Operations Group Meeting Notes - June 13th, 2006

Hiring Discussion

Cosmo-demo update

• We upgraded Cosmo Demo to Cosmo 0.4 last Friday
• We have done some research
• We have a well characterized problem - PROPFIND slow for some calendars
• We need to profile that
• John T will work on this Wed
• Perhaps Lisa can get involved
• BCM available via email
• Short-term solution: Release new Alpha2 with patch for extending the timeout

• Theories for the root problem
  • Inefficient computation of resources
  • We find that Jackrabbit is a constraint - we need to look into this
  • The way we use Jackrabbit - cosmo code is an issue
  • Investigate splitting the backend

• Status => we are not meeting daily but doing summaries
• Summaries are going into the bug
• Post to the list and give a link to the bug

Branding update

• Branding team will meet tomorrow to narrow down the process - work on a plan proposal
• Core team = Mimi, Priscilla, Ted, Pieter, Sheila
• Pitch is folded into the branding exercise

Status tracking

• RE: (Pieter's website updates, list summaries, blog, etc.)
• Current process - Pieter creates a wiki link and each project owner updates info and Pieter updates on the blog.
• Philippe thinks that it's not as relevant with all the discussions on the list.
• Chandler dev and design list summaries seem to make much of this redundant.
• Copy and paste from the group wiki pages.
• Originally for Mitch and seemed to work for remote people. When Lisa was doing this she asked about whether or not this is useful.
• Wiki pages are not the right place maybe? Is anyone reading this?
• Summaries should go to the general list.
• Make sure that meeting notes to go the list - links to the meeting notes
• Having people summarize all the meeting notes is not realistic
• The current list summaries don't reflect state of project
• Maybe it would be a better idea to send summaries to the list after the various group meeting.
• Group manager is responsible for giving a high-level summary weekly or every other week.
• Use the list as the communication vehicle.
• Pieter could digest this and do a blog summary - or Ted. Maybe we shouldn't use the blog for this.
• Weekly summaries in the blog don't really help people who are sort of watching the project.
• When we have high-level milestones - big decisions etc, they should be blogged - ie: posting when all the specs are done with a summary of all the current specs.

Priorities

• Katie sent an email to the Ops list.
• Jared - important to clarify the web strategy...how we drive Scooby users to use Chandler.
  • Using Scooby as a stand alone web client - this is not really the stated focus
• Need to set priorities and focus in the short-term.
• The reality that gets people using it right now, this is a our best opportunity and allows us to learn from users.
• We can't do everything and this is becoming clearer
• We need to stop second guessing the strategy even if it's not what some of us would choose as individuals.
• We have made a decision and we are focussing differently for the following reasons.
• Not everyone understands the strategy decisions that we have made already.
• Jared - to get any users - we need data preservation - entry criteria - perf
• We need to add tasks, dashboard
• Mobile users - where do these fit in.
• Strategy roadmap - showing where these other groups fit in.
• Philippe- there is a category of users - early adopters - they will influence - they consider themselves as contributors or somehow part of the project.
• Standards - how does that fit in
• Highest priority is getting people to use it but standards as a good practice
• i18n - big asset
  • good way to bring in these early adopters.
  • these could be influencers
  • keep on the path but not in a gold plated way - don't gold plate this goal.

• Risks
  • performance
  • dashboard/stamping - not coherent & usable
  • scope - trying to do too much
  • gold plating looking too far ahead
    • focus
    • gain
  • hiring
  • ecosystem integration is a feature - we don't get this for free
  • not compelling enough - usable enough - working coherently
  • ops/service - blog project

• What's less important
  • i18n
  • ultra usability - gold plating
  • multiple platforms
  • design/strategy doubt
  • independent standalone web calendar
  • fighting wx where costly
  • QA?
  • accessibility

• Next steps:
  • Communication to the rest of the team
  • Framing it by project
  • Break out areas that are ecosystem wide
  • Be clear about why things are less important
  • How do these goals relate to osaf mission - community
  • Clarity on the timeline - what will drive most users in the 6 mos timeframe
  • Repetition of main theme
  • Supporting external developers - asking for assistance
  • Katie will send out a communication to the team

-- SheilaMooney - 16 Jun 2006