At our last group meeting on December 16, 2014, we agreed to a February 2, 2015 launch for the project. This provided what we thought would be adequate time to develop our exhibits. Before, during, and after the holidays there was a lot of activity in our Omeka site – uploading items and exhibits, reviewing options for different layouts, and discovering new questions about our metadata. The work in Omeka was helping us to identify new issues for review. Many of us were finding real benefit in working in pairs.
Unfortunately, through all this good work, we had an unwelcome discovery – a most serious bug with Omeka 2.01. We learned that if you delete one exhibit in this version of Omeka, the content of the remaining exhibits will be deleted. Recently added exhibits were gone – hours of work effort were lost.
The Project Management team had planned to meet on January 21 to draft the agenda for our next group meeting, map out our schedule for the spring semester, and to define the close of Phase One. We added the Omeka issue for further discussion.
Here is what we discussed and decided.
Launch date: We agreed to extend our launch date to June 9. All exhibits will be completed by June 2 allowing time for editorial review.
Omeka: The Development Team is scheduled to meet on January 27 and will work to complete an upgrade to Omeka 2.02. We have requested a freeze on all activities in Omeka until the upgrade is completed. This unfortunate discovery about Omeka has taught us a few things. There is useful information to be found online through forums, discussion boards, etc. – Nick was able to pinpoint the mysterious disappearance of our exhibits by searching online. We are all reminded that backup is essential. The Development Team will routinely begin backing up our content every two weeks.
Phase One: Our project launch scheduled for June 9 will bring Phase One to a close. We will continue to meet every two weeks until launch alternating between active workshops and presentations and updates. We think the workshops will provide great opportunity for collaborative learning and the necessary time for all of us to work on our exhibits. Phase Two: Phase Two will begin in the fall. We will continue our regular meetings and move on to new learning objectives.
