ShiftSpace groups and permissions

Here is the second proposal posted by the newcomer Michael van Schaik and worth of discussion here on the discussion list:

- Design & implement group-structure for collaborations / interactions;
In order to collaborate, users should be able to form groups that can
work together on trails & shifts. Shifts could then be owned by users
and groups, and have permissions set for this like the unix-file
permissions? (owner-group-others: read, edit)
  

This is a very interesting idea. The permission model have proved itself well in server level viewing/editing and might work for us here too.

What I am asking myself here is about yet another issue...

We might not want to exclude users from viewing something but would like to address specific users/groups.

Meaning, if in a public space like the subway I am talking to a friend, I might choose to either whisper in her ear or talk in a way that others can listen on if they want. Either way my communication is contextualized by the fact I addressed someone specific and whoever might listen in would know they are not prohibited from listening but might just not find it necessarily interesting. This addressing thing should obviously be emphasized in the interface (both in authoring and in browsing shifts).

So shifts might have 6 levels of relevancy for me as a 'reader':

1. Invisible - I am prohibited from viewing the shift
2. Not for me - I am allowed to view the shift but it was not addressed at me.
3. General - this is a general shift to the wide § user base
4. For my Group - the shift was addressed at a group I'm a part of.
   
5. For me personally - This one was aimed for me, probably a friend believes I might find it relevant (while others might or might not be excluded from viewing it)
   
6. Private - Only I can see this shift, a note to self of sorts, or a shift draft.
   

Apart from that, I like the idea of group editing of shifts but it might work well with building a whole wiki functionality around it. I currently think group editing is a bit further down the line, while getting addressing, group viewing and shifts comments makes more sense as an earlier step.

more thoughts?

I have discussed it off list with An and Michael (separately), recapping and mainly musing on here.

I think the unix permissions paradigm is a useful one to a certain degree.

As long as we know who we mean by 'group' it works, but we might have multiple groups and then things become more complicated.

I think that before we run to open every aspect of shiftspace, we need to make sense of what we have.

IMHO I believe the current communication model that ShiftSpace offers is flawed as while it does a great job of announcing to whoever wants to listen, it is not very useful when it comes to discussion. For example:

• I read a shift on the page www.dotnyc.net, which attempted to simply forward users to a more useful url: www.connectingnyc.org
• I used the opportunity (since I have something to say about the initiative discussed in these pages) and decided to comment to this user, whose obviously a supporter of the initiative.
• In the abscence of any other tool, I left another note on that same page with my thoughts.
• End of story.

• userA leaves a shift on www.dotnyc.net
• userB comments on the shift in a way that emphasizes the comment in the context of the original shift
• userA is notified that her shift attracted a response and views it
• userA chooses to comment to userB's comment
• userB is informed of the continuation of the thread
• ...

• UserC, userD & userE are informed of a discussion going on on top of www.dotnyc.net in the context of userA's shift
• Figuring that if a discussion happens, an interest might exist there, they read the thread
• userC & userE read and move on.
• userD adds her 2 cents

• userB in response to userD leaves another shift on another page (lets say a highlight on this page: http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-04apr08.htm)
• userB also notes in the discussion thread started by userA's shift that she added a shift comment to the thread
  
• userA & userD check userB's new shift and continue the same thread over at the page under icann.org
• The full thread (including references to the different shifts) is available from both pages
• Optionally: a trail is drawn between these two pages consisting of these two shifts

an wrote:

711


Best, An

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