@WW, we absolutely are committed to having a multi-person Editorial Team! And I am glad you are offering to be part of it!
One reason for having a multi-person team would indeed be the “many hands will make light work” principle. (There is a flip side, which might be captured in the equally corny precept of "too many cooks spoil the broth" -- explored at length below.) But also crucial is that, as we aren't trying to replace Bill, we do not want to rely on one single person's taste, judgement, and tact.
Who do we have? Anybody want to join but "I can do this but not that" could also be accommodated probably.
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I think I've already yammered a couple times about what I'm calling workflow issues -- where does stuff go, how are mail-ins marked for reference, where are images held, where are posting drafts held if not uploaded, do other editors review the posting remarks or just the selection?
Some of those can be handled, to start with, using these tools:
1 -- A webmail service for the editors@ address with features:
a== Enable forwarding (plus retain!) to several outside addresses [so editors see when something has arrived]
b== Don't have a web security fit each time "Somebody has logged in from a new device or browser!". We will have multiple people doing this on a single account and password all the time.
c== Easy setup and use of folders. These will be for "let's reject" , "seen favorably", "ready to use", "has been composed", "posted and done". etc Plus detours.
d==Unlikely to find this, but it would be great to be able to attach annotations to filed messages
2 -- A private forum (plus maillist probably). This would be the place for the team to discuss
a==Normal process notes on each incoming item, including both what to decide on each plus what stage it has reached (i.e. what folder in the webmail), plus exchanges about wording of whatever.
b==Discussions or statements about the process. Self-conscious reflections. Scheduling. "I will be away Tuesday and Wednesday, when I am scheduled to be initial respionder for the queue. Who can take it? " ... "Can someone review / help me with how to get red letters within a line in the WP editor"...
3 -- I don't know, if those arent't enough would it help to try using some other software -- a helpdesk package, a workflow package, a project management package -- I don't even know what the right category names are. I have used Trello for something (at someone else's behest) and it wouldn't be perfect but maybe could help. (I see now it has been integrated with other Atlassian tools, but that doesn't tell me much.)
So - - let's CALL FOR ADVICE FROM ANY WORKFLOW EXPERT, PROJECT MANAGER EXPERT, OR ANYON WHO HAS GOOD FAMILIARITY WITH PM SOFTWARE OR TRELLO OR SIMILAR WORKSPACE SOFTWARE
Editor team process pre-planning
[Posted in Random too]
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@WW, we absolutely are committed to having a multi-person Editorial Team! And I am glad you are offering to be part of it!
One reason for having a multi-person team would indeed be the “many hands will make light work” principle. (There is a flip side, which might be captured in the equally corny precept of “too many cooks spoil the broth” — explored at length below.) But also crucial is that, as we aren’t trying to replace Bill, we do not want to rely on one single person’s taste, judgement, and tact.
Who do we have? Anybody want to join but “I can do this but not that” could also be accommodated probably.
—
I think I’ve already yammered a couple times about what I’m calling workflow issues — where does stuff go, how are mail-ins marked for reference, where are images held, where are posting drafts held if not uploaded, do other editors review the posting remarks or just the selection?
Some of those can be handled, to start with, using these tools:
1 — A webmail service for the editors@ address with features:
a== Enable forwarding (plus retain!) to several outside addresses [so editors see when something has arrived]
b== Don’t have a web security fit each time “Somebody has logged in from a new device or browser!”. We will have multiple people doing this on a single account and password all the time.
c== Easy setup and use of folders. These will be for “let’s reject” , “seen favorably”, “ready to use”, “has been composed”, “posted and done”. etc Plus detours.
d==Unlikely to find this, but it would be great to be able to attach annotations to filed messages
2 — A private forum (plus maillist probably). This would be the place for the team to discuss
a==Normal process notes on each incoming item, including both what to decide on each plus what stage it has reached (i.e. what folder in the webmail), plus exchanges about wording of whatever.
b==Discussions or statements about the process. Self-conscious reflections. Scheduling. “I will be away Tuesday and Wednesday, when I am scheduled to be initial respionder for the queue. Who can take it? ” … “Can someone review / help me with how to get red letters within a line in the WP editor”…
3 — I don’t know, if those arent’t enough would it help to try using some other software — a helpdesk package, a workflow package, a project management package — I don’t even know what the right category names are. I have used Trello for something (at someone else’s behest) and it wouldn’t be perfect but maybe could help. (I see now it has been integrated with other Atlassian tools, but that doesn’t tell me much.)
So – – let’s CALL FOR ADVICE FROM ANY WORKFLOW EXPERT, PROJECT MANAGER EXPERT, OR ANYON WHO HAS GOOD FAMILIARITY WITH PM SOFTWARE OR TRELLO OR SIMILAR WORKSPACE SOFTWARE
Besides those workflow setup issues, there are some other sorts of setups that are not big but need deciding -- maybe not right now of course.
1--Does everybody on the team do all of the various jobs, but on rotating schedule? Or would we have some who can't stand the WP editor and don't actually do the uploads and postings (for instance)?
a== If a rotating schedule, would it make sense to change daily, or weekly, or by availability, or by whose selection has been jointly approved to go next? etc
b== Obverse of the "non-posting editor" mentioned, what if the upload and WP interface is deemed too complex to expect everybody to do it the same way, how about making a specialist in some tasks like that?
Seriously, to figure these out, don't hesitate to copy and paste any isolate item and comment on it!
