As THEA435 wraps up (we’ll be gathering this evening to watch students’ final projects), I thought I’d take a moment to post this image.
This is a scan of a scrap of paper on which I took notes during a meeting with Andy and Jerry last fall. The notes grew out of a conversation in which we realized we needed to focus on the bare necessities for the content gallery we were building to support the class. We had been in an experimentation phase for a few weeks, and had quickly gotten sidetracked. We were focussing on all the cool things we COULD do rather than all the necessary things we HAD to do. This scrap reflects a moment in which we regrouped and, I think, it was a transformative moment in the planning process.
The items listed here were the essential , fundamental features that our content gallery needed to have. Since my scribbles are hard to decipher
* upload
* url/download
*find/search
*metadata
*under our control
*RSS
Basically we needed students to be able to upload (via a Web interface–not FTP) any kind of media. The items needed to have unique url’s for pointing and downloading. There needed to be tools for finding/searching items. We needed to be able to add useful metadata (so that finding/searching was fruitful). The whole thing needed to be under our control. And (and I underlined this) it had to be RSS-enabled.
Ultimately, what grew out of the conversation was the Coppermine Gallery. For the most part, I think that’s been a successful solution. We’ll have to do some post-game analysis once the class is over to decide if we’d go with it again.
But, most importantly, this scrap of paper is a reminder that we need to remember to keep our eyes on the prize and try not to get too distracted.
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