I'm thinking of changing the time for the weekly Docs Office Hours.
Motivations and considerations:
- It seems like a lot of our office hours participants lately are in Europe, and 1pm West Coast US time is pretty late for them. (Probably not for Asian participants either, and there have been a smattering of folks especially from India who have been interested.)
- It doesn't work well for some North American folks either, just by chance (like they happen to have a meeting at 1pm Tuesdays every week).
- I'm not sure if we need Office Hours every week.
- Since it's been every week at the same time, and we don't have a way to create recurring events on groups.drupal.org, we have never created events for each Office Hours, so they don't get on the calendar.
So... What I'm thinking is that maybe I would set up a couple of times a month, at different times of day, so as to have some time that will work OK for everyone, and I would announce each one separately with an Event, so it would go on the main groups.drupal.org calendar.
I'll throw this suggestion out; I'm open to other ideas -- please comment below with your thoughts (the links go to a World Clock page that shows what time/day of week it would be around the world, for your convenience):
- First Tuesday of the month, Tuesday 9 AM US/Pacific time
- Third Tuesday of the month, Tuesday 4 PM US/Pacific time
I'm open to any times between 9 and 4 on Tuesdays too, but (sorry Asia!) I'm not really able to make it outside those hours. Thoughts?
Comments
Awesome!
Thumbs up for this idea – for example the suggested times.
Once per month for EU participants?
Right now I think there is enough activity going on around docs that we could keep weekly meetings, as is, imho… but that's maybe just my impression as a docs team newcomer.
For me, 1PM PDT is 10PM (here in Germany). It's not that late, but late enough I'll probably be back home after any evening activities (e.g. my fitness center closes at 10PM and I tend to like to get in a workout, after dinner and before closing on Tuesdays)... so it's ideal for me.
4PM PDT is getting a bit late though (1 AM), even for an "owl" like me, so if we adopted the proposed schedule, that would mean most European participants could be there one evening per month (first Tuesdays), provided nothing else conflicts.
I suspect that if we move to any kind of "first and third" -type schedule, with different times for each, people will have a harder time remembering the office hours and even fewer might be in attendance.
But... whatever works for others, I'll try to manage, too. :-)
About me:
Uhmm Tuesday 9 AM US looks
Uhmm Tuesday 9 AM US looks good to me too, as it would around 2130 hrs here [India] So I'll be attending, hope that would help me to contribute more :-)
Except it, don't you think, it would be tough to remember this schedule as lomo also said ? I think this type of schedule will divide the people & may be there will be same or less or, sometimes, more people in meet, but yeah that's fine too, I guess.
Calendar/subscription
I agree that it will be less memorable, but on the other hand, I plan to create groups.drupal.org "event" postings for each "office hours" meeting, so anyone who is subscribed to the Documentation Team group postings will get a reminder. Also, if people use the "sign up" feature on groups.drupal.org events, they will get an email reminder the day before the event. Also, the office hours will appear in the site-wide event calendar on groups.drupal.org, which will give Documentation a slightly wider audience.
Plus, having two different times will allow people outside of North America to participate who were being excluded before.
So... my feeling is that the positives outweigh the negatives... Thanks for the feedback here from both Indian and European contributors that the times are OK (even if perhaps not quite optimal). :)
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Like this idea
This sounds like a good way to bring more attention to the docs hours in particular and docs in general. Agree positives outweigh the negatives. (Although I might be more likely to find you in IRC at other times.)
I'll third that suggestion
I'll third that suggestion that a divided time schedule is pretty tough to follow (though we could set up a GCal event or something so as not to lose track).
The 9am PST won't work for me, but 4pm is doable - though I doubt many people will be able to make it then? - windows that I can typically be available:
Tues/Thurs/Fri 11am - 5pm PST
Weds 11am - 2pm PST
Tues 7-10pm PST
And I'm not opposed to weekends, say between 11am - 1pm PST.
Times...
Yeah... I picked the 9 AM time so it might be feasible for our European and Asian contributors, so I think that one has to stay. I thought the 4pm time would probably be better for most North American folks, though I haven't seen anyone but you say it's OK yet. I'm certainly open to moving that time to something else. But weekends don't really work for me... I'm usually too busy doing non-computer stuff. :)
Drupal programmer - http://poplarware.com
Drupal author - http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920034612.do
Drupal contributor - https://www.drupal.org/u/jhodgdon
Works for me
4pm PST works for me (North American response).
OK, let's try it!
Well, I think the "Yes" comments outweigh the "No", at least for the time being, so let's try it! I'm going to go ahead and schedule an office hours for next Tuesday at 9 AM US/Pacific (which would normally be the 1st Tuesday of the month but we've missed that), and Tuesday the 17th at 4pm US/Pacific. We'll try this schedule for a few months and see how it works out.
Note: you can always look for me or other docs folks in IRC at other times, or propose another meeting by posting on groups.drupal.org. And I reserve the right to schedule special meetings at other times too. :)
Drupal programmer - http://poplarware.com
Drupal author - http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920034612.do
Drupal contributor - https://www.drupal.org/u/jhodgdon