Tasks Update Summary - September 2009

Since Saq's last update

MSF - he finished the notebooks for MSF (Doctors Without Borders).
- he receives feedback from the doctors as they return from the field and asks them to provide artifacts, such as forms and anything else they use in the field, which could be beneficial to the forms work
Hesperian - Where There Is No Doctor
- involved with weekly and biweekly calls
- helping to plan the technology as well as how to best optimize the material for mobile delivery
- put the Table of Contents (TOC) on the wiki - this ties in with the notebook work because those Hesperian advisors who don't have consistent online access will be able to use notebooks specifically generated for Hesperian
TiddlyHub - this has been his main project since May
- now have comments, ratings and different ways to browse the data
- it has gone live and the initial community feedback is favorable - there have been about 300 visits/day
- next step is to encourage patterns for publishing plugins so that more will be publised there
- there are more features that will be beneficial but he'll wait to get feedback before deciding which direction to take
- he's been working on his own plugins and has added them to TiddlyHub
VIC - Virtual Interactive Classroom
- not much has been taking place here - he's followed up with Prof. Yousuf and also entered the VIC for a tech award
- all the videos have been converted and he's working on uploading them
Student Notebook
- one of Andrew Lister's colleagues presented the notebooks at a conference over the summer so Saq got the instructor component ready for that
- some surveys were conducted with Andrew's students last semester - improvements are being worked on as a result of the survey
Forms
- not much progress since May
- Saq will be working with Crag and Chris on the code

Saq's Focus - May 2009

Help Greg with organization and management
1. UM projects
  1. Each Tuesday, Saq reviews all active UM projects to determine what needs to be discussed, goes over action items, scans week's emails, goes over conference call notes from last 4 calls to check for items that need follow up so that nothing slips through the cracks and then sets the agenda for the UM conference call.
2. UM partners - he follows up regularly with them to stay on top of requests and project progress
  1. BT/ Osmosoft - follow up on funding requests and support
  2. MORE/VIC project - contact with Prof. Yousuf and prospective partners
  3. Hesperian
  4. Student Notebook - Andrew Lister
  5. Wikispaces - Adam
  6. Meridian
  7. Various educators who are involved in distance-learning programs or have expressed an interest in UnaMesa's work.
3. Communities
  1. Tiddly Learning blog - This has not been very active over the last 6 months, but Saq posts now and then when there's something relevant such as the Student Notebook demo. Next week, the TiddlyHub demo will be posted.
  2. UnaMesa blog - he provides feedback on posts
4. Potential UM partners
  1. Saq keeps an eye out for potential partners for UM. When he finds one, he forwards the information to Greg or to the UM mailing list, as appropriate
5. UnaMesa website:
  1. Saq updates the news section of the UnaMesa website on a regular basis.
Support systems
1. TiddlyWiki community - Saq monitors the TW community and co-ordinates the UnaMesa support system to make sure help requests are addressed.
2. Student Notebook - Saq provides support to Andrew Lister and his students. There have been very few requests for support over the last month which indicates the notebooks are working well
Projects
1. Student Notebook (previously referred to in part as Mixins project) - Saq developed this project for Andrew Lister and has been working on it over the last 6 months or so. Version 1 is complete after being tested by Andrew and his students. In May, Andrew & Saq will discuss the next version to be readied for Fall semester. Key focus will be on increasing adoption by other course instructors.
2. VIC (Virtual Interactive Classroom - previously referred to as the MORE project) - For the last 6 months, Saq has been coordinating on this with Yousuf. He developed the VIC site and is in the process of adding the full set of lessons for the English course as a demo. Over the last week, he has been filling out the application for the tech awards entry for VIC.
3. Hesperian - He put together the original prototype conversion (in 2008) of the entire Disabled Village Children book to wikispaces and to an offline version which Greg then demo'd. He is now becoming involved with the regular Hesperian/UM conference calls and the work regarding the newer prototype of the Table of Contents for Where There Is No Doctor - helping to provide technology as well as medical opinions where needed.
4. Forms -
  1. Tiddlyforms -Saq has been working with Chris Dent on getting a public demo developed - documentation on how to set up and deploy both TiddlyWeb and a Forms instance has been completed. The are still working on the authentication scenarios .
5. TiddlyWiki - Saq's involvement with UM began because of his volunteer contributions to the TW community. Since then, he's become more focused on other areas in UM so his TW involvement has decreased considerably. He still tries to monitor the groups and responds to issues that are appropriate for him to address. He also monitors changes to the core code and makes contributions there. Saq organizes and chairs the TiddlyWiki Developer calls which take place about every 2 months but those will increase in frequency to once/month. After the calls, he circulates notes & action items.
  1. TiddlyHub - This is a directory listing of TW plugins which have been created by TW community members. It will be the primary location where all plugins will be accessible and searchable. Saq will have a public demo posted to the TW community within the week. His ongoing work on that project is documented here.
6. MSF Notebook - Saq started work on this in January after being approached by doctors he knew who will be working with MSF in the field. He sent them slides from his presentation regarding health records. They wanted to know if something similar could be used by them in the field where they won't have internet access but will want to be able to take notes in order to manage patient health records. Saq worked with the doctors on putting together a TW which will allow them to do that and he provided training for them on how to use it. This project has been completed and the notebook provided to them.Follow up has been scheduled with the doctors after their return from their work in the field.