supporting existing projects - an implementation action group responsibility

[richard.pendergast]

my understanding so far (and this is something i am clarifying at the
moment) is that primarily the implementation action group is about the
support of existing projects.

until we know what else is out there, it would be very easy to step on
an existing project, by starting something new, getting the resources
of dataportability behind it, and forcing the existing project into
redundancy (or, even worse parallel development).

for this reason i think we really need to be focusing on at least two
key initiatives within implementation:

1. the creation of a page for collecting the details of projects that
are building tools (code libraries etc) that can be used to implement
for dataportability
2. the creation of a page for collecting the details of projects
already building solutions (sites, software etc) with dataportability

i see the separation of the two as important. the first is a listing
of code snippets, libraries, etc. that can be used to aid in
implementing for dataportability. the second would be a listing of
existing projects already working toward dataportability. both would
capture the poeple involved, goals, achievements etc.

unfortunately, i am still discussing with the other groups the future
location of this information. in the meantime, i propose creating two
pages here within the implementation action group. this will most
likely land me in a bit of trouble, but this is something we can be
doing now, and something we can be seeing results from very soon. the
two pages will definitely shift to the public group somewhere, and
will most likely become an extension of the dataportability toolbelt
and graphsync, but this is something that will be up to the other
groups.

the dataportability toolbelt currently contains a list of tools, but
no further information. it would make sense to track the successes of
each, key project members, goals etc. in order to provide both further
information for potential end users, and material for the evangelism
action group when promoting the successes of dataportabillity.

graphsync currently relies on existing projects coming to
dataportability. we have a group here that can go to the existing
projects. when you have your head down coding it is fairly rare that
you seek out new affiliations or groups to join, and you are certainly
so far into it that you dont have the time to regularly promote your
progress anywhere apart from your own site.

ideally id see us trying to get a member of each tool project or
implementation project to join the implementation group. that way they
can keep us up to date with how things are going, together with
benefiting from the available peer support on offer here. failing that
i think we should really be looking at sponsorship of each project,
that is, an existing member of the group becoming a sponsor for one or
more projects regularly speaking with the members of the project and
keeping the group up to date with progress in their stead.

i held off promoting this idea last night, as i had to clarify
contribution guidelines a little first with the other dataportability
action groups. this is still ongoing (i have posted to the evangelism
action group, and will wait to see what comes of it).

in the meantime, i think it is worth getting people thinking about two
tasks we could be tackling now.

if nothing happens tonight or tomorrow, and nobody objects, ill post
two pages with a template of how i think we might capture the
information, along with a couple of the projects i already know of.

[Mike Reynolds]

I think this is brilliant Richard. Makes sense to formally separate
out tools that can be used to do DP and companies actually
implementing DP.