See also Development Log and Development Roadmap

The backlog includes all potential tasks that have not been designated as part of an active contract or specific scope of work.

Short-Term Administrative Tasks[edit]

The following task are small improvements flagged for attention by moderators. When you pick up a task, move it to Development Log#Active Scope.

New Page Creation - develop new page creation options for all info boxes for standard page types.
Gap at Top of Page - The new templates still create a carriage return at the top of the free text which creates blank space and where the text is offset from the infobox. How can we remove this space? Some initial work has removed one of two CRs, this is a page template issue, and may need to be solved with something like a CSS negetive margin.
Social Component - Replace talk pages with a pathway into a dynamic social media context (perhaps Hylo). This must be designed and promoted.
Update Page Type Info Boxes - Update the Salish Sea References and create DPLs appropriate for each Page Type Info Box.
Finish Draft Pages for Architecture/Content Page Framework - Its not clear these are the right words, or that a two-level framework is most legible.
Polygon Set for Places - create draft set of polygons for regions to prototype mapping functions.
Promotional Videos - develop a set of videos to support interest and use. Here are some brainstormed topics:
- Personal Call To Action - problem statement and appeal to shared purpose of open knowledge networks. I think affiliating with the OKN movement may have utility and increase coherence/legibility.
- Wiki Values - why the wiki platform is the right tool, and how it reflects a high value for participation in knowledge creation and the low value of perfection.
- Information Architecture and Navigation - overview of 5 pages types and related categories and use of the navigation menu.
- Appeal to Professionals, value proposition of wiki use - describe how wiki use can be integrated into professional practice in a way that increases efficiency and value of professional work.
- How to archive your Product - how to load a product to archive, with recommendations for how to think about naming and categories.
- Faculty/Platform for Grad Student - image flier and page dedicated to faculty/student use of the platform for student projects, particularly knowledge synthesis and literature review.
Content Adjustments
- Landform Icons - Landform pages have been shifted to topic pages, it would be nice to figure out how to recycle the landform icons and include them in place page info boxes.
- Architecture/Content - using cargo tables rather than DPL to support review of pages at the Arch/Content levels.

Backlogged Projects[edit]

The following tasks are in a parking lot and some may require developer time.

Site Technical Improvements[edit]

Template Picture - Build out Template:Picture to better organize all images used to decorate pages. There may be work to organize other files, but it seems that the default of having files loaded through forms, and associated with cargo data is the right approach. A mass upload process for pictures as part of the page creation may make sense--ask contractor for advice.
Category Pages or Redirects? - existing category pages Category:Categories have useful information, and a template which shows all categories... however if you click on a category on a page footer it takes you into a page in the Category namespace. An alternative would be to have category pages redirect to the related Category:Architecture Page and thereby provide information in a mainpage format and style, using customized Content Templates suited to Page Type instead of the native category page lists. This is a puzzle with significant costs to change.
PDF Content Integration - There are remaining questions about how, when and by what means to integrate PDF searching. This will also be picked up in a RAG/LLM process, and my ultimately be the better tool for PDF interrogation.
- Onboard OCR - https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:TikaAllTheFiles allow OCR of uploaded PDF files (historical artifacts) and then becomes part of the search text.
- Searching PDFs - How does CirrusSearch look at PDF content.
Use of Sub-Pages - need clear plan for when and how we use sub-pages or at what point we breaking down a single page (for example a workgroup) into multiple pages that describe parts.
Mapping Prototype - A system for displaying polygons stored on the wiki through a slide-up mapper accessible from Place pages. Spatial objects are stored on the wiki (likely as GeoJson files using Map Data Extension) and are associated with pages, and the structured data of those pages. In the mapper, spatial objects (linked to wiki pages) can be filtered based on category/attribute data on the pages structured data (using Cargo?). The map is accessable from all place pages. When map view is activated, the mapper reads the Cargo data of the current page, checks if there is an associated polygon associated with that place, and generates a map centering that place at an appropriate scale and showing other similar scale pages in the neighborhood. A master mapper allows for review and filtering of all spatial data using page-polygon-cargo-associated data and a set of controls. https://maps.extension.wiki/wiki/Maps_for_MediaWiki - Maps Extension is already installed. https://maps.extension.wiki/wiki/Cargo - Maps extension may need to interact with Cargo Data. https://leafletjs.com/ - Leaflet is an open source javascript web-based map tool that may serve to create the mapper. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Map_Data - the Map Data extension appears to allow for GeoJson files to be stored on wiki.
Update Product Data - Simplify Product Data Structure, but having the same title field, and with the same Author and Year fields "appear on select" for each subtype (Documents, Graphics, and Datasets). Simplify Temlate data call to match.
Troubleshoot Popup Problem - troubleshoot "unable to show preview" error... moderator will flag examples.
Inline Comments - add inline comment extension or recommended equivalent. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:InlineComments
QR Codes - add an extension light QR light that creates a QR code for each page that can be easily cut and pasted into products that take you back to that page. Can this have a custom central graphic?
Bulk Page Creation - We will develop and deploy the ability to load a set of documents, and then autogenerate a set of pages from a CVS spreadsheet.
Define a new category protocol - Define the sequence of steps necessary to add an category/attribute while maintaining the relationships among attributes, correcting any use of deprecated attributes in existing pages, and maintaining cargo-to-category parity. Potential Categories provides a stopgap reservoir of future changes. The primary challenge here is changing categories in cargo data structure, presumably using ReplaceText and some sophisticated RegEx (?).

Site Detailing Tasks[edit]

Font Review - We need a review and revision of fonts and font sizes... many pages use H2 subheadings because in general the headings are both too large, and not distinct in style from text. I'd propose a distinct and stylized page title font (similar to the logo), and then subtle but distinct heading fonts that are not so large and spaced out.
Add Color To Nav Menu - add small pagetype icons to the nav menu to identify the five key page types?
Fancy Tree Menus - https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:TreeAndMenu allows for construction of tree-form menus based on DPL queries, and may be useful for Infobox links
Social Media Share Image Selection - set social media share settings so that an image other than the page type icon shows during social media share

Content Improvement Tasks[edit]

See Development Roadmap

Information Architecture Refinements[edit]

Education Categories - we have education as a Social Change Topic, and we have Academic as a type of Workgroup, and a proposal to subdivide by Youth/College. This seems like a poor description of all the institutions and approaches encompassed by education, both as a kind of Workgroup (could all educational institutions just be State/Special District/NGO/Private?) and the purposes of education, which bleed into advocacy depending on your perspectives. This is the one place where a workgroup type category is divided by a effort purpose category, and is an inconsistency.
Whidbey Island and Waterhseds - the Category:Whidbey Island is one of a set of conundrum around whether we describe place as land or by the flow of watersheds (Catchment Scale). South Sound is full of peninsulas and inlets, but Whidbey is particularly nettlesome, because of its scale. Because it is an island, it might thus become its own place, and thus becomes a region separate to itself... too large to be a catchment?
Cleanup After Templates Update - All the old Landform based templates need to be depricatd, with simplification of place page templates.

Community Development Tasks[edit]

Ultimately the platform is strong because it has a community of devoted users. We need a clear program that provides an easy way for users to become involved in the the development of the platform.

Value and Roles of Membership - Describe participation in the platform as membership and describe the value that a member gains by participating in the platform. All participation levels are "free" but additional benefits are gained by additional contributions. A guild and hub model can be used to describe place-based vs. topic-based knowledge.
Promotional Videos - We'd benefit from a set of video presentations selling the philosophy and value of the platform, and how it can serve your professional practice. This should start with a script.
- Page Type Architecture -
- Category Architecture - as elaboration of page type

Topic Editor Cultivation - conduct special events where we gather experts on a topic, and complete updates of Master Topic pages and additions to the wiki to represent current best knowledge.
Place Mapping - conduct special events where we train people to use the platform to describe the workgroups, efforts and products that are important to a place.

Development Backlog

Technical Pages[edit]