Open Stack

The first thing I tried to do with Ask, after I figured out how to login
using my LP credentials, and found the voting button (which only shows up
on the detailed view), was to attempt to vote up a feature that I also
need. I got a cryptic message about needing >5 points! Then I realized this
whole system is based on "karma" - which defeats the point of making it
easy to capture lightweight feedback from a large number of loosely
involved individuals.

/rant

There is a broad set of academic research and commercial products around
gathering user feedback, called "idea management" - it requires tools and
approaches that are almost 180 degrees from the defect-centric and
process-heavy mechanisms of engineering. For example:

Ideas don't require descriptions - a single sentence is often enough.
Descriptions don't require markdown or complex formatting.
They can be voted up or down from list-view.
Tagging and categories are orthogonal (see the original taxonomy vs.
folksonomy debate at
http://solutions.wolterskluwer.com/blog/2010/10/topical-classification-of-content-making-sense-of-folksonomies-taxonomies-ontologies-and-more/)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_innovation
http://readwrite.com/2010/09/01/3-trends-in-idea-management

I agree that tool proliferation is dangerous, though. But I can't see us
getting from where Ask is, to something appropriate for Idea Management, in
the timeline that I think this needs to come together within. Thoughts?





On Fri, Mar 8, 2013 at 4:32 PM, Joshua McKenty <joshua at pistoncloud.com>wrote:

> UserVoice can easily be installed as a widget into OpenStack-Dashboard:
> this would allow us to gather feedback directly from a point of interaction
> for all the users. (Obviously opt-in, but could be folded into the opt-in
> stats tracking).
>
> Ask is integrated into LP for login - that's exactly opposite of what I'm
> trying to accomplish (make it easy for non-developers to participate).
> Let's assume that for every developer, there are (eventually) 100
> operators, and for every operator there are at least 100 consumers (cloud
> end-users). Optimizing a low-friction process for those consumers to
> provide feedback is what I'm aiming for.
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 8, 2013 at 4:17 PM, Stefano Maffulli <stefano at openstack.org>wrote:
>
>> On 03/08/2013 03:17 PM, Joshua McKenty wrote:
>>
>>> I'd like to emphasize that using the same tool for developers, and
>>> users, is probably not ideal.
>>>
>>
>> Totally agreed. Ask is not for developers, it's a replacement for the
>> forums and a better system than a mailing list for (at least some)
>> operators/devops.
>>
>>
>>  Again, the Launchpad workflow is optimized
>>> for the SOLUTION side - feedback, or user feature requests, aren't
>>> QUESTIONS.
>>>
>>
>> I agree they're not questions.
>>
>> My concern is that adding tools may create problems. I get the feeling
>> that I'm missing something here: what's exactly the need? How do you think
>> the processes will have to be? who's going to be responsible for what?
>>
>> /stef
>>
>
>
>
> --
> --
> Joshua McKenty, CTO
> Piston Cloud Computing, Inc.
> w: (650) 24-CLOUD
> m: (650) 283-6846
> http://www.pistoncloud.com
>
> "Oh, Westley, we'll never survive!"
> "Nonsense. You're only saying that because no one ever has."
>



-- 
--
Joshua McKenty, CTO
Piston Cloud Computing, Inc.
w: (650) 24-CLOUD
m: (650) 283-6846
http://www.pistoncloud.com

"Oh, Westley, we'll never survive!"
"Nonsense. You're only saying that because no one ever has."
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