I agree with the project leader that those active in the project team work should sign-up to obtain a GitHub account. This is where many of the detailed discussions will occur between members. GitHub provides certain advantages such as issue tracking.
However, not all members will have GitHub accounts. The official ISO eCommittee site is LiveLink. All WG6 members, and therefore all PT 19115-2 members, should have been registered by their national ISO member bodies to LiveLink. I therefore encourage the Project Team leader to periodically send intermediate versions of the working draft documents to me so that I can post them as WG6 “N” documents. (I have contacted ISO Central Secretariat and there will be a mechanism so that the PT Leader will be able to post “N” documents soon.) This will provide a record and also ensure that all of the WG6 and PT 19115-2 members, even those that are not as active, and maybe do not have a GitHub account, will be able to see the documents. The more people see and comment on the document in the formative stage the fewer comments will occur in the review stage.
GitHub is a useful forum and it provides many advantages, but it requires a different type of more active interaction than LiveLink and therefore it is desirable to also include the LiveLink participants, that necessarily includes the whole of the Working Group.
Also LiveLink provides a forum for PT 19115-2 discussions. This automatically notifies all WG6 and PT19115-2 members so it should be used for those issues that need broader input. There is a “Drop-in box” that allows members to post documents. These are not numbered “N” documents but they are available to all members and all members can post. This Drop-in box folder is at < http://isotc.iso.org/livelink/livelink?func=ll&objId=17051542&objAction=browse&viewType=1 >. In addition there is a 19115-2 revision “Discussion Forum”. This allows discussions in which all members can post comments. This is at < http://isotc.iso.org/livelink/livelink?func=ll&objId=17207020&objAction=view >. So far there is only one comment that says “Lets use the GitHub forum instead”. Well, the GitHub forum will only be accessed by a subset of the membership. I think this is a guaranteed way to end up with even more ballot comments. If something gets discussed on the GitHub and others do not see it, it will just arise as a comment again later and need to be re-discussed in an editing committee.
I support GitHub because of its functionality, but am afraid it will become a tool used by only a few resulting in less discussion, or worse, the project team thinking it has made a decision only to end-up re-debating everything.
If one of the clever programmers can figure out a way, then I would like to see an automatic link where material posted on one GitHub gets posted on the LiveLink forum and vice versa. Maybe GitHub can post to LiveLink?
Doug O’Brien
WG6 Convenor
Note: GitHub provides a Push capability. Can this be pushed to LiveLink automatically?
All WG6 members and PT 19115-2 members
I agree with the project leader that those active in the project team work should sign-up to obtain a GitHub account. This is where many of the detailed discussions will occur between members. GitHub provides certain advantages such as issue tracking.
However, not all members will have GitHub accounts. The official ISO eCommittee site is LiveLink. All WG6 members, and therefore all PT 19115-2 members, should have been registered by their national ISO member bodies to LiveLink. I therefore encourage the Project Team leader to periodically send intermediate versions of the working draft documents to me so that I can post them as WG6 “N” documents. (I have contacted ISO Central Secretariat and there will be a mechanism so that the PT Leader will be able to post “N” documents soon.) This will provide a record and also ensure that all of the WG6 and PT 19115-2 members, even those that are not as active, and maybe do not have a GitHub account, will be able to see the documents. The more people see and comment on the document in the formative stage the fewer comments will occur in the review stage.
The 19115-2 Revision LiveLink folder is at < http://isotc.iso.org/livelink/livelink?func=ll&objId=15744626&objAction=browse&viewType=1 >. This contains the WG6 “N” documents that pertain to 19115-2. So far there have been no WG6 “N” documents on the 19115-2 revision other that the list of persons nominated to the project.
GitHub is a useful forum and it provides many advantages, but it requires a different type of more active interaction than LiveLink and therefore it is desirable to also include the LiveLink participants, that necessarily includes the whole of the Working Group.
Also LiveLink provides a forum for PT 19115-2 discussions. This automatically notifies all WG6 and PT19115-2 members so it should be used for those issues that need broader input. There is a “Drop-in box” that allows members to post documents. These are not numbered “N” documents but they are available to all members and all members can post. This Drop-in box folder is at < http://isotc.iso.org/livelink/livelink?func=ll&objId=17051542&objAction=browse&viewType=1 >. In addition there is a 19115-2 revision “Discussion Forum”. This allows discussions in which all members can post comments. This is at < http://isotc.iso.org/livelink/livelink?func=ll&objId=17207020&objAction=view >. So far there is only one comment that says “Lets use the GitHub forum instead”. Well, the GitHub forum will only be accessed by a subset of the membership. I think this is a guaranteed way to end up with even more ballot comments. If something gets discussed on the GitHub and others do not see it, it will just arise as a comment again later and need to be re-discussed in an editing committee.
I support GitHub because of its functionality, but am afraid it will become a tool used by only a few resulting in less discussion, or worse, the project team thinking it has made a decision only to end-up re-debating everything.
If one of the clever programmers can figure out a way, then I would like to see an automatic link where material posted on one GitHub gets posted on the LiveLink forum and vice versa. Maybe GitHub can post to LiveLink?
Doug O’Brien
WG6 Convenor
Note: GitHub provides a Push capability. Can this be pushed to LiveLink automatically?