Difference between revisions of "Community:The problem with discussion list threads"

Revision as of 05:18, 4 March 2010

There is an enormous amount of valuable content sitting in discussion list archives. However:

the same issues get discussed over and over on many different lists;
the information you want is hard to find;
if you do find a relevant thread,
1. the content is very raw and hard to digest;
2. there are usually no summaries, and if there are, they are not easy to find
it is often easier just to ask the question again, and the cycle continues;
there is no agreed place to go to find out about modeling issues

To address these problems, we have created a home for the final results of lively discussions of ontology modeling issues, and a place for the ideas to be further refined by the community. It is:

The ontology modeling issues page in the ODP Wiki.

In it you will find a number of modeling issues that have already been entered.

We envision the following steps in the evolution of a modeling issue:

Lively discussion happens on some mailing list.
Someone posts a summary to the list of the key points raised, ideally including the pros and cons of proposed solutions.
That summary is also posted to the ODP Wiki as a modeling issue, and cc'd to other relevant lists
The issue is further discussed and refined in the ODP Wiki.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-There is an enormous amount of valuable content sitting in discussion list archives that is very raw and hard to digest. If you do manage to find a thread you are interested in, it can take a very long time to pour over the many messages to get the punch line.
+There is an enormous amount of valuable content sitting in discussion list archives. However:
+# the same issues get discussed over and over on many different lists;
+# the information you want is hard to find;
+# if you do find a relevant thread,
+## the content is very raw and hard to digest;
+## there are usually no summaries, and if there are, they are not easy to find
+# it is often easier just to ask the question again, and the cycle continues;
+# there is no agreed place to go to find out about modeling issues
-We believe that after such lively discussions take place, there needs to be a home for the final result, and a way to further refine the ideas for others to benefit from.
+To address these problems, we have created a home for the final results of lively discussions of ontology modeling issues, and a place for the ideas to be further refined by the community.  It is:
+* The [[Community:Main| ontology modeling issues]] page in the ODP Wiki.
-The [[Community:Main| ontology modeling issues]] page in the ODP Wiki is such a home. In it you will find a number of modeling issues that have already been entered.
+In it you will find a number of modeling issues that have already been entered.
 We envision the following steps in the evolution of a modeling issue:
 # Lively discussion happens on some mailing list.
 # Someone posts a summary to the list of the key points raised, ideally including the pros and cons of proposed solutions.
-# That summary is also posted to the ODP Wiki as a modeling issue.
+# That summary is also posted to the ODP Wiki as a modeling issue, and cc'd to other relevant lists
-# The issue is further discussed and refined there, for the community to contribute to and benefit from.
+# The issue is further discussed and refined in the ODP Wiki.