[19:01:35] Soni_WP - Hey Soni! [19:01:42] Hey I_Jethrobot [19:01:49] How are you? [19:02:06] I'm great. Woke up a while back so i guess I'm doing good [19:02:30] Busy day today? [19:03:34] You could say that. It's been onecrazy week and I only just got enough sleep [19:06:07] Well, I hope you get a little more sleep this week. [19:06:40] So, Jake, Dustin, and I were talking on Monday this week about the wireframes. [19:06:54] (Same ones you saw on Friday) [19:07:07] or rather, your Saturday. [19:07:31] Let me run through what we talked about there. [19:08:19] Alright [19:09:12] P.S. I_Jethrobot can you make sure to ping me whenever you reply to me? Hexchat's kindof giving a couple issues for me [19:09:41] Soni_WP - Sure thing. [19:09:57] Thanks I_Jethrobot [19:11:27] Soni_WP - So, one thing we agreed upon was that we're not going to emphasize a "search" function to look through previous mentorships. It's an interesting idea, but not a priority for us, and definitely not something we need on the landing page. [19:11:48] Soni_WP - We also talked about how to pull people to actually make a profile. [19:12:41] Soni_WP - Jake noted that getting people to make a profile is pretty much our goal to pulling people into the Co-op, and we should gear our language that way on the front page, something like [19:13:02] "Get started making a profile" as a way to get matched. [19:13:07] (For instance) [19:14:37] Soni_WP - But Dustin mentioned that a lot of people get kind of turned off by the idea of making profiles, and see it as all this work they have to do before they get to what they need (in this case, finding a mentor). [19:15:01] Soni_WP - Hence, he thought that "What question do you have" was a better call to action than explicitly asking editors to start a profile. [19:16:17] Alright. I personally believe that our goal for profile creation is more important than the goal to not put people off. [19:17:15] I agreed with Dustin that we should probably avoid explicit references to a profile, but that making a profile is inevitable in our model because matching requires a stable thing to draw info from. We could instead consider 1) a button that simply says "get matched" or 2) A better prompt than isn't so Teahouse-y (i.e. "Ask a question" is the Teahouse's call to action). [19:17:34] Soni_WP - Yeah, definitely in agreement with you. [19:19:40] Soni_WP - So, where we left off there is a different call to action that autofills part of a profile (i.e. "What can a mentor help you with?") and something that draws people in to literally get matched. [19:20:02] OK, so that was one big arc of that conversation... [19:20:45] Soni_WP - Something else that came up was distinguishing between learners who are using the Co-op for the first time and learners who already have a profile and wanted to change their profile. [19:21:05] i.e. to reflect a change in what they want to learn, etc. [19:21:47] Soni_WP - So Jake mentioned that we'll probably want to consider some kind of javascript function (which he has code for already) to direct people appropriately based on whether they are completely new or not. [19:22:34] Right, that sounds good. If Javascript wasnt available I was thinking about other ways to try and do that more or less manually [19:23:22] Soni_WP - Yeah, I think there are other methods too. We'll see how the js works and go from there. [19:23:39] Got it. [19:23:46] The last major thing was with the skills. [19:25:14] Dustin gave a very convincing argument that the 50+ skills we have listed is going to be a nightmare to display, even when splitting them across a set of categories. [19:26:25] Agreed. A much more sensible approach will be to only show the most relevant skills. [19:26:48] He has some background in programming, as does Jake, and they described that the different ways of displaying these (drop down menus, opening a new page, collapsible lists, etc.) are not tenable from a new editor's perspective. [19:26:59] Right. [19:28:17] Soni_WP - So the two things we talked about there was to radically simplify this to include 1) A "most wanted" shortlist of skills, and 2) a small set broad categories with an open prompt for the editor to describe what they need help with. [19:28:49] Soni_WP - The broad categories might be the ones we've been using (writing, technical, etc.) more or less. [19:30:11] Soni_WP - The way we phrase that "what do you need help with" question is going to be important though, because we want to make this more than a Q&A thing like the Teahouse and gear it toward more lasting and substantive interactions. [19:30:58] Are we thinking of something along the lines of "What do you want to learn about?" [19:31:22] Yeah, or "what can a mentor help you with?" [19:31:33] Something like that. We haven't worked out the exact phrasing right now. [19:31:48] Soni_WP - So that was pretty much what we covered on Monday. [19:32:21] Alright that makes sense. Seem like a reasonable set of suggestions to draw up on [19:33:32] Soni_WP - So that was pretty much what we convered on Monday. [19:33:35] covered* [19:34:51] I think there are still things we can do with our skill list and prerequisite / suggestion systems, so we'll have to think about how we may be able to incorporate those mentorship given the simplification of how we're going to connect people now. [19:35:21] But I think this simplification is a step in the right direction for us not just from a programming standpoint, but from a usability one as well. [19:36:20] Soni_WP - I also conducted a learner interview for TWA yesterday... [19:36:36] Soni_WP - I have the audio if you want to check it out. [19:38:16] https://www.dropbox.com/s/aa9a2aaegdxm5rq/INTV%20140930_002.MP3?dl=0 [19:38:31] Soni-WP - ^ [19:38:36] er. [19:38:39] Soni_WP - ^ [19:39:23] Soni_WP - Speaking of which, after reviewing the audio myself last night, I say "um" and "like" and other filler things a lot. Sorry about that in advance. [19:39:38] Great. Let me just add that link to the interview spreadsheet [19:39:51] Ah, no worries. I'm certainly a worse speaker than you are. [19:39:55] She is on there already... [19:40:04] Hang on for a sec... [19:41:32] OK, got it. [19:41:40] It's VCJeon, in that list. [19:43:00] Anyway, give it a listen when you get a chance. Interesting feedback on TWA and how it helped her. [19:43:10] Soni_WP^ [19:43:23] Consider it done :) [19:43:35] Gabe will be taking notes on it this week. [19:43:51] And I'll be getting the rest of those editors soon. [19:44:28] The ones from the Pritzker, that is. [19:45:15] So, I wanted to spend a little time thinking about categories we would present to editors to guide matching. [19:45:23] Soni_WP ^ [19:45:41] Yes. I'll also cross check with Gabe's notes to see if he's missed anything [19:45:53] (Sounds good.) [19:46:50] Soni_WP - Of our existing categories, I think "Writing" and "Technical" are categories that work well. In terms of presenting them, we should provide a short description of what is meant by those terms, but I think they work. [19:47:26] Soni_WP - I think "Policy" needs a different name. [19:48:03] "Wikipedia guidelines" [19:48:09] Or something along those lines? [19:48:10] ...because no one wants to learn about policy (even if it's super important that they do). [19:48:28] Yeah, I think that's marginally better. [19:49:55] I'm just going to the policy / guideline pages to see if there's something else... [19:51:13] Soni_WP - The way I've been thinking about it is a "How does Wikipedia work" or "How do editors make decisions" category. [19:51:58] Soni_WP - (The joke being that the answers to those two questions are "It doesn't" and "They immediately go to ANI") [19:53:00] Heh. Editors make decisions after a 2 years of RFC and wheel warring followed by one bold edit. :P [19:53:21] Soni_WP - Another idea might be "Best practices" which sounds a bit business-like, but it captures the meaning pretty well. [19:53:41] But on a serious note, I think policies by itself might need to be bifurcated to conform to better categories [19:53:54] Soni_WP - Or "editing standards" [19:53:57] .... Or just use best practises. That actually works well. [19:54:25] Soni_WP - Bifurcated in what way? [19:55:23] I was getting the sense that policy by itself will not be a good category holder as opposed to the various types of policies one can learn about. [19:55:36] Hence I was considering if we needed to consider division [19:59:56] I_Jethrobot, Hi? [20:00:04] Yeah, I think we might be able to clarify that in describing what we mean by best practises of whatever name we use. [20:00:24] But I get that "policy" is too broad in nature. [20:00:52] Which is problematic for both learners, but also mentors. I don't really know a whole lot about certain MOS things, for instance. [20:01:37] So, we've got "Writing", "Technical", and "Best practices" so far. [20:02:42] I'm considering renaming "Social" to "Communication". It's pretty much the same thing, but I want to minimize the whole inevitable "Oh, Co-op is a social network" nonsense. [20:02:58] Soni_WP ^ [20:03:29] Okay. That actually makes sense given we migh end up recieving some flak for being too friendly. [20:04:33] ^Not that it should really matter in the longer run, but it'll be good to minimize it. [20:10:39] I_Jethrobot, So other than that, whats on our agenda for today? [20:11:00] Soni_WP - Just checking through notes... [20:11:51] Soni_WP - How has recruiting for mentors been going for you? [20:12:49] Not good so far, I'm afraid. I have been unfortunately been slacking up on that front, and the number of mentors I have contacted so far is much lesser than I'd like it to be. [20:15:21] After this weekend, I expect to be freeing up a lot of things for myself personally so that'd be a good time for me to resume active recruitment [20:16:14] Good. [20:16:40] Soni_WP - I'd also like you to spend some time recruiting from the Teahouse as well for interviews. [20:17:02] Okay. When do we have the next interview scheduled [20:17:26] Soni_WP - None yet as far as I know. I just talked to Gabe last night. [20:17:34] Ah, alright. [20:18:27] Soni_WP - I've been using Snuggle to identify some learners for the Teahouse, so you might consider using that to find editors who have made edits to Q&A page already. [20:18:41] Or just going to the Q&A page itself. [20:19:02] Soni_WP - We also need mentors, too. We've just got the one interview so far. [20:19:13] (for the Teahouse, that is.) [20:19:27] Got it. [20:22:16] Soni_WP - Wanted to also ask about whether you are comfortable conducting interviews? [20:22:22] I am. [20:24:07] Soni_WP - Can you record your discussions? [20:24:39] Soni_WP - That is, if you're going to do them over Hangouts or otherwise, do you have digital recorder? [20:25:29] I dont have a digital recorder but i'll figure some way to record the conversatioons [20:27:07] Soni_WP - OK, as long as there is a way for us to review the interview. [20:27:24] Soni_WP - Okay, I think that's all I have for today. [20:27:45] Soni_WP - How does next week look for you, by the way? [20:28:37] Its looking free for me. There might be a couple things in the weekend but totally managable [20:29:38] OK. Shouldn't have anything going on this weekend, meeting-wise other than our meeting with Dustin. [20:30:48] Soni_WP - So I think your work this week and next should focus on recruitment for the Co-op and for interviews, specifically from the Teahouse. [20:31:56] Soni_WP - I know you had e-mailed me about the midpoint, and I have to look that over in some detail in terms what I want everyone to do for that report for this 15th this month. [20:34:00] Alright Jethro, I'll work on those [20:34:55] Sounds good. [20:35:12] Soni_WP - OK, I'll be in touch with you. Have a good rest of your week! [20:35:23] See you later I_Jethrobot