Marketing/Ideas/Template team

TDF LibreOffice Document Liberation Project Community Blogs Weblate Nextcloud Redmine Ask LibreOffice Donate

Proposal

(Members interested in this proposal: Marc Paré)

Organise an official LibO Templating Team where the teams' only task would be to come up with different templates for various categories. The "Lead Template Team" members would come from individuals who show a larger than usual amount of experience or even expertise in these categories.

For example, I am an expert in 14th-19th century keyboard reconstruction. Some of my regular jobs is to order specific wire for for period strings based on their metal elasticity and period applications (iron, phosphor, bronze, brass and steel). As I order from one individual in the UK on a regular basis, I would join the template team and charged of the "Period Keyboard Restoration" category and build templates according to the needs in this category.

Another example, which has been discussed in previous threads, is a "Religions -> Evangelical" category, where the person responsible for this section would be in charge of templating various forms that are done regularly by church admins, church music directors, church ministries etc.

If we were to setup a Templating Team group and published a large variety of templates, then the LibO suite would become more valuable as an Office suite for everyone.

Where to Find Templating Specialists

We would not have to find "templating specialists" but in most cases, we could all make an effort to convince people who are active in a particular domain and has a central administering role in making an organisation work. These people would be the most likely people to make use of repetitive chores/documents. We could then organise a "templating mentoring programme" where members could get help in learning on how to template as well as on-hands help in template construction. In essence, we would not wait for people to come to us, but actively promote and find individuals who we think could contribute to the templating team.

Template Lead Specialists and LibO Template Mentor Developers

As most of the "Templating Team Leads" would not be well versed in the process of creating templates, a templating membership programme could be established. Ideally, the mentors would be individuals well informed on template building process and may have an expertise in database coding (but not necessarily so). Their role would be to inform, teach and aid in template design and coding where possible. The Lead specialists would be charged in providing the structure of the template idea, construct the outline of the template up to the level the she/he possesses and if necessary, the template mentor would be asked to step in and teach/help in completing the template. In cases where the template were too complex and needed specific coding, the "Lead Specialist + Template mentor" may decide to seek further help in the LibO pool of developers for a dev interested in helping out.

Roles and Structure

Template Lead Specialist

in charge of creating the outline of templates within his/her field of specialisation
in charge of creating templates within his/her knowledge capacity of template building
may ask for mentorship aid in completing the template

Template Mentor Developers

make themselves accessible to all Template Lead Specialists
inform/teach templating development techniques. They may also teach coding techniques if the Leads are knowledgeable in templating development techniques.
aid in constructing or completion of templates where the Lead Specialist can no longer do so.

Status

has been discussed and debated on the marketing mailist. Refer to: https://www.libreoffice.org/lists/marketing/msg00745.html for more information.