CommonScribe is software which converts the log of a chat session
into a fairly-readable record of the meeting, assuming participants
follow certain conventions during the meeting.
CommonScribe grows out of a long tradition at W3C of using an IRC channel
during meetings. One key practice is that for each meeting, one
person is selected as the "scribe" and has the duty of recording all
important information. Because the scribe types on IRC, other
participants can see their work as it happens, offering improvements
as necessary. Afterwords, a tool such as CommonScribe is used to make
the chat log easier to read.
Using CommonScribe
If you don't see RRSAgent on your IRC channel, type: trackbot, start meeting
On IRC, when you start scribing, type: scribe: <your-name>
On IRC, each time someone say something in the meeting, type: <name-of-person>: <what they say>
On IRC, each time a new topic is started, type: topic: <description of next topic>
CommonScribe borrows heavily from the conventions of David Booth's Scribe.perl, but differs in a few key ways:
The original motivation was to allow people to edit the minutes on a Wiki. The first attempt (putting the output of scribe.perl on the wiki) did not allow people to fix problems like forgetting to identify the scribe. With CommonScribe, "scribe: ..." lines can be added/editted easily, during or after the meeting.
CommonScribe has a notion of people. Many attributes of
a meeting and events during a meeting involve particular people. Where scribe.perl treats the names of people as opaque strings, CommonScribe treats the names as referents which should be resolved unambiguously. After the meeting, the meeting records should be cleaned up to make sure everyone is identified.
With this in mind, CommonScribe has an object model which is amenable to data processing, such as querying for Resolutions or searching for all text attributed to one's self. No such interface is currently provided, however.
CommonScribe assumes tracker will take care of action items, so it doesn't try to highlight them. Instead, it tries to stay out of tracker's way, and to link text like action-NN and issue-NN to the tracker page for the item.
Status
CommonScribe is used by handful of groups, visible at https://www.w3.org/2013/meeting. If you'd like your group added, contact sandro@w3.org.
Bugs, Open Issues, Ideas
BUG: Older meetings are no longer parsed properly because of people joining/leaving the group.
BUG: When two people edit at the same time, or one person edits while new lines arrive from IRC, the second person gets an EDIT CONFLICT and the changes are rejected. This makes it very hard to edit during active parts of the meeting.
BUG: edit history isn't visible any more, with change from Wiki.
BUG: remove link to Editable Wiki Chatlog
TODO: make "scribe errors" much quieter, just "unidentified people"
TODO: add better navigation pages/links
TODO: add saving of static/archival copies of minutes
TODO: add inline editing
TODO: add database search functions, across minutes from many meetings