The IATI Technical Team are keen to facilitate a community of developers/interested parties who have an interest in IATI-related tools and services (products). We see that this has benefits to share knowledge and news that might be useful (most immediately) to each other and (more widely) to support the success of IATI.

We are asking if there is interest to set-up and run regular (perhaps monthly or two-monthly) online calls for developers/tool builders to share news and updates regarding IATI-related products that they use/build/maintain.

It could also be a forum for participants to pose questions or ask for thoughts on how to approach specific challenges that they are facing in building IATI-related products.

The calls could also prove to be a useful Q&A for the central IATI Technical Team to comment on our immediate work plans.

Possible agenda

A possible standing agenda for each (1 hour) call might be:

  • Introductions: Who is on the call
  • News: What IATI technical projects are participants currently working on?
    • How is it going?
    • Any challenges you are facing? Do you have an approach to overcome these? Would you like to gain input from the community?
  • Announcements: Including upcoming events/other projects/jobs that might be of interest to the community
  • Close

Any interested party is welcome to join, although be aware that the calls will likely be of a technical nature.

Good idea? Post below if you are interested

If you would be interested in joining, please post a reply to this thread below. If there is significant interest (more than 3 replies), we will set-up a Doodle poll to find a convenient time for this to occur.

Comments on format and structure welcome

We are keen for any thoughts on how to make this sort of call relevant and useful to participants, so are open to any suggestions you have regarding either an initial or ongoing IATI technical calls.

N.B. Tagging those who might be particularly interested in this post. Please feel free to tag anyone we might have missed (as a reply) or share this post in your tech networks.
[~379] Vincent van 't Westende Bibhusan Bista Anjesh Tuladhar Ben Webb - IATI Secretariat Steven Flower Tim Davies Rory Scott Andy Lulham

Edit [2017-02-08]: There is enough interest - now let’s find a good time!

We’ve set-up a Doodle poll for those interested in joining our first call. There are hourly options between Monday 13 and Friday 23 February - so hopefully we can find a good time for everyone, although if not we will select a time that is convenient to the majority.

Edit [2017-02-09]: Time now selected

Following 7 responses to our Doodle poll, Tuesday 21 February 2017 at [11:00 GMT / 12:00 CET / 06:00 EST] has been selected.

Others are still very welcome to join, do post below so that we don’t forget you from our expected attendee list

Comments (27)

Dale Potter
Dale Potter

Thanks for posting your interest [~379] Mark Brough and danmihaila

We’ve set-up a Doodle poll for those interested in joining our first call. There are hourly options between Monday 13 and Friday 23 February - so hopefully we can find a good time for everyone, although if not we will select a time that is convenient to the majority.

Dale Potter
Dale Potter

Thanks to [~379] Steven Flower Vincent van 't Westende Leigh Mitchell Hayden Field Tim Davies for completing the Doodle.

It seems like Tuesday 21 February 2017 at [11:00 GMT / 12:00 CET / 06:00 EST] is the only time that works for all of us who responded, so let’s book this in!

I’ve now closed the Doodle poll, but others are still very welcome to join, do post below so that we don’t forget you from our expected attendee list

A link (probably google hangouts) will be posted in this thread in the week leading up to the event. If anyone has any thoughts on additions/modifications to the suggested agenda, please do post too!

Looking forward to speaking in just under a couple weeks.

SJohns
SJohns

Hi - me to. I know it’s for developers but I’d like to join if that’s ok as I can help connect people and feedback on issues we’re finding from the standard user perspective where that would be useful.

Dale Potter
Dale Potter

Thanks to danmihaila , Rolf Kleef , Ben Webb - IATI Secretariat , Andy Lulham , Taryn Davis , Wilbrod Ntawiha and SJohns for signalling their attendance - will be great to have you all join!

We will be posing the URL to join the call on Monday morning - watch this space…

SJohns - yes will be great to have you join too and always good to have a user perspective.

Dale Potter
Dale Potter

[~379], Steven Flower , Vincent van 't Westende , Leigh Mitchell , Hayden Field , Tim Davies , danmihaila , Rolf Kleef , Ben Webb - IATI Secretariat , Andy Lulham , Taryn Davis , Wilbrod Ntawiha , SJohns and Matt Bartlett

Thanks to all those who have signed up ahead of tomorrow’s call (11:00 - 12:00 GMT) - we’re looking forward to speaking! Here’s the link to join: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/117593413

(Unfortunately we can’t be sure that our Google hangouts account can cope with this overwhelming demand, hence we’re switching to gotomeeting).

Gotomeeting offers a web-based login. Alternatively, you can also dial in using a standard telephone:
United Kingdom: +44 330 221 0086
United States: +1 (312) 757-3126
Access Code: 117-593-413

First GoToMeeting? Try a test session: http://help.citrix.com/getready

in terms of an agenda, could we suggest that we stick with the agenda in the first post (we’ll need to keep introductions brief given our numbers!) and iterate accordingly in future calls.

Image removed. dalepotter:
  • Introductions: Who is on the call
  • News: What IATI technical projects are participants currently working on?
    • How is it going?
    • Any challenges you are facing? Do you have an approach to overcome these? Would you like to gain input from the community?
  • Announcements: Including upcoming events/other projects/jobs that might be of interest to the community
  • Close
Dale Potter
Dale Potter

Hi Mark Brough - great that you can join too. I’m afraid I haven’t been able to find a local dial-in number for Bangladesh.

Am posting the full country list in case any of the below is helpful…

You can also dial in using your phone.
United Kingdom: +44 330 221 0086

Access Code: 117-593-413

More phone numbers
United States: +1 (312) 757-3126
Australia: +61 2 8355 1050
Austria: +43 1 2060 92967
Belgium: +32 28 93 7010
Canada: +1 (647) 497-9391
Denmark: +45 43 31 47 82
Finland: +358 942 45 0453
France: +33 170 950 594
Germany: +49 692 5736 7210
Ireland: +353 15 360 734
Italy: +39 0 694 80 34 40
Netherlands: +31 707 709 523
New Zealand: +64 9 280 6302
Norway: +47 23 16 23 30
Spain: +34 912 71 8491
Sweden: +46 775 757 474
Switzerland: +41 445 1124 88

Dale Potter
Dale Potter

Many thanks to everyone who joined the call this morning - it was very good to speak and hear about the varied projects you are working on.

We have collated our notes from the call to put together the minutes from the meeting. Actions from the call are colour-coded. Thanks to Hayden Field and Petya Kangalova who diligently noted down the key points from the conversations.

I’ve passed on the additional suggestions raised for TAG sessions (on IATI Datastores and how this group can work together in future) to Joni Hillman for inclusion in the agenda.

Looking forward to continuing discussions at the TAG in a couple weeks, and later in future calls. As mentioned on the call, we’re keen to make future calls as useful as possible to the group, so please do post (or message privately) any feedback or suggestions on the format etc.

Dale Potter
Dale Potter

Just to flag that, as discussed during the call, we now have a session set aside at the forthcoming TAG where this group will be able meet in person: Tool Shed: Developers and tool builders meet up.

This will be taking place on Monday March 6 (i.e. Commnuity Day) from 16:30 - 17:30. A venue will be announced nearer the time - do keep your eyes peeled on the agenda!

During that session it would be good to discuss the future of this group and how we would like to work together to keep informed, support each other and support development of the IATI tool and development ecosystems. This could take a number of formats and all ideas are welcome!

Tagging all those who attended last week’s call to alert that this session has now been set-up. Others are very welcome to attend too.

Hayden Field Petya Kangalova Matt Bartlett [~379] Vincent van 't Westende Steven Flower Tim Davies Ben Webb - IATI Secretariat Rory Scott danmihaila Rolf Kleef Andy Lulham Mark Brough

Hayden Field
Hayden Field

Many thanks to all who attended the meet up at the TAG - there were some interesting discussions, suggestions and more. In terms of outcomes, here is a list of the popular suggestions that were made during the session:

  • Make a big list of ALL THE TOOLS
  • Tool selection support, to help pair individuals with the tools that solve their problems
  • Create an app marketplace to help identify tools or features that don’t exist, but could
  • Re-use functionality that exists rather than reinventing the wheel over and over
  • Online contact database to help link developers with those who need the developer’s skills
  • Set up an Instant Messaging (eg. Slack) tool for daily communication between developers (and related persons!) in the IATI community
  • Semi-frequent calls between interested parties, with varied topics for each session
  • Fix the Datastore (there is a session from 11:30-12:30 on Wednesday to discuss just this!)
  • Ensure effort is put into solving real user needs rather than vague ideas that somebody somewhere may want a thing

Once the TAG is over, myself and Dale Potter will look into concrete solutions or proposals for these ideas and work to keep everybody in the loop (some of these ideas will be quicker to implement than others).

In the mean time, be sure to keep the discussions going, working together to find a positive path for future development and collaboration!

Ravi Gupta
Ravi Gupta

This is quite a nice and very well initiative I think. For developers at least and yes it would make work a lot easier but as it is said, easiness never polishes skills. But yet, it is nice to have alternatives always.
I hope my little quote would help here someone.
Thanks and Regards
Ravi Gupta(email-support)


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