From: Pavi Mehta <pavim@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Creating a Process for Creating Guidelines
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: carrie.k@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tuesday, June 9, 2009, 1:26 PM
Hi All,
As you know the recent guidelines that
went out on Page
Numbering have generated some understandable concern and
confusion among the
volunteers. Some of you have written in to staff with
detailed emails
articulating those areas of concern and where the
guidelines appear more
inconvenient than helpful. Others have expressed their
opinions on the list. Carrie
and I have had several discussions recently on how best to
address these
concerns and modify the guidelines so that they serve as a
tool and not a
hindrance. As hands-on volunteers all of your input is
valuable and we want the
guidelines to reflect the best practices and collective
wisdom of the volunteer
community.
Regarding page numbers Carrie will
send out a note shortly to
clarify some of the areas of confusion and concern and
explain how the guidelines
for this will be implemented. Bottom line is that we do
understand the wide
variety of challenges volunteers face with including page
numbers in books, and
we’re glad to have had your feedback. We intend
hereon for this guideline
to be implemented with a large degree of flexibility
– and will be
rewriting the guidelines to clearly reflect the difference
between page number
requirements for educational books and other
submissions.
Moving forward though, for us one of
the overarching questions
that the Page Number issue brings up is:
What is the most efficient and
effective way for Bookshare
to do the following:
1.
Identify volunteer areas that need
guidelines
2.
Draft guidelines and have them reviewed by a
small pool
of volunteers(in a sort of beta phase)
3.
Finalize and share these guidelines among the
greater
volunteer community
Ideally, Carrie and I feel that
volunteers should have a leading
and more transparent role to play in steps 1 and 2 above.
Here is a suggested approach, that it
would be great to get
your input on:
1.
Form a self-selected team of “Bookshare
Guideline
Shapers” (we can think of a better name down the
line- smile). The
Guideline Shapers are Bookshare volunteers who step forward
to help identify,
draft and sound out missing guidelines. Even if something
is brought to staff
attention regarding a missing guideline, we would turn it
over initially to
this group with our suggestions if any.
2.
The Guideline Shapers would decide on areas
that need
guidelines, work on an initial draft of these guidelines
and then send them
over to Carrie/me for review from the Bookshare staff
perspective. The
Guideline Shapers would go over any edits from us and come
up with a revised
guideline. They would then solicit feedback on the
guideline from the volunteer
list before making any final tweaks to it.
3.
Once the guideline has been finalized, I will
incorporate it in the Volunteer Manual, and ensure that it
is announced on the
volunteer blog as well as on the volunteer discussion list.
(We will create a
separate section of the manual for Updates to the Manual so
that it is easy for
people to keep up with the changes).
Participation from the volunteer
community while shaping policy,
we feel is key and we think this approach could be a really
invigorating way of
facilitating the creation of useful guidelines from the
inside-out. Of course
we would be more than glad to help with the logistics of
setting up a group
alias and other etcs for Guideline Shapers, and to provide
assistance wherever
we can. We would love your feedback on this approach
as well as to know if
any of you are interested in being part of such a team.
Warm regards,
Pavi & Carrie
Pavi
Mehta
Volunteer
Coordinator, Bookshare
Benetech
480 S.
California Ave., Suite 201
Palo Alto, CA
94306-1609 USA
Phone: +1
650 644-3459
pavim@xxxxxxxxxxxx
www.benetech.org
The Benetech
Initiative - Technology Serving Humanity
A Nonprofit
Organization
