re: Library demo for Coronvirus Tech Handbook?

[patcon]

Hey all! Thanks soooooo so much for creating this tool. Just wanted to let you know about a use-case I'll be piloting today, and solicit help if anyone is interested!

I am looking to support this project with a test deployment of Library:

https://coronavirustechhandbook.com/

 with Newspeak House, the org that initiated the project.)

The Coronavirus Tech Handbook is a resource started by the London College of Political Technologist (Newspeak House) to help crowdsource large-scale response to pandemic. It's becoming less and less tech-specific, fwiw. (I'm NOT an official ambassador of the handbook, and have nothing but passing affiliation.)

Press: https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/coronavirus-tech-handbook-guides-you-through-the-mayhem-1.4205062

I'm a member of a tech worker co-op in Toronto, Canada (https://hypha.coop) but am independently trying to set up Library for the handbook project.

From observation and informal conversation, the current pains the project seems to be feeling are:

- They want to keep editing open to all (not view-only mode for GDocs)

- Google Docs caps out at about 100 editors, after which it's a special HTML-only mode, first-come-first-serve get to edit

  - Their use of a tool calls Google Docs Enhancement Suite (closed source) seems to help with this by "timing out" for people when they're idle for too long, freeing up seats in this pool of 100 editors

- they've created WhatsApp group chats for each doc or section of docs

- searching is not easy, and so questions about "where should this go" or "where would i look for this" seem to fall to a few people in various WhatsApp chats.

- The initiators of the project have done a great job of recruiting librarians to help manage the information, so the pool of insiders with knowledge of "what goes where" is growing

- they are using the hard limit of editors as a proxy for knowing when they should split out docs (which is actually super-clever, and I'd note importantly that this is a "shared sensing" they'd lose with a "better" solution like Library, where most readers are at least one click aware from editing)

- presumably the "this many people editing this doc" is a useful indicator and energizer. It's like the energy of being with a gathering crowd. Even the "failures" of edit mode limits are kinda energizing. It feels akin to, when in a big public crowd, you might have to repeat yourself to a friend beside you. Yes, it's inconvenient, but that doesn't mean you'd choose silence and ability to work perfectly. Library might need some indicator like this to capture the energy of many people working in a collaborative space, otherwise, the resource might become a bit of a colder place. (I'm reminded of this paper that shows that human visual attention in-aggregate is actually subtly affected by our judgement of others watch: https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/do-you-believe-in-eye-beams -- if this effect exists in large spaces like protests and actions, then we often lose it when moving online, where 1000s of people might be reading a document but not feel the energy of one another being in synchronized attention)

I feel like the ability to search deeply into docs is a big things they're missing. I'm uncertain what other affects a potential platform migration might have.

Anyhow, the above are the scattered thoughts in my mind as I am preparing to set up a demo. Wondering whether anyone else would be interested to support or maybe even take feedback and work on feature requests to support the growing community around this handbook. (This, of course, is assuming that they see the demo and think it's a good direction.)

Please do respond here. When I create a repo, I'll share the link back here as well.

Alternatively, you may jump into the "Misc Chat" whatsapp group, which is where most of the "meta" discussions like this are taking place:

https://chat.whatsapp.com/Ijf1HiOWNph7UDiNI5bL0n (Keep in mind that others likely won't be familiar with this post)

In solidarity,

-patcon