Meeting Minutes October 9, 2008
Plinkit Project Coordinators/Tech Group Meeting Minutes Thursday October 9, 2008
Roll Call
Troy Brown, Holly Gordon, Steve Gregory, Jeff Humphrey, Bev Obert, Justine Shaffner
Approve 9/12 Joint Project Coordinators/Tech Group Meeting Minutes
Gregory motioned to approve, Brown seconded, all said aye. Minutes approved.
Status of SOW for work on Plinkit 2.0
Hanning is very busy right now and just hasn’t had time to do this yet. Everyone wants to help in any way they can and wonders if there is anything they can do to facilitate her completing the SOW? Maybe there are some pieces we can pull together for her? Shaffner will email Hanning and ask her how we can help her complete this work.
Update on potential new members
Obert said that at the steering meeting, they decided to offer membership to Virginia, Indiana, Michigan and INCOLSA/NEBASE/PALINET (as one entity) for the $10,000 annual fee. The Library of Virginia has signed and returned their MOU. INCOLSA/NEBASE/PALINET all have the MOU and will hopefully be signing and sending it to BCR soon. Indiana is reviewing the MOU.
Humphrey said he thought Hanning’s email advised states to hold off implementing Plinkit until Plinkit 2.0 was available. Humphrey asked if they could get immediate access to the beta version. His concern is that they don’t want to make their libraries wait until a year from now to get websites as they may start to lose their enthusiasm. Gordon recommends people getting on the current version now because if she had waited for Plinkit 2.0 before adding any library websites they would still be waiting. Humphrey says NEBASE is contracting with INCOLSA to host and if they want to come up on the old system then INCOLSA will need to be ready for them. Obert would like to think we’ll have Plinkit 2.0 ready by June, but since we don’t have the SOW out yet… Humphrey said getting their hands on the old one will at least give them experience with loading the product and Brown said that some procedures will stay the same no matter what version you’re using, so starting with the current version will give them some knowledge that will be helpful for Plinkit 2.0. Gregory said the current Plinkit is a working package and though you may not want to create tons of new sites with the older version as the new version is coming, it’s certainly fine to create some new library websites with the old version.
Discussions and decisions at Steering Committee’s 9/19 meeting
We’re in good shape money wise. They updated the MOU based on our suggestions. The Strategic Plan and Trademarking discussions were tabled until the next meeting. They approved the timeline and they are also looking at the logo.
Website Discussion
- Are contributions giving the right info to prospective customers?
Gregory thought that we should be considering our audience when we post public information here. He said that the Plone web site really doesn’t market the product well. Obert said the primary audience are states or organizations like INCOLSA that want to bring Plinkit to their areas or states. She asked what the other states do when they have specific interest from libraries in their states. In Illinois they send them to their state Plinkit website and if they need more information they can go to Plinkit.org. Gordon said Texas follows a similar procedure and asked if someone has a question about the Plinkit while at the collaborative website, who do they ask? Gregory thought that maybe some things from the ABOUT page should be on the HOME page. Obert asked that Gregory write something new for the home page – whatever he likes. His main concern is that it’s off putting as it just has broad information about Plinkit and it doesn’t say who we think the intended audience is. Obert also thinks under “contact”, we may want to say “If you have questions or want more information about Plinkit contact ______________“ and “If you have questions or want more information about Plinkit and are in this member state contact ______________” (there would be a designated contact listed there from each member state). Everyone else should look over the website and make suggestions about what needs to be made clearer and what needs to updated.
- Are Tech Group/PCs sharing information there?
Everyone is so busy that we can’t all put something new up every month, so Obert suggested maybe we should rotate the responsibility. Gordon mentioned she found some great stuff on the Illinois site that isn’t on the Plinkit site – e.g. things like “this is what you need to do if you have this problem…” Brown said Plinkit should be a repository for things that are done the same no matter which state you are in. He felt that our documentation is too spread out. Shaffner suggested everyone look at their state sites and see if there is anything there that might be helpful at the collaborative site and send a list of those topics to her, she’ll compile it and send it to the list serv asking if they agree that all these things should be added to the collaborative site. As long as one person would like it at Plinkit.org, then it should be posted there.
Since several action items are coming out of this meeting Obert suggested Shaffner send Obert and Gregory a to-do* list that could be sent to the list serv when she sends them the minutes for approval.
Humphrey said he’s finding lots of great information at the collaborative site. Gregory asked how INCOLSA first found out about Plinkit. Humphrey wasn’t sure, but Obert said she talked to Michael Piper from INCOLSA about Plinkit at an OCLC members’ council meeting, but he already knew about it before talking to her.
Status reports from each state
TX - Gordon said they upgraded to PLONE version 2.1.4 and they’ll be doing training on 20 new sites in the next month. She also said that Henry Stokes is great and his skills complement hers.
CO – Gregory said Colorado is still working on their staffing situation and he’ll let the group know as soon as there’s a change, but they aren’t adding any new sites until they have a new coordinator.
INCOLSA – Humphrey said they finally had their first meeting yesterday. Their first priority is finding out expectations from the whole group i.e. NEBASE/INCOLSA/PALINET. They have a new server and Zope has been installed on it and they are trying to figure out how each agency will get their own access to the server so INCOLSA isn’t responsible for doing everything for NEBASE and PALINET. They are glad to be on board and Piper’s been talking to people re “How many of you would like a virtual branch (as opposed to just a website)?” They’ve already had a call from a library interested in getting Plinkit (the lead was generated from Piper’s talks). Gordon said maybe Piper should tell us what he needs on the website. Humphrey will ask him this and also said he wouldn’t rule out putting a promotional video at the site.
OR - No attendee
IL - Brown said he didn’t have much to add. A couple of sites have gone live this month but they have other big projects so he hasn’t been pushing Plinkit heavily. Obert said they are meeting re setting up a Wimba room and she has five to seven libraries that have shown interest in Plinkit so will have more coming on after they do training in November. Obert is also revising Illinois’ MOU since they are fee based.
Innovative things done by states – add to website
Gordon said in Texas stability is innovative and that we kind of discussed this already when talking about the website.
States report on contributions to website since last meeting
Nothing added as everyone is too busy.
Other Business
There being no further business Obert adjourned the meeting.
The next meeting is November 14, 2008 Friday - noon Eastern Time, 11am Central Time, 10 am Mountain Time and 9am Pacific Time
*Plinkit To Do list
Who What
Shaffner Email Hanning and ask her how we can help her complete the SOW.
Gregory Write something new for the home page – whatever he likes, but esp. about who our intended audience is.
Shaffner Under “contact”, say if you have questions or want more information about Plinkit contact ______________ and if you have questions or want more information about Plinkit and are in this member state contact ______________ (there would be a designated contact listed there from each member state). So ask Darci if she wants to be the main contact and ask the list serv who should be the contact for each state.
All Look over the website and make suggestions about what needs to be made clearer and what needs to updated.
Shaffner Send a suggested rotation for who’s responsible for posting something new at the website each month.
All Look at your state sites and see if there is anything there that might be helpful at the collaborative site and send a list of those topics to Shaffner.
Shaffner Compile list of helpful topics from the above item and send it to the list serv asking if they agree that all these things should be added to the collaborative site (as long as one person would like it at Plinkit.org, then it should be posted there).
Shaffner After Obert and Gregory approve this to-do list send it to the list serv.
Humphrey Ask Piper what he thinks we need on the website.
