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This was initially written for the team of volunteers working on the AO3, and is more about the technical build then about the community we live in. One of the things I do as Chair of Accessibility, Design, & Technology is long term strategic planning - which means I have a rough timeline for pretty much everything stored in my head (or I make them up very quickly when we need them). I'm reminded that information shared is information no longer stored entirely in my head and since some of that info relates to questions people have asked I hereby share it :)
*in which your chair muses on software development project lifecycles then gets horribly off topic*
One of our new coders asked a very sensible question in the Coders chatroom the other day and I thought it was worth talking a bit about. Thank you :)
“… it seems like the project is nearing completion? like, am I too late to the party?”
This is going to be a very long party!
Our first code was committed in February 2008 and we’re looking at maybe being able to roll out all core features by June 2010. We are currently on v0.6 and plan to launch 0.7 for Open Beta (well, critical chunks of it). We’ll work on 0.8 and 0.9 in 2010. I make the dates up purely so that we have markers to aim for, not because we are required to do this by some invisible force *peers into crystal ball and consults magic fish*. This is actually a pretty good pace for a major development project :)
‘All core features’ is otherwise known as otw-archive v1.0 and it will be made available for people who want to use the software to run their own archive. It's worth noting that 'core features' is also the minimum features we thought an archive should have - we will no doubt want other ones after v1.0. The Organization for Transformative Works will host the Archive of Our Own (which is our copy) and we will continue to support the software.
Now software doesn’t spring into being perfect and whole like Venus from the ocean despite the persistent, wistful belief of upper management in large corporations who don’t want to part with their budget and the occasional wistful fantasy of Yours Truly. Nor, unlike humans, is it self-healing (no, rebooting doesn’t count :p).
June 2010 is not going to be some magic stopping point. We will release the Beta version of otw-archive v1.0 in the knowledge that our users are going to find bugs and tell us about parts that don’t work as well as we want it to. We will fix bugs and review the things that don’t work and we will continually improve it. We will eventually reach a point where we feel all or most of the big bugs have been deal with and a) stop calling it ‘beta’ and b) celebrate a lot but we will not stop resolving bugs and improving features. For reference, Gmail was launched as invitation-only beta release in April 2004, it came out of beta in July 2009 (five years), Ravelry launched invitation-only beta in May 2007 and is still in beta now (2 years).
In addition to this the rest of the world will keep right on changing – this means new operating systems, new browsers, new hardware, new features we want to incorporate, new funky applications other people make that we want to integrate with. Anyone who produces a software package has to keep it current or it degrades and eventually stops being usable (this can take a long time, or…not so much time).
One of the OTW goals was to build an archive (and a journal and a wiki and and...), we’re doing that but we do have other goals :)
We want to create and support a community in which people (particularly women although we welcome men) can learn and use the skills required to maintain the Archive of Our Own. We want this because who wouldn’t want a pool ofdangerous, smart, and expertly trained demon hunters people working together on a project? *grins* We want to empower our community, we want to be the people making the decisions, we want to own our own servers and part of that is having the skills and the knowledge to do so.
This means you can join us at any time and at any skill level – there is always work to be done. Plus, and this is very important, we want you to have the power to be that ‘someone’ when you find yourself thinking ‘someone should do something’.
Cheers, Samvara
*in which your chair muses on software development project lifecycles then gets horribly off topic*
One of our new coders asked a very sensible question in the Coders chatroom the other day and I thought it was worth talking a bit about. Thank you :)
“… it seems like the project is nearing completion? like, am I too late to the party?”
This is going to be a very long party!
Our first code was committed in February 2008 and we’re looking at maybe being able to roll out all core features by June 2010. We are currently on v0.6 and plan to launch 0.7 for Open Beta (well, critical chunks of it). We’ll work on 0.8 and 0.9 in 2010. I make the dates up purely so that we have markers to aim for, not because we are required to do this by some invisible force *peers into crystal ball and consults magic fish*. This is actually a pretty good pace for a major development project :)
‘All core features’ is otherwise known as otw-archive v1.0 and it will be made available for people who want to use the software to run their own archive. It's worth noting that 'core features' is also the minimum features we thought an archive should have - we will no doubt want other ones after v1.0. The Organization for Transformative Works will host the Archive of Our Own (which is our copy) and we will continue to support the software.
Now software doesn’t spring into being perfect and whole like Venus from the ocean despite the persistent, wistful belief of upper management in large corporations who don’t want to part with their budget and the occasional wistful fantasy of Yours Truly. Nor, unlike humans, is it self-healing (no, rebooting doesn’t count :p).
June 2010 is not going to be some magic stopping point. We will release the Beta version of otw-archive v1.0 in the knowledge that our users are going to find bugs and tell us about parts that don’t work as well as we want it to. We will fix bugs and review the things that don’t work and we will continually improve it. We will eventually reach a point where we feel all or most of the big bugs have been deal with and a) stop calling it ‘beta’ and b) celebrate a lot but we will not stop resolving bugs and improving features. For reference, Gmail was launched as invitation-only beta release in April 2004, it came out of beta in July 2009 (five years), Ravelry launched invitation-only beta in May 2007 and is still in beta now (2 years).
In addition to this the rest of the world will keep right on changing – this means new operating systems, new browsers, new hardware, new features we want to incorporate, new funky applications other people make that we want to integrate with. Anyone who produces a software package has to keep it current or it degrades and eventually stops being usable (this can take a long time, or…not so much time).
One of the OTW goals was to build an archive (and a journal and a wiki and and...), we’re doing that but we do have other goals :)
We want to create and support a community in which people (particularly women although we welcome men) can learn and use the skills required to maintain the Archive of Our Own. We want this because who wouldn’t want a pool of
This means you can join us at any time and at any skill level – there is always work to be done. Plus, and this is very important, we want you to have the power to be that ‘someone’ when you find yourself thinking ‘someone should do something’.
Cheers, Samvara
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