2014-05-07 call notes
Action item was:
“Documentation subgroup to work on bringing together the docs from
multiple locations. Part of their work also includes rationalizing this
documentation with what’s on the official ASpace website, which may need
some small tweaks.”
We had skype-problems. It was suggested we investigate alternative call methods.
Github wiki
We want a hub for technical documentation; while there are more-structured tools for documenting, [Sibyl, you mentioned something in addition to preserving bookmarks?] we plan to use the github wiki for the time being. It needs to be reworked to be more complete and remove inconsistencies, like migration information going to the guidelines with no link to the migration tools. Moreover, the wiki contains a number of pages that seem to be unfinished or obsolete; in any case these need to be integrated in the docs subgroups’ documentation overview spreadsheet.
archivesspace.org
The “ArchivesSpace Application” menu on http://archivesspace.org/ needs reworked. “Getting Started” jumps into the main README with command-line operations and installation instructions, which seems too technical, and might better be a higher-level statement in layman’s terms appropriate for non-technical archivists, &c. “Downloading, Installing, Running” links to the github wiki. “System Requirements” links to the main README, above where “Getting Started” does. Under the “Technical Documentation” page, the first three links are historical/background information -- these might shouldn’t be right up front. On that page, “Index to Technical Documentation” goes straight into the generated docs -- if you go on archivesspace.org looking for technical documentation you will end up very confused.
This may be more of a job for the User Advisory group than the Technical Advisory one, it’s just that they currently link to technical documentation. Noah plans to get in touch with them, and work on a plan for this area.
Email lists
Questions and (particularly prom’s) answers arising on the email lists look like good material for identifying documentation gaps. Sibyl to investigate.