[Design] Proposal for 0.7 "mini-release" non-code deliverables

[Sheila Mooney]

Katie sent out an email about the proposed 0.7 milestones about a  
week ago.

http://lists.osafoundation.org/pipermail/dev/2006-February/005137.html

If we are setting the bar a bit higher and considering these "mini- 
releases" as something our users can download and play with, it  
brings to mind some questions around what non-code deliverables would  
be appropriate to support these "mini-releases". Based on some  
earlier brainstorming, I have put together a proposal to put out on  
the list for further discussion.

Some high level thoughts and assumptions....

+ We need something light-weight. A full non-code release process  
with landing page design and documentation is not practical for these  
2 month milestones.
+ We should leverage the current Chandler landing page we have now.
+ We likely would like to publicize these partial releases a bit more  
than past milestones so our current calendar users can have access to  
new features.

Straw-person proposal....

+ We would NOT create a new landing page for each milestone, we would  
use the existing 0.6 landing page.
+ We would not update the release number or download link on the  
existing 0.6 landing page. It's still possible we will have further  
patches to 0.6 and this would just get confusing.
+ The existing readme for 0.6 would NOT be replaced or modified.  
Instead we would have a new simple html page listing the new features  
and known critical bugs, very similar to the milestone report cards  
used in 0.6.
+ The feature list would be brief and not detailed step-by-step  
instructions on how to use any of the new features.
+ A news section (or link) would be added to the current landing page  
with a brief "mini-release" announcement, download links and a link  
to the readme style html page.
+ This news section could be simply a new button on the left nav.
+ We would not have demos, screen shots etc.
+ Announcements would be sent to the list and put in the blog.
+ We would not expect any supporting developer documentation.

Please reply to the list with any thoughts, comments, concerns or  
suggestions.

Thanks,
Sheila