OpenWetWare talk:Software/My OWW Links

• BC 16:57, 26 July 2008 (UTC): Thanks Bill, this is very clearly specified. What you are describing appears to have similar functionality to the watchlist feature, specifically the option to view all pages in your watchlist rather than just those with recent changes.

• • WJF 20:29, 27 July 2008 (UTC) Thanks for your comments, Barry. I agree: there may be some overlap on the information presented but not in the function provided. Storing a link and watching a page are different activities. There is a HUGE number of watched pages in the system. Given this, the 'noise' associated with monitoring responses from the changes can be a lot of effort for some viewers. Getting a simple list of links is all we're discussing here. We've been burnt by trying to take too big a step for a development item. I think living with the possibility of some cross-talk is acceptable until we can see how OWW members use this feature and inform what our next steps should be.
  • WJF Here are some of the differences that I found significant in writing up the spec.
    • The watchlist allows for a consolidated view of all pages that an OWW member wants to monitor for changes.
    • There's no way to add personal comments/annotations to watched pages.
    • There's no way to place them in categories
    • There's no way to track the last time an OWW member visted the link
    • There's no way to go from viewing an OWW member's own watchlist to then look at all watchlists for all members.
    • There's no way to see how many other OWW members are watching a given page
    • There's no immediate plan to use this as a way to provide for alerts based upon linked document changes

• Should we view this project as putting a more powerful and user-friendly front-end on the watchlist?

• • WJF 20:29, 27 July 2008 (UTC)I didn't personally see it as such but did consider it. In no places was the goal to augment the page watch features.
    • In this particular phase, I would suggest we constrain this to viewing a page of an OWW member's list of links or all OWW member's collective list of links.

• Would this reduce the development time required?

• • WJF 20:29, 27 July 2008 (UTC)Assuming the goal of this task is the creation of a new special page to allow OWW members to view a list of their pages of interest, I'd suggest we constrain this project to this goal.
  • I would prefer not to modify the "Watched pages" list until we have evidence that users can access and use the "My OWW Links" page(s).
    • The spec I've written reflects my understanding of what is being asked for and what I know we can implement in a timely manner.
    • I can provide a development estimate based upon this task. But adding or merging the watch features will add to the specification time and ultimately push out the delivery date of the "My OWW Links" page.

• BC 20:45, 28 July 2008 (UTC): Thanks for your responses Bill. Is there rousing support from the membership for a link library/browser? I think the most interesting aspect of this project is providing a simple way for people to make links and also the possibility of better exposing what pages are linked to by people. I think that making an easily editable link library/browser (Delicious for OWW) is less interesting. Given that, I think the "My OWW Links" page doesn't need a lot of attention. At a first pass, it could simply be a wiki page with a list of links, no labeling, no text entry, no check boxes, just a page of links that can be edited via the normal page editing mechanisms. It seems to me that resources should primarily be directed towards the UI features to create a "My OWW Links" entry when on another page (i.e. the second half of your specification) and later on a "Who links here" indicator so that people can clearly see who is linking to what.

While I suggested ignoring categorization above, the exception might be protocols and materials since it would be good to motivate people to tag protocols and materials so that we can automatically populate the community protocol/material pages.

In summary, I suggest first focusing on the generation of links rather than the subsequent curation of a user's links.