include:
- training opportunities for developers and managers
- demonstrations & lightning talks
- Introductions & matchmaking
- (lots of) unstructured times / open room format for...
- coordinated development
- taking action on strategic plan items
- documentation updates
- investigating patterns
What defines a New & Prospective Adopter? What are their objectives and take aways?
Who: A New & Prospective Adopter has identified Hydra as a compelling or very interesting repository solution, but has not yet or is only just beginning down the adoption path.
Objectives: Understanding who is doing what; understanding how the Hydra technology stack and community framework actually function; equipping potential adopters to make a good selection (Hydra if a fit, not Hydra if not a fit); lowering the barrier to implementation; channeling questions & requirements from new adopters into enhancement cycle for Hydra; making invitations / setting expectations and equipping NPAs to contribute back to the Hydra community.
What defines a Developers? What are their objectives and take aways?
Who: Developers implement Hydra solutions at their local institutions; they may also contribute code to the project.
Objectives: Finding & using code that works for their needs; working with other developers to advance (maintain, enhance) code of common interest; understand and adopt Hydra software development methods (TDD, documentation, pull requests, release mgmt); contributing more (shareable) code to the project; gemification.
What defines a Manager? What are their objectives and take aways?
Who: Managers are "not developers", and may play any (and all) of various functional / administrative roles at their local institutions: technical management, "upper" administration, resource allocation, functional management, user analysis, UX design, QA, IR/project/product/service managers, subject/domain specialists, etc.
Objectives: Understanding Hydra conventions and patterns for content modeling; finding other heads & software they can use; understanding developments / needs / methods at like institutions; finding collaborators; help with grants; ...
What are the target and agenda for the plenary track items?
Who: all attendees: Partners, Users, NPAs.
Objectives: content that is of interest or important for everyone. This includes context for meeting, introductions of individuals 
, global state of HydraSphere, IG/WG executive reports, updates on (small number of?) limited number of Hydra-essential developments --> Core gems, Sufia, Fedora 4... We also want to put enough content in to reinforce the "Hydra way" to communicate and further the Hydra community ethos. (the panel on "the hydra way" at Hydra Connect #1 was very effective for this IMO, e.g.)
What content is better for a lightning talk? What content is better for a 20 min preso?
Who: all attendees: Partners, Users, NPAs.
Objectives: See above. LTs should be for content that should be exposed / aired to all members, and but doesn't need an in depth treatment with all members. For example, executive reports or announcements from the various WG/IGs, or updates on a particular head of some interest broadly. If people have in depth questions, inputs or want more participation, then follow on meetings throughout the week will provide opportunities.
Full presos should be for topics of interest to all attendees, and important enough that extra time is warranted. This may include a small number of essential topics (core gems, Sufia, Fedora 4 integration). There will likely be follow on discussions for each topic later in the week, but for a full preso/panel, there is an important message that we want to make sure everyone has the chance to hear to establish a common, project-wide Hydra position & understanding.
Who are the targets and what are their objectives for the Poster Session?
Who: all attendees: Partners, Users, NPAs.
Objectives: For local institutions to showcase what they are working on & what they need. Open floor format lets people gravitate to the speakers / topics / corners of greatest interest to them.
Who are the targets and what are their objectives for the workshops?
Who: all attendees: Partners, Users, NPAs, with different, defined tracks for NPAs, Managers, Developers (& specialists, like GIS & DevOps?)
Objectives: Specific to each track and individual workshop. These provide opportunities for structured learning on topics–from expert to novice–of broad interest across the Hydra community. Topics include general orientation, as well as technology (e.g., dive into Hydra, RDF), methodology (e.g., Agile), and specialist topics (e.g., GIS, DevOps, IR) Edit RG: Workshop slots also offer blocks of time for doing detailed introductory work for NPAs without detracting from their valuable conference time.