Hydra Web Presence Working Group

Scope & Objectives

Hydra’s website and wiki have grown somewhat organically during the six years of the project. Both sites (we hope) contain useful information but it is not always clear, especially to newcomers, what detail can be found where and it is not clear that the sites provide the full spectrum of information that our users might need.  In addition, some Hydra information resides on Github, alongside our code, and it is not necessarily clear what criteria are or should be used to make this distinction.

Further, there seems to be some reluctance within the Hydra Community to contribute to the Hydra wiki, perhaps because it is not apparent which pages can be freely edited and which pages contain information (possibly quasi-legal) that should not be touched.

The Working Group will set out a basic, complementary structure for each of the three sites – essentially the tables of contents. For the website, one major aim will be to ensure that potential new adopters (be they “senior management,” “managers,” “developers,” or something else) are presented with all the information they initially require in a concise but professional manner. To this end, and to supplement their own ideas, the Group will investigate the websites of a range of comparable organisations to learn from their work. For the wiki, the Group will recommend a logical structure and a mechanism whereby it will be clear to users which pages should not be edited, thus encouraging members of the Community to contribute more freely to the others.  Finally, taking guidance from our Developer Community, the Group will try to characterize what constitutes Github content (in addition to Hydra's code) and will indicate what cross-linking there should usefully be between Github, the wiki and the website.

Deliverables & Timeframe

The Working Group is tasked with producing a draft report by mid-March 2015 such that it is available for discussion at the Hydra meetings that will occur later in the spring (LibDevConX, New England Regional meeting, Steering Group).  The report might usefully contain:

1. a list of primary users of the website and wiki (and Github)
   1.  the key information needs of each user type (effectively, persona generation)
2. a proposal for an overarching information architecture for the wiki and website 
   1.  that lays out complementary content for each vehicle (wiki, website, Github)
   2.  that includes site architecture (table of contents) for wiki & website
   3.  and characterizes (but doesn't write) the content & objectives for each section
3. a list of potential strategies for generating and maintaining the content for each vehicle (wiki, website)
   1. what pages/content might be open, 
   2. and how to foster content from the community for them
   3. what pages/content might be closed
   4. and potential design of an editorial process for maintaining it

Meeting Times & Communication Channels

The Working Group will use the hydra-community (and if appropriate the hydra-tech) mailing lists. Calls are on the first and third Tuesdays of a month at 08:00 PT, 11:00 ET and 16:00 GMT using a conference line at Stanford.  

Dial: +1 (530) 881-1400   
Access Code: 651025

See right-hand column for past and future calls.

Members:

Richard Green (University of Hull)

Jim Tuttle (Duke University)

Tom Cramer (Stanford)

Karen Cariani (WGBH)

Julie Rudder (Northwestern University)