[sakai-pmc] VOTE: Sakai 10 help file screensteps proposal

Thu Dec 5 14:34:24 PST 2013

+1, am just in agreement with Sam on this one.

Looking at it, I don't know if we'd necessarily have to go straight for the
plus plan, and there are some slightly other options for non-profits. [1]
So it looks like there could be options that work out at lower price points
or scale up as needed, if that's a material objection.

[1] http://www.screensteps.com/pricing-npo

On Thu, Dec 5, 2013 at 5:08 PM, Sam Ottenhoff <ottenhoff at longsight.com>wrote:

> +1 we're ready to get moving on re-designed help for Sakai 10
>
>
> On Thu, Dec 5, 2013 at 4:01 PM, Anthony Whyte <arwhyte at umich.edu> wrote:
>
>> *PMC vote called*
>> On 5 November 2013 Sam Ottenhoff proposed that we create/edit Sakai 10
>> help content using the screensteps.com collaborative authoring
>> environment. [1]  ScreenSteps is a commercial service offering a Plus plan
>> at $99.00/month. [2]   No material objections were raised to Sam's
>> proposal, a copy of which is appended below.  However, since the
>> ScreenSteps proposal requires a cash outlay, a formal request for funding
>> will need to be made to the Apereo Foundation Executive Director.  Given
>> this requirement, PMC members will be polled publicly in order to ensure
>> that clear support exists for the proposal.
>>
>> *Polls open*
>> Voting is now open and will conclude no later than Tuesday, 10 December
>> 2013, 16:00 UTC.
>>
>> As a reminder, a "+1" vote signifies approval.  A -1 vote constitutes a
>> material objection that must be accompanied by a detailed explanation.
>>  A single -1 vote will block action.  Blocking votes can be overridden by a
>> 2/3 majority roll call vote of active PMC members.
>>
>> ______________
>>
>> [1] *http://collab.sakaiproject.org/pipermail/sakai-dev/2013-November/025087.html
>> <http://collab.sakaiproject.org/pipermail/sakai-dev/2013-November/025087.html>*
>> [2] http://www.screensteps.com/; http://www.screensteps.com/pricing
>>
>>
>> *Proposal for Sakai 10 help files*
>> *Author: Sam Ottenhoff*
>> *Date: 5 November 2013*
>>
>>  *Proposal: *For Sakai 10, we should replace much of our help content
>> with role-focused, image-heavy content.  Our existing help content displays
>> the same content for instructors and students and includes few images.  I
>> propose that we delete the existing help files that are contained within
>> the individual Sakai tools, author new content in a documentation-friendly
>> system, and export that image-heavy new content into Sakai's existing help
>> tool.
>>
>> *Proposal for Authoring: *I propose that Apereo pay for a community
>> account in the commercial system called ScreenSteps Live (
>> http://www.screensteps.com/).  ScreenSteps would allow ten of our
>> trusted community members to collaborate and edit documents in the shared
>> system for $99/month.  ScreenSteps would be used as a collaborative editing
>> system; the content would be exported and held within Sakai's existing SVN
>> repository.
>>
>> *Why ScreenSteps and not a basic HTML editing system? * These are the
>> primary reasons I can find:
>>
>> a) ScreenSteps makes adding and annotating images incredibly easy.
>>
>> b) ScreenSteps allows exports into PDF guides and HTML (that we would use
>> to import into Sakai's existing help system).
>>
>> c) ScreenSteps could allow institutions to easily export into an existing
>> campus system like Wordpress or ZenDesk.
>>
>> d) Institutions that want to heavily customize their own help could pay
>> for their own ScreenSteps account.
>>
>> *Proposal for Sakai changes: *I believe the changes in Sakai would be
>> relatively minor.  Here are the changes I would look to make:
>>
>> a) Delete all existing help files in individual tools.
>>
>> b) Develop a script that could easily import a ScreenSteps HTML ZIP
>> export into appropriate help directories.
>>
>> c) Add functionality to help tool that will differentiate content based
>> on role (Student vs Instructor/teacher vs learner)
>>
>> If there are other developers interested in re-doing help, we could
>> consider replacing the existing help with a simplified version that
>> depended on simple HTML files, ElasticSearch (already in for Sakai 10), and
>> a more streamlined appearance.
>>
>> *Who is going to edit this new content? *Longsight has staff dedicated
>> to rewriting help files between now and Sakai 10's release.  We also
>> believe there are existing community members who are eager to work on
>> restructured help files.
>>
>> *What about multi-lingual content? *Sakai's existing help tool supports
>> multi-lingual content.  ScreenSteps allows multiple sets of content to be
>> created, or the static HTML could be translated manually or using a tool
>> like Crowdin.
>>
>> *How is the content licensed?  *The content would be exported and
>> licensed as ECL 2.0 content held within our SVN repository.  Contributors
>> to the collaborative editing should sign CLAs similarly to developers.
>>
>> *What if ScreenSteps goes away? *Then we are in the same boat we are in
>> now.  We would need a new system for collaboratively editing HTML-based
>> help documents besides manually editing HTML inside an SVN repository.  If
>> we consolidate help files and remove them from within each individual tool,
>> this should become much easier.
>>
>> *Other possibilities that have been discussed: *The Edia Knowledgebase
>> tool would be a nice replacement for the existing help tool, but it does
>> not currently support multilingual content like our existing help tool.  I
>> also built a Drupal-based proof of concept for editing existing help files (
>> http://sakaihelp.longsight.com).  I view ScreenSteps as a refined
>> version of that POC that has much better image editing capabilities and
>> much better export possibilities.  Also, a ScreenSteps account should be
>> controlled by the Sakai community where the Drupal-based proof of concept
>> is tied to Longsight.
>>
>> Attached: a screenshot of a quick POC of ScreenSteps-exported content
>> using the existing Sakai help tool.
>>
>> Sample of a ScreenSteps guide used by Canvas:
>> http://guides.instructure.com/m/8470
>>
>> Canvas has a document about how to contribute to their ScreenSteps
>> documentation:
>> http://guides.instructure.com/s/2204/m/4151/l/41924-how-do-i-contribute-my-training-materials-to-canvas-guides
>>
>> Thoughts, comments, or realistic alternatives for Sakai 10 help files?
>>  If I hear no objections, I'd like to get started on some of the technical
>> work in early December.
>>
>> --Sam
>>
>>
>> anthony whyte | its and mlibrary | university of michigan |
>> arwhyte at umich.edu | 517-980-0228
>>
>>
>>
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>>
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