Fall 2008 Digitising Hampshire Syllabus

Introductory Meeting 9-11
Discussed Hampedia's goals and history. Outlined main goals for this independent study.

Homework: Make profile on Hampedia.

9-12
REMINDERS: Get your indie study form signed by Jim Wald and by your advisor before Tuesday, and make sure to hand it in to Central Records!

Decisions: 


 * For course page names, it should be "Name of Course ~  SS-102" and if it is crosslisted, "Name of Course  ~  SS-102 &amp; NS-144"

Events: 

Hampedia Tutorial for SS Professors FPH Faculty Lounge 3:30-4pm Thursday September 18th Members attending: Ananda, Amelia, Ian, and Adam

Discussion: What are your individual goals for this course, starting out?


 * - Take photos of the entire campus and upload, categorize and organize.
 * - Create structure within Hampedia in order to organize information efficiently. For example, organize buildings, etc.
 * - Create pages for current students and staff with public information in the directory.
 * - Add whatever content needs to be added. Begin with SS by Thursday.
 * - Add content as needed.
 * - Interested in open directory.
 * - Digitizing documents (scanning and making into a wiki article!), adding content. Also very good at programming. Making it more searchable, like OpenCog.
 * - Education and outreach. Presenting to professors, administrators, and students.
 * - Hampedia calendar. Write an extension/module in PHP with MySQL and routinely export from the Intranet. Everyone will have their own individual calendar on Hampedia, as well as an overall campus calendar. Cross-referencing people, cleaning up pages.

9-19
Class began with a reminder to everyone to please come to class on time, with your computer and with your homework done. We'll start logging the time you show up. This is an official independent study, and you will be receiving an eval at the end of the course.

We had a discussion of each person's homework - what they did/did not accomplish, input from others, etc. See the Work Section for more.

Notes


 * Issue of copyrighted readings posted on Hampedia. Options: just upload readings to course website, provide links to JStor, give book title and page numbers so that it can be looked up in the library.
 * Possible new member, : Wants to create a Hampshire music website. Key things: Directory and calendar, particularly key is how you can put info into directory, that it is easy and useful. Calendar is good for listing all the events. Possible to undertake a project to create a hub on Hampedia for all things music and Hampshire. Good project to undertake-gathering info for that page, encouraging people to join, etc.
 * Get a plug-in so that you can add categories just by typing the word and it autocompletes. Adam has it.
 * Need to get every single user page to redirect to the person's profile page. Or, should we do it the opposite way and have names redirect to username?
 * Issue: Hampedia as a medium for discussion. Can no longer discuss on user pages. Is there a better way to conduct discussions on the wiki? Plug-in, JavaScript?
 * Issue: Professor template cuts out fields when you view it, but sections still there when editing profiles. How can we make templates more easy to work with?
 * Issue: WYSIWYG editor has way too many fancy buttons...

9-26
'''REMINDERS: Come to the NS Hampedia tutorial on Monday, any time between 12-130pm! Help me guide a bunch of not-so-computer-savvy people through Hampedia, and get fed at the same time. ^-^''' Email me (agv07) if you intend to come, and bring your laptop!


 * No meeting notes were taken as Ananda was not present, but the entire meeting was taped by Niko

10-03

 * The Library is basically replicating our efforts with the proprietary content management system, Reddot, that can only be used on Windows computers. They are collecting information and compiling it on that system.
 * Issue: Professors having problems figuring out the templates. Need to erase bottom sections of template. Need to put simple directions at top of "edit page" about how to edit the box.
 * Issue: Directions on "Upload File" page are confusing. Niko is fixing this.
 * "Division III Recovery Program" - next semester we should get an article into the alum magazine, and include a section encouraging alums to allow us to publish their Div3s/pay for postage for them to send them to us, as well as encourage them to create a profile and point them towards a tutorial.
 * Next semester, focus on Div3s, record all of this year's Div3s. Create a content base layer to inspire people next time.
 * All Hampshire-specific documents in the library should be on Hampedia.
 * Update on social networking/communication tools on Hampedia: Forums, IRC front-end on the wiki possibly/wikichat, blogging (ie http://www.htpcnz.net/Special:ListAllBlogs/), social networking (ie http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:SocialProfile).

10-10

 * Meeting is being taped by Niko.
 * Discussion of free software advocation. Who is allowed to call themselves free software advocates? Consumer choice is key. When are we going to discuss Hampedia? Wishful thinking? 30 minutes into meeting.
 * Ananda set up basic Hampshire College page, which is in dire need of heavy revisions and additions. Check it out!
 * Niko has recorded lots of events, and can now put them all up on Hampedia.
 * People have not been able to devote enough time to Hampedia as they should have, so the rest of the meeting is devoted to doing Hampedia-related work, whilst relaxing together on the Library Lawn.
 * OCR discussion. We need PDF open copies of all Hampshire-related documents on Hampedia. That is key. Discussion: Should these documents be on Hampedia, since it is a wiki? This needs a platform that provides better search abilities.
 * Mark Oribello said we could put up his Div3! He's going to find his floppies and make PDF and word documents and send it all to us! He is awesome. =D On late Monday he'll get back to us.

10-17

 * Adam is going to take picture of the Hampshire Tree with Ben and John.
 * Ian McEwen is talking about the bot he is building related to the directory and LDAP. Talking about semantic wiki and its functionality. Looks great! Will continue on development of the bot.
 * Pages for all current students, faculty, and staff will be created with a bot.
 * Mark Oribello has agreed to license his Div to be used on Hampedia. He will mail us a CD with all the documents.
 * Testing different IRC clients and/or Chat extensions for Hampedia.

10-31

 * Attended Benjamin Mako Hill's talk. Was awesome!
 * We need backups of Hampedia. Niko said he would work on that this weekend.
 * The programmers need access to the backup copies of the database so that they can play with the code without directly affecting Hampedia; for example they need access to the SQL tables for the calendar.
 * How can we have people get emails automatically sent to them if pages on their watchlist get changed? Niko has to add an extension called "Email Digest." Professors would feel more comfortable using the platform if they were automatically alerted if their page got changed.
 * Semantic wiki tutorial by Ian! Check out semantic-mediawiki.org
 * To create a semantic wiki property, you just use it!
 * Issue: the editor screws with the semantic data.
 * The student, etc box templates already have a variety of semantic properties now
 * Semantic search allows for much better search system
 * There should be a disclaimer at the top of course listings and faculty listings, saying that there may be inaccuracies, and for the latest information the need to check theHub. Ben will add this disclaimer.
 * Need something that makes it easier to work with templates and properties!


 * FOR THE NEXT CLASS, EVERYONE needs to update their individual work sections and plan out the rest of the semester, with deadlines and intended projects

11-7

 * Very few people have updated their individual work sections. Sigh! Everyone needs to have that ready by next week.
 * What about geotagging and maps? Ideological opposition to Google Maps, the software should all be free and open. Considering OpenLayers, but that's very difficult to put into place. Depends on discussions with GEO-I, and Niko putting OpenLayers into place. May be possible to get school to pay (through FiCom) to get the pictures. Issue of licensing, want to make sure we can put it up as CC.
 * Is Hampedia running on local time by default?
 * Fred gave a talk on how to have an effective semantic calendar; what needs to be done. It will be able to begin generating information when you give info (for example, you list a class, and it will automatically generate the professor's name, course number, start and end time, etc.). Not only will that info show up on your profile page, but it will also show up on your calendar! Acquisition of this info is NOT a liability. Listing everyone in the class can be done, either voluntarily, or if someone in the class goes in and lists everyone. Not only will this make calendars amazing, but it will also be very useful for pages in general. Issue of template brackets, nesting within brackets. Right now, because of FCK editor, making it user friendly is problematic. In the long term, this can all be done automatically, it will all be buried, it will be easy to do in forms.
 * It would be great to be able to work directly with the people who are working on the semantic project. However, they do paid support - do we want to pay them?
 * We need a "sandbox" wiki, need to be able to play around with and test code.
 * We are working with the guy who is in charge of all the Datatel stuff, Jeff Butera, who is very receptive to Hampedia.
 * Hampedia now has a page for every person who has ever gone to Hampshire!!!

11-14

 * WikiMiniAtlas extension could potentially be added to Hampedia to do geotagging and mapping.
 * issue: people who don't want people to even know that they are at Hampshire. LDAP does have a good system for that, we should be able to ensure that we follow LDAP, so this should not be a problem.
 * Offering people the option to opt in to provide information from the intranet. In order for that to happen, we need to be able to access the Datatel backend. That would need an official OK from the school. If they give us access to all of this information, Datatel/reddot may feel threatened by what we are doing.... This is a goal for the near future.
 * Need to change system for posting emails on Hampedia. What way do we want to do that? This needs to be a priority.
 * Need to get Hampedia on the first page when one googles Hampshire College.
 * Need to purchase hampedia dot com and switch to Gandi as domain registrar. We'll switch over December break, as there will be downtime.
 * Niko will work to have a more clear description of Hampedia posted obviously on the main page. (Change the tagline!)
 * Need to get everyone at Hampshire talking about Hampedia, discussing how it should be governed, how the system works. We should schedule an all-community meeting next semester on Hampedia.
 * We should have a prospective students core, spotlighting cool things on Hampedia. The challenge is to channel information to different audiences. Rework main page? Want to be able to use semantic technology to be able to pull information that is potentially interesting to exactly you. Be able to mirror Flickr's "interestingness"?
 * Fascinating to think about how people are having these deeper discussions about Hampshire, asking, "Is this good for the school?" We need to ensure that the school backs Hampedia, is in favor of it.
 * Do we know anyone fluent in Javascript? Need to fix
 * class for next semester? Can we do it with Lee/Chris? We should advertise and have an open meeting? Ananda will work on it, and schedule it by Monday. Next semester will be largely working with DivIII students, and also improving the platform.
 * We should get offices to hire student workers to update Hampedia pages.

11-19
Introductory meeting for students, faculty, and staff interested in taking part in Digitizing Hampshire in the spring. People interested, whom we are going to contact in the spring before Add/Drop:


 * Jiemin Liao - very interested in working with Division III students
 * Jacob Brooks - interested in photography and working with the OpenLayers mapping
 * Leanna Pohevitz -part of COCA, very interested in Hampedia
 * Annabel Yves Edelman
 * Paula Harmon
 * Ian Schwartz

11-21

 * Discussed the possibilities of using Citadel and integrating it with Hampedia, encouraging students to use it instead of webmail. Features that can be integrated: calendar, chat, email, contacts, whoisonline. How about Chandler? http://chandlerproject.org/vision
 * Still dealing with issue of bots scraping email addresses. Need to make the extension better, so that the source code does not include @hampshire.edu. Niko is going to get the Directory source code. For now, Ian is adding an image at the end (@hampshire.edu), and Niko will get the scripts to have the fancier solution.
 * Jose will email Ian the student group list so that he can have it automatically update.

12-05

 * Joe Fenstermaker visited today. He is interested in doing videotaped interviews with professors next semester. Yayy! Discussed what kinds of things we want. Ben is sending him the list of questions and professors. He'll work with us, but not be officially in the independent study. Niko will write up a tutorial.
 * Jim Wald, the professor signing off on our independent studies, visited class today.
 * FiCom will be funding a new server for Hampedia so that Hampedia can be automatically backed up. Niko will be building the server over JanTerm, and would like to get more people together and teach them how to build a server.
 * Still dealing with the fck editor issues. Should we get a new editor, or pay them to fix the editor?
 * Jim will send Ananda the photos from inside the book bunker, and and Ananda will work to get a field trip set up to go inside. Woohoo!
 * Fletcher West will be doing 3D models of the Hampshire buildings with SketchUp, would like to put it up on Hampedia. Niko is going to look into it, and see if it is properly open source.
 * Town of Amherst is doing 3D modeling of downtown Amherst, possibly we could get their permission to put that up on Hampedia in the future.We should definitely communicate with them in the future to share information.

End of the Semester
The facilitators will be writing the evaluations, as follows:

Writing the first draft (by Monday evening):


 * Ananda will do Mackey and Jose
 * Adam will do Niko, Ananda and Ian
 * Jose will do Adam and John
 * Niko will do Ben and Fred

Reviewing and revising the first draft (by Tuesday evening):


 * Ananda will do Ben and Adam
 * Adam will do John and Jose
 * Jose will do Niko, Ananda and Fred
 * Niko will do Ian and Mackey