[ckan-discuss] Building CKAN's user community?

Mon Feb 28 16:03:50 GMT 2011

On 02/23/2011 02:39 PM, Jonathan Gray wrote:
> If people on this list think this is needed (all: please let us know!)
> and we can make a strong case for doing this, then I will try and look
> for dedicated funding for this. Obviously I can't promise anything but
> we can certainly look and ask around.
>
> So please add all comments to the pad by next Wednesday, if you'd like
> them to be considered for inclusion!
I just did it. Thanks.
//Bogo
> J.
>
> On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 1:35 PM, Jason Kitcat <jason.kitcat at okfn.org> wrote:
>> This is excellent much needed stuff!
>>
>> My thoughts go to sustainability. Is there a financial model in place to ensure the costs of this can be carried by CKAN's consultancy work or will core OKF funds be needed to support this?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Jason
>>
>>
>> On 23 Feb 2011, at 10:48, Jonathan Gray wrote:
>>
>>> Fantastic suggestions James! :-)
>>>
>>> In order to give people an incentive to contribute, I'm going to
>>> commit to coming back to review all input in detail in a week
>>> (Wednesday 2nd March). So please see this as a glorious (and slowly
>>> closing) window of opportunity to say what you'd like to be done with
>>> respect to CKAN's community of users!
>>>
>>> http://ckan.okfnpad.org/community
>>>
>>> And for those of you who use Twitter:
>>>
>>> http://twitter.com/#!/jwyg/status/40361752961097728
>>>
>>> All the best,
>>>
>>> Jonathan
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 11:30 AM, James Gardner <james at 3aims.com> wrote:
>>>> Hi Jonathan,
>>>>
>>>> As you know I think this is an excellent idea.
>>>>
>>>> I see CKAN has having three customers really:
>>>>
>>>> * Organisations who pay for CKAN to be customised for their needs
>>>> * Developers who build and customise CKAN themselves
>>>> * Users who use CKAN to help share open data
>>>>
>>>> The core team has been quite focused on the first recently but we really
>>>> need to focus on the second two as well. Out of the second two, the user
>>>> community is the most important in my mind because encouraging the sharing
>>>> of open data is what we are all about.
>>>>
>>>> I agree with all your points but have extended the first one below and added
>>>> some more which I think would help us from a development point of view. They
>>>> don't have to be part of this person's role but they would help us if they
>>>> were:
>>>>
>>>>  * To proactively gather information about feature requests or experiences
>>>> from the user community, to be relayed to the developer team via the trac
>>>> systemand also to act as a first filter to ensure that only the important
>>>> requirements get fed through to developers
>>>>  * Help answer the simple questions that regularly catch people out
>>>>  * Bring together existing information into a more formal "user guide" or
>>>> tutorial rather than the developer-focused documentation we have at the
>>>> moment, perhaps with a screencast of how to use CKAN (JG can help with this
>>>> - it would also be a good first task for whoever we get in as it will help
>>>> them understand the good/bad parts of the current CKAN from a user
>>>> perspective)
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>>
>>>> James
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 22/02/11 21:28, Jonathan Gray wrote:
>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>
>>>>> I've recently been speaking to some of the core CKAN developers and
>>>>> have suggested that the project could benefit from a more proactive
>>>>> approach to growing and strengthening its community of users. Rufus
>>>>> and I and others try to do as much as we can to tell people about the
>>>>> project, but I think it might arguably be time that we had a dedicated
>>>>> person to help to do this (and I for one am not able to do as much as
>>>>> I'd like, due to other commitments!).
>>>>>
>>>>> I've put together a few notes on what a dedicated CKAN community
>>>>> person might do, which are pasted below and at the following URL:
>>>>>
>>>>>   http://ckan.okfnpad.org/community
>>>>>
>>>>> What do people think? Good idea? Bad idea? Is the project ready for
>>>>> this? Should we hold off for a bit?
>>>>>
>>>>> If people think this is worth pursuing, I'd be most grateful for ideas
>>>>> on how an extra pair of hands could help support the project (all
>>>>> ideas - however big, small or outlandish - are most welcome!). If
>>>>> there is general support for this, and we can make a strong case for
>>>>> why this is needed, then I may try and speak to some people to see if
>>>>> there is any way we could get funding to bring on a dedicated 'user
>>>>> community' person.
>>>>>
>>>>> All the best,
>>>>>
>>>>> Jonathan
>>>>>
>>>>> ### CKAN Community Coordinator
>>>>>
>>>>> CKAN aims to be a key point of reference for people interested in
>>>>> working with open data and open content - from governmental or
>>>>> scientific open datasets, to bulk downloadable library catalogues, to
>>>>> big collections of public domain documents or legal texts.
>>>>>
>>>>> A crucial measure of its success will be having large numbers of users
>>>>> who use the service to help them to find and reuse open material. In
>>>>> this sense it aspires to be a 'Debian for data', and ultimately aims
>>>>> to provide users with basic tools for working with datasets in all
>>>>> kinds of clever, machine-assisted ways.
>>>>>
>>>>> We are currently thinking of how we can actively support the growth of
>>>>> a flourishing community of CKAN users, including (but not limited to):
>>>>> web/mobile developers, researchers, data journalists, scientists,
>>>>> librarians, data literate citizens, public servants, and NGOs.
>>>>>
>>>>> As the project is expanding, we are thinking of adding a dedicated
>>>>> 'community building' person to our core team of developers. The role
>>>>> of this person might include:
>>>>>
>>>>>   * Being a first point of contact for people interested in using CKAN
>>>>>   * Keeping a regular rhythm of conference calls / virtual meetings
>>>>> for CKAN users
>>>>>   * Helping to facilitate the i18n process - to help make CKAN
>>>>> available in many different languages around the world
>>>>>   * Helping to liaise with users who maintain an instance of CKAN, to
>>>>> help them to add more datasets, to understand their needs from the
>>>>> system and to advise them about how to engage with prospective users
>>>>> in their community
>>>>>   * To proactively gather information about feature requests or
>>>>> experiences from the user community, to be relayed to the developer
>>>>> team via the trac system
>>>>>   * To start to approach prospective users in different domains more
>>>>> systematically - and look at useful features that could be introduced
>>>>> to support working with content and data in different domains (e.g.
>>>>> for chemical datasets, for geospatial datasets, for legal texts, and
>>>>> so on)
>>>>>   * General CKAN evangelism - at events, on mailing lists, and talking
>>>>> talking to core stakeholders and potential users (who might use the
>>>>> software, or integrate it or make it interoperable with other systems)
>>>>>  * Start a regular CKAN announcement list for (approximately)
>>>>> bi-monthly project updates and major feature announcements
>>>>>   * Starting to map core stakeholders more systematically and making
>>>>> sure we are engaging with as many of them as possible - including
>>>>> identifying current spots where more could be done (e.g. mobile
>>>>> developers)
>>>>>   * Helping to define discrete 'micro-tasks' with respect to cleaning
>>>>> up, or working with datasets on CKAN
>>>>>   * Liaising with others in various open source and developer
>>>>> communities to make sure people know about the project
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> ckan-discuss mailing list
>>>> ckan-discuss at lists.okfn.org
>>>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/ckan-discuss
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Jonathan Gray
>>>
>>> Community Coordinator
>>> The Open Knowledge Foundation
>>> http://blog.okfn.org
>>>
>>> http://twitter.com/jwyg
>>> http://identi.ca/jwyg
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> ckan-discuss mailing list
>>> ckan-discuss at lists.okfn.org
>>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/ckan-discuss
>> --
>> Jason Kitcat
>> Project Co-ordinator
>> The Open Knowledge Foundation
>>
>> +44 (0) 7956 886 508
>>
>> http://www.okfn.org
>> http://twitter.com/jasonkitcat
>>
>>
>
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