Transfering TTW to a Github Organisation

[aleesteele]

Summary

Over the past year, it has become clear that The Turing Way has expanded greatly in size, and would benefit from having its own organisation.

Currently, The Turing Way github repository contains everything to do with the project: from project management, to governance documentation, to project ideas, to book chapter drafts. Over the course of the past year, it has become clear that the community (particularly folks that are working to maintain, translate, localise, review, and make our resources accessible) would benefit from having distinct repos, with more complex permissions structures than the current system allows.

Team and/or Person	Need
All WGs	While having administrative rights to a Github repository are allowed for non-Alan Turing Institute accounts, having our own Github organisation makes it possible for volunteers & folks not associated with the Turing to create teams.
Infrastructure Maintainers WG	Easier to make Github team for Infra Maintainers group, so maintainers can be easily tagged collectively on a Github issue related to infra
Translation & Localisation Team	Has multiple repositories in their separate Github organisation related to language. Currently forks the TTW repository as TWTranslation, creating two sources of truth for drawing from TTW for translations. Would benefit from admin access to repository, ability to create teams as well as separate repositories related to language**.
Reviewer & Editors WG	Having a tag-able team of editors would make it easier for people to know if they should be reviewing an issue, rather than tagging people manually. Makes it easier to create team project boards to keep track of progress.
Accessibility WG	Having a Github organisation makes it easier to install libraries or systems that enable accessibility within the project. May benefit from ability to create teams on Github. Setting an access policy for the community (see #3145) will allow for wider accessibility standards & practices, as separate from ATI repositories**
Trainers & Mentors WG / Git Good Workshop trainers	Many workshops given by TTW team members usually involve Github. For example, the Git Good Github workshop given by various members of the community often involves using/creating a dummy github organisation, and/or contributing to various TTW resources. This is often done on one's personal Github account, but having an organisation will allow for this to be contained within the team (and templated for future use!)
All contributors	In Book Dashes, Github sessions and other workshops, it has been noted that having all aspects of the TTW repository in one place makes it hard to understand how to edit the book (which lies in the book folder. By splitting the guides from the other aspects of the project, this may make it easier to navigate contributions to the guides
All contributors	The "Community Handbook" is a meta-guide for practices in community-building and contribution. It almost operates as its own guide, and may benefit from having a separate repository & rendering for folks interested in these meta practices
New contributor	There are lots of project management and internal maintenance issues on the repository. Having many issues related to project management or operational tracking issues has been noted to overwhelm new contributors and raise the barrier of entry for them to contribute

Communications Plan

While drafted here, this communication plan is listed here.

Communication Activity	Target Audience	Who is involved & role	Timeline	Notes	Status
Preparation & planning	Infrastructure WG	ALS & AAA	17 - 21 July	Preparing list & communications plan for team: send by 21 July	✅
First announcement on Slack	Wider community (soft launch on Slack)	ALS - posting annoucement with Github issue	25 - 28 July		✅
Collaboration Cafe main room discussion on 2 August	Wider community (+other WGs)	Infra WG	31 July - 4 Aug	@dingaaling to host first hour with OSI response, Infra team to host second hour
Newsletter	Wider community/lurkers	AAA + ALS	Pending? Would this be published first week of Aug?		✅
Infrastructure meeting promotion	Wider community + other WGs	Infra WG	11 August	Switch day!	✅
Twitter + Mastodon thread	Wider community/lurkers	ALS	10 August		✅
Linkedin post	Information incoming -- testing platform in coming week (25-28 July)

What needs to be done?

@sgibson91 @da5nsy @JimMadge @bsipocz are currently experimenting with the new organisation, adding teams and other information.

Questions for all teams & working groups:

• Does this communication plan make sense for folks? What might be missing?
• Who from the Infra WG would like to join/facilitate the conversation at the upcoming Collaboration Cafe? I'm happy to facilitate the conversation if you'd like any help 😄

[aleesteele]

Flagging for @AlexandraAAJ re: newsletter. Will be sent during the first week of August. Happy to write a blurb!

EDITED: ALS will prepare blurb for 2 of August. AAA will be working on 1 August.

[sgibson91]

I might frame the main room at the Collab Cafe event more of a Q&A/AMA than a discussion. I don't really know what we'd "discuss" other than "it's happening and it's a good thing". But having a Q&A style event may raise points for the infra WG that we haven't thought about yet. WDYT?

[aleesteele]

I agree, a Q&A sounds like a good call @sgibson91, and might not require the full 2 hours to do through. I know that @dingaaling wanted to have a discussion as a follow-up/means of finalising her submission to the Open Source Initiative.

How about we plan the first hour for finishing up the OSI submission, and the second hour for the Infra WG Q&A? Would you be interested in leading that, and/or any other folks planning to join?

[sgibson91]

Yeah, I can definitely attend. I think someone not on the infra WG to chair (ensuring all questions are answered) might be good so we (assuming I am not the only person there!) can focus on answering/discussing :)

[da5nsy]

Note: since this issue will be increasingly public over the coming weeks, I've corrected and tidied up some bits in the top comment -@aleesteele would you check the edits and make sure I didn't mess anything up?

[da5nsy]

Who from the Infra WG would like to join/facilitate the conversation at the upcoming Collaboration Cafe?

I'll plan to be there

[JimMadge]

I'll try to be there too.

[aleesteele]

Looking forward to seeing you all there next week. Excited for this shift!

@da5nsy - I reviewed a few more notes and added them in based off of your edits. Great consolidation - thank you very much! 😄

Re: the documentation as it is now, going to tag a bunch of folks to ask for their feedback (and feel free to edit the issue above, whatever you feel more comfortable with!). Will almost make sure this thread is shared in the appropriate slack channels as well.

• Translation & Localisation folks: @BatoolMM, @AndreaSanchezTapia, @melibleq - is there anything missing from this issue that would be valuable for your team? Have referred back to notes in adding a short summary above. Please feel free to expand!
• Accessibility folks: tagging @LizHareDogs, @trallard (for context), and will share with others in the channel. From our discussions, it seemed like having an organisation would allow for a wider application/set of norms through the upcoming accessibility policy (a WIP). Is there anything that might be missing here?
• Environment/Sustainability folks: @acocac and @annefou - while we haven't talked officially about this, I'm wondering if there would benefits for you all in working with a github organisation via the collaboration with the EDS book? Would this make it easier to create experimental spaces between the two projects? Does it affect your work flow at all?
• Trainers/Mentors + Reviewers/Editors: Tagging a bunch of folks from these groups (that I know haven't been active in a while!). Would really appreciate your eyes on this issue, as we had documented how having a github organisation might have improved your processes at the time: @harisood, @vhellon, @EstherPlomp, @aldenc, @dingaaling, @BrainonSilicon, @eirini-zormpa, @EKaroune 😄

[EstherPlomp]

I'm going to go with @sgibson91's "it's happening and it's a good thing" comment and I think the communication plan looks good (I only looked at the issue text though)!

[LizHareDogs]

This is a great idea.

I don't anticipate any accessibility problems with the move.

The ability to have repo(s) for accessibility work is great since we already have several tracks of work like the TTW accessibility policy and the guide. I'm also thinking that if we ever wanted to do accessibility testing of multiple versions of things, it would be good to have a place for tests to live.

[AndreaSanchezTapia]

Hi all! this is a great idea! 🚀
I don't anticipate any problems either and it would be great to have only one organization for everything. I don't see any problem with migrating once everything is set up.
I will try to be at the second hour of the Collaboration Cafe as well.

[acocac]

Environment/Sustainability folks: @acocac and @annefou - while we haven't talked officially about this, I'm wondering if there would benefits for you all in working with a github organisation via the collaboration with the EDS book? Would this make it easier to create experimental spaces between the two projects? Does it affect your work flow at all?

Thanks for tagging us. I'm back after a holiday break last week 🌦️ . It's amazing to hear about the transferal of the core TTW repo to a dedicated GitHub org! This is for sure very beneficial to many community-led efforts.

fyi, EDS book maintainers will have a monthly meeting this Friday so we hope to have more clear answer to you soon. In the meantime, we share below how EDS book core repo and supporting resources are currently organised/hosted.

Same as the current TTW core repo, EDS book is hosted by the Alan Turing Institute org:

• https://github.com/alan-turing-institute/environmental-ds-book

We've additionally created to separate GitHub orgs:

• eds-book-gallery: contains exclusively repositories of EDS book computational notebooks and templates.
• eds-book: aiming to host repositories for governance, outreach and other community-led activities. For instance, the org hosts the website of the recent Reproducibility Challenge.

[KirstieJane]

Hi folks - just catching up after a week off last week.

Is there anywhere documented the impact of this change? Sorry, I'm sure it does exist I'm just reading the issue on my phone.

I'm specifically concerned about which links on external websites to the Turing Way will break?

Also, are there any features of a paid organisation that we're losing?

@aleesteele - do we also have an impact assessment for The Turing's perspective? This is obviously something that the Turing Way community are excited about but there is an associated step change in impact by coming out of the Turing's GitHub organisation. If that isn't captured yet then please let me know, I'm happy to document that for internal communication.

Thanks to the Infrastructure team! Fingers crossed the transition goes well. (I can't access the link in the original issue - I assume it's a private organisation for now?)

[KirstieJane]

Just reviewing the table above. Did the conversation during the collaboration cafe happen? Are there notes?

Did the change go out in the newsletter?

[KirstieJane]

Just for posterity:

Administrative rights to Github repository are only enabled for github accounts associated with the Alan Turing Institute.

I don't think this is true. Please can we remove?

[AlexandraAAJ]

Just reviewing the table above. Did the conversation during the collaboration cafe happen? Are there notes?

Did the change go out in the newsletter?

Hi @KirstieJane, about the newsletter we mentioned it in the latest one sent on 03 August: https://tinyletter.com/TuringWay/letters/the-turing-way-book-dash-call-for-applications-practitioners-hub-workshop-update-and-github-organisation-plans

[da5nsy]

I'm specifically concerned about which links on external websites to the Turing Way will break?

GitHub sets up automatic redirects.
https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/creating-and-managing-repositories/transferring-a-repository#whats-transferred-with-a-repository :

All links to the previous repository location are automatically redirected to the new location.

[aleesteele]

Notes (2 August) - Collaboration Cafe (notes here)

• https://hackmd.io/@turingway/collaboration-cafe
• Infrastructure WG on shift to Github organisation

• Migrate everything to the Github repository from the TW Translation team? https://github.com/TWTranslation
• Will Netlify change the book?
• Will the book be separated into its own repository?
• Will we be able to do the kind of research needed to support infrastrcuture?
• How will we ensure institutional support?
• What happens if you want to read the book in another language?
• https://docs.readthedocs.io/en/stable/guides/manage-translations-sphinx.html- Read the Docs has guidance on hosting internationalisation of sphinx sites
• What are the immediate priorities of the Infrastructure Team after moving to a github organisation?
• Can we release incomplete translations of TTW?

Notes (10 August) - transition day!:

• Attendees: Sarah, Jim, Brigitta, Danny, Anne, Anne F
• SG: Anything that we've missed in the lead-up? Anything else?
• BS: Getting names of people/teams: https://github.com/scientific-python/sync-teams-action
• ACC: Naming conventions or adding labels or good practices for people? Any requirements for ?
• ALS: That's a governance question! That's a decision that we can think through and have suggested documentation for.
• [ Recording video of the launch ]
• BS: Will aim to work on the teams/yaml file.
• JM: Looks like collaborators were able to have access.
• SG: Had to be added back when she migrated her repo to the Carpentries Incubator.

[aleesteele]

@KirstieJane: this is something that was discovered and tested during the Infrastructure working group meeting that we couldn't enable non Turing folks to become admins, as they had to be members of the organisation with institutional approval. Is this not the case?

[BatoolMM]

Super excited for D-Day, sending you all the luck in the world! !! 🎉

[EKaroune]

I have made a non turing person admin of a turing org repo before.

…

On Thu, Aug 10, 2023 at 4:24 PM Anne Lee Steele ***@***.***> wrote: @KirstieJane <https://github.com/KirstieJane>: this is something that was discovered and tested during the Infrastructure working group meeting that we couldn't enable non Turing folks to become admins, as they had to be members of the organisation. Is this not the case? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#3213 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AN3UCZVYEGKFVOZSSSTPWPTXUT4KZANCNFSM6AAAAAAZ4IIYEY> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

-- Dr Emma Karoune

[sgibson91]

couldn't enable non Turing folks to become admins

I think you can give anyone admin rights to a repo, but that isn't enough rights to do stuff like make teams etc.

[KirstieJane]

That's right @sgibson91 - happy with that phrasing for sure 👍🏻

[aleesteele]

Thanks for the flag – shifted that wording above @KirstieJane @sgibson91 @EKaroune. Indeed, it was about the admin rights required to create teams, project boards, etc that were only possible at the org level, not the repo level. Feel free to adjust the wording above to add further clarity!

[aleesteele]

For posterity and public record, the TTW infrastructure working group meeting is recorded here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoJe8Q4jaGg

The draft of communications (being shared today, 15 August) is here: https://hackmd.io/m3sciwLkSgK9jPeeRcJBEQ?edit

[aleesteele]

Tweets and toots are out! Please share with your networks 🙏

• https://twitter.com/turingway/status/1691427637518897152
• https://fosstodon.org/@turingway/110893650414738944

[aleesteele]

do we also have an impact assessment for The Turing's perspective? This is obviously something that the Turing Way community are excited about but there is an associated step change in impact by coming out of the Turing's GitHub organisation. If that isn't captured yet then please let me know, I'm happy to document that for internal communication.

Also, apologies I missed this @KirstieJane! In the WG, we have a short list that has been summarised above, but nothing in official format for internal communication. Very happy to discuss this and help to capture this impact alongside you, please let me know if there's anything I can do to help with that (when you come back from leave of course!) 🦾

[da5nsy]

Just flagging that I've just reinstalled the all-contributors bot. Seems like that didn't get transferred automatically (spotted while trying to call it on #3278).

Are there other bots that we use in this way that might need updating like this? (I can't think of any right now)

[sgibson91]

There's one for catching language. I can't think of the name right now @aldenc helped set it up

[aleesteele]

@da5nsy @sgibson91 - Can we make an issue or add to #3272 (still finishing up that drafted version!) to keep track of these bots? Thinking of the welcome bot, inclusive language bot, and others.

[sgibson91]

What else needs to happen here? Can we close this issue now?

[JimMadge]

I think it is safe to close this and use new issue for any remaining problems or further work.