diff --git a/docs/fcas/index.rst b/docs/fcas/index.rst index 4f050a4..827d7fc 100644 --- a/docs/fcas/index.rst +++ b/docs/fcas/index.rst @@ -101,4 +101,5 @@ Index solution_datanote solution_dataeplt solution_examples + solution_probntec solution_techtool diff --git a/docs/fcas/solution_probntec.rst b/docs/fcas/solution_probntec.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d63ff94 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/fcas/solution_probntec.rst @@ -0,0 +1,57 @@ +.. _solution_probntec.rst: + +Conundrum of Tracking of Non-Technical Contributions +==== + +As contributions that involve interacting with services are the only ones that +publish a message on the +`Fedora Messaging `_ bus, they are +the only ones that get tracked. These services predominantly facilitate for +technical contributions alone and hence, it becomes increasingly difficult to +track non-technical contributions. Owing to the wide range of creating non +technical contributions and a similarly huge number of subjective methods to +keep track of those - it is comparatively difficult to come up with an +objective method of describing them. What might look like a contribution to one +might not look like a contribution to someone else and therefore, the service +would not be able to reliably track non-technical contributions. + +One of the workarounds that could help solving this problem is by creating +badges on the +`Fedora Badges `_ +platform for each type of non-technical contribution. This cannot be a +solution as this method scales incredibly poorly as the members go on adding +new badges of the manually-awarded kind for tracking each type of non-technical +contributions. This could potentially lead to situations where there are +thousands of badges pertaining to a type of non-technical contribution but with +handful of awardees per badge. Going against the norm of having "subject" +usernames as owners of contribution activities, using Fedora Badges to track +contributions would lead to treating both "subject" usernames (cause of the +message publication event) and "object" usernames (involved in the said +contribution activity) to own a contribution activity. + +How? Assuming a contribution event where a "Member X" (who has the access to +award a certain "Badge A" to members who do "Task B") awards a "Badge A" to +"Member Y". As this was a non-technical contribution and because this could not +be automatically tracked by the Fedora Badges' Message Consumer entity - the +event of "Member Y" performing "Task B" could not be reliably and automatically +tracked. The event of awarding the badge essentially confirms two contribution +activities - the first one being "Member Y" performing "Task B" and the second +one being "Member X" awarding the "Member Y" with "Badge A". In the first +contribution activity, the "Member Y" owns the contribution but they are +dependent on "Member X" to award them the badge to have their contribution +tracked. The activity of awarding the badge itself is a contribution so in the +second activity, the "Member X" owns the contribution. + +This should be used as an absolute "last ditch effort" to track non-technical +contributions of the kind that do not automatically publish a message on the +Fedora Messaging bus when they take place. As the badges cannot be tightly +associated with the contribution activity itself and the fact that the way of +tracking those are manual in nature, they are very susceptible to be left +untracked (due to reasons like the "contribution owner" forgetting to claim +a badge when they made the "contribution activity" or the "badge felicitator" +being unavailable when being reached out causing delays in tracking of the +said activity) or to be tracked unfairly (due to reasons like the "badge +felicitator" awarding a certain badge to their friends who might not have done +the said "contribution activity" or random members claiming the badge from the +associated link in bad faith). In the larger scheme of things - this will end +greatly skewing the contributor statistics for the worse.