Integrate into 18f.gsa.gov

[mbland]

No rush on this; just wanted to get the conversation started as to whether this should ever be part of 18f.gsa.gov (under 18f.gsa.gov/automated-testing-playbook I imagine) and start addressing any issues.

cc: @gboone @elainekamlley @meiqimichelle @quepol @OriHoffer

[afeld]

Unless it's a blog post, I say :-1: I think this is big enough for its own microsite.

[blacktm]

Another question for the group might be, should 18F be creating and maintaining a universe of microsites? (I've got two so far: http://18f.github.io/consulting/ and http://18f.github.io/navy-reserve) For non-news or non-project-specific content like playbooks / guides / service manual, I think it makes sense to have it connected to 18f.gsa.gov

[gboone]

I'm fine with having a bunch of microsites and would need user- or audience-driven reasons to start pushing more of them into 18f.gsa.gov.

Microsites are good for piloting ideas or serving as centers for cultivating an audience and understanding a greater engagement strategy around something like a playbook, guide or service manual. Dashboard started as a microsite and we even considered keeping it one for a while. They're good spots for getting it right without getting it perfect, and facilitate a kind of iterative approach to content development that goes beyond blogging.

In this particular case I'd like to see more engagement around a clearer audience through, at least, blog posts before ingesting this as a 18f.gsa.gov endpoint. I'm not :-1: but I'm not :+1: either, at least not yet.

[adelevie]

user- or audience-driven reasons

What are some examples of these?

[blacktm]

@gboone And yet the Dashboard can't be found from the homepage, so what does it matter if it's a microsite or not.

More broadly, I'd like to see more transparency around how things might get promoted to or linked from the home page in the future. The Pentagon doesn't care much about the dozens of faces (with no bios) who make up 18F, but they sure to care about who our defense clients are and what we've built for them, just as an example.

I know this issue probably isn't the right place for this discussion, but it's just frustrating everytime we talk about 18f.gsa.gov content, it feels like running into a brick wall.

[afeld]

And yet the Dashboard can't be found from the homepage, so what does it matter if it's a microsite or not.

[afeld]

P.S. @meiqimichelle is starting to think about combining the 18f.gsa.gov, Hub, and the Dashboard... there's a Trello card, but not sure if there's a corresponding issue/PR.

https://trello.com/c/5B2qQVjN/6-work-with-18f-gsa-gov-team-on-ux-next-steps-for-entire-site-hub-included

[gboone]

Thanks @afeld and @blacktm you're correct, this is not the right venue for that discussion.

[leahbannon]

@afeld @blacktm 1. lol 2. we plan to eventually link to Dashboard from the homepage, it just needs a final push of some basic improvements & ux testing (not that much work) that the team wasn't able to do because we scattered to the winds after the 1st release

[gbinal]

@afeld - the trello link doesn't resolve - says private.

[leahbannon]

But also, I would vehemently oppose heavy promotion of work with the pentagon on the homepage, and I frankly don't care what they want.

[mbland]

@gboone @elainekamlley I'm hoping to get a blog draft together soon (it's mostly written) announcing this playbook. At present, I could announce the playbook and point directly to the repo, or maybe even use GitHub pages to host it as a microsite. However, I was thinking it might be preferable to announce it as another subsection of 18f.gsa.gov.

So what would y'all recommend? Should I say that the playbook is under development, and when it's ready, it might become part of 18f.gsa.gov? Or should it always remain a separate microsite? Or should I say we're not sure of either outcome yet?

Just trying to get a feel for the tack I should take at present. Not looking for a long-term promise, but a message that'll get the word out about the playbook soon without being misleading.

[afeld]

the trello link doesn't resolve - says private.

Weird. Just made the board public, so hopefully visible now.

[mbland]

FYI, just posted: 18F/blog-drafts#109

[meiqimichelle]

@mbland As for what you should say about where the playbook will be in the long-term...

The status, as best I know it: There is definitely a need for a place to put the many playbooks, guidelines, and best-practices that we as 18F want to provide to our agency partners. We will design a place for these to go on 18f.gsa.gov, along with a template to serve them, or at least a way to navigate to them from 18f.gsa.gov (some people feel that Github is still the best place for stuff like this). What, exactly, that will look like in terms of a url, we're not sure yet.

If you want to get the playbook blog post out soon, and you want to provide a link to content, link to the repo. We can't recommend a url at 18f.gsa.gov that definitely won't change in the near term.

[mbland]

Cross-ref: 18F/hub#113