[uf-discuss] hCalendar spec- no specification included!

[Mike Schinkel]

I agree that the current layout is confusing. After reading several of these
email I would like to make a suggestion that is smaller scope than an entire
reorganization (which still might be a good idea.) 

Tantek suggests that "the specifications are not tutorials" and others have
said that they (think newbies would be) interested in authoring, not the
specification and I concur.

What if we use a convention that the entry page (i.e.
http://microformats.org/wiki/hcard) would be an index into a list of
(psuedo) standardized sub pages so that it would be very people to find what
is important to them. For example, is a list of potential sub pages:

* Specification
* Tutorial
* Examples
* Use cases
* Reference
* Discussion
* Brainstorming (might be combined w/Discussion)
* Implementations
* Related Pages
* Further Reading
* All (Uses Mediawiki's "includes" to create a page including all sub pages;
very useful for printing & reading offline)

These pages would be located respectively at 

* http://microformats.org/wiki/hcard/Specification
* http://microformats.org/wiki/hcard/Tutorial
* http://microformats.org/wiki/hcard/Examples
* http://microformats.org/wiki/hcard/Use_cases
* http://microformats.org/wiki/hcard/Reference
* http://microformats.org/wiki/hcard/Discussion
* http://microformats.org/wiki/hcard/Brainstorming 
* http://microformats.org/wiki/hcard/Implementations
* http://microformats.org/wiki/hcard/Related_Pages
* http://microformats.org/wiki/hcard/Further_Reading  
* http://microformats.org/wiki/hcard/All 

Please note I am suggesting an architecture not a specific list of sub
pages. The list of sub pages should be defined by both reviewing existing
information during site reorganization, and then via discussion on the list
in an attempt to discover and extract which sub pages are needed for
most/all microformats.

Hope this is useful...

-Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: microformats-discuss-bounces at microformats.org
[mailto:microformats-discuss-bounces at microformats.org] On Behalf Of Benjamin
West
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 5:29 PM
To: Microformats Discuss
Subject: Re: [uf-discuss] hCalendar spec- no specification included!

On 10/16/06, Justin Thorp <juth at loc.gov> wrote:
> Ben, I really like your idea of giving the wiki a better sense of
organization.
>

Justin, thanks, but this isn't my idea.  Many others have expressed their
ideas and desires as well.

> Is it possible within MediaWiki to have some type of sidebar navigation
with this site organization on it?

Interesting idea.  Would you mind suggesting this on the to-do page?
You can create your own section or feel free to put it under mine.  If
enough people comment in my section, I'll split the whole section off as
it's own Wiki Improvement section. Please add this to
http://microformats.org/wiki/to-do#Ben_West_.28bewest.29 under information
architecture.  Be sure to leave your name.

> I think this would help users to better find the information that they are
looking for. For example, I am a user who could care less about the
specification and cares more about how to write an hCard or hCalendar.  I
want to see whats possible and some examples.

So your first inclination is authoring?  What kind of websites do you
author?  Are you more of a graphic designer or a web developer?

If there were a landing page for a specific microformat (as Andy and cgriego
have suggested.  I beleive I'm hearing more and more consensus on this.)
that had large items such as:
* What is this?
* What can I do here?
* Show me a demo.
* Create an hCard

Which one would look most promising?  If create an hcard went to the hcard
creator, would this suprise you?

> I didn't even see that there was a page on authoring within the pages and
pages of specification.  Even with it at the top of the page.  I glanced
right over it.
>
> It seems like most tutorials on hCard or hCalendar point people to the
spec to get more information.  Should we be encouraging people to point to
the authoring page?  I think a newbie would be very very very intimidated
being pointed right to the spec.
>

Call me sick, but this is exactly the kind of thing I'm looking to collect.
I've added it to <http://microformats.org/wiki/wiki-feedback>.  Can everyone
add their favorite complaint?

Ben
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