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Ask an Expert 2.0

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Ben MacNeill
Ben MacNeill

Ask an Expert (AaE) has been rethought and rebuilt from the ground up. Come learn about the new version. We’ll cover a bunch of new features such as the introduction of groups, tagging, widgets and forms, simpler routing and assignments, plus one of the biggest changes — the ability to share questions and answers publicly at the new Ask site. There will also be time for a Q&A and feedback on the app.

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Ask an Expert 2.0 Ben MacNeill eXtension
Big Picture • Sharing/Public (opt-in) • Groups • Simpler assignment rules and interfaces • Better mobile • Better search • Better notifications • Evaluations
What I’m Covering Today • Groups • Categories, Tags & Areas of Expertise • Getting Questions into AaE • Assignments • Openness & Privacy
Groups • Groups were created from: • Every widget • Every primary “Area of Expertise” • Question Wrangler community
What can you do with Groups? • Assign questions directly to a group • Groups can decide if they want a “Question pool” or individual assignments • Define geographic region and only accept questions that match it • Decide if the question submitter has the choice to make their question public.
Categories, Tags & Areas of Expertise • The category hierarchy (49 terms and growing) didn’t work well. • Each expert’s “areas of expertise” have been converted to tags for that expert. • Sub-categories for each “area of expertise” have been converted to tags for that group. • The tagging UI is designed to make it easy to use existing terms.
Getting Questions into AaE • Current model • the multi-purpose Ask form on www.extension.org • Individual Ask widgets embedded in thousands of pages across the web
The Goal • The trend: widget submissions are outstripping www submissions • Continue to increase the number of questions that come in through dedicated widgets
How • Existing widgets • Group’s Ask form (each group has a dedicated URL) • A generic Ask form (which sends questions directly to the QW group) • Every piece of content on www will have a link to the group’s Ask form or include its embedded widget.
Question Wranglers • Will handle groupless questions • Will handle location non-matches • Use the new reassignment UI to assign to the best Group or Expert
Simplified Rules • Questions from widgets or via Group Ask pages are assigned to that Group. • UNLESS the group has defined a geographic area. Non-matches go to the QW Group. • Questions submitted through the generic Ask form are assigned to the QW group
Automatic vs Manual • Automatic assignments are only based on question source (i.e. which widget/form) and geographic location. • Manual reassignments use tags and/or geography to find a matching group or expert.
Groups and Experts • Define locations (for automatic assignments) • Define tags (for manual assignments) • In the future, may experiment with tag-based automatic assignments
Openness and Privacy • Public sharing is opt-in • Questions can be marked public, and are publicly searchable and browsable • Robust GA tracking baked into Public questions • Limited Group Expert profiles are publicly viewable • e.g. default: Ben M. • Ability for the public to comment
Who Controls Privacy? • The submitter can choose to make a question public • Experts can choose to make public questions private • Groups can choose to give submitters the option (default is private) • All existing questions will be marked private when migrated to AaE 2.0
Time Line • 3 weeks out (hopefully) • The demo site is running: http://dev.ask.extension.org • The look and feel is an evolving design
Thanks!

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Ask an Expert 2.0

  • 1. Ask an Expert 2.0 Ben MacNeill eXtension
  • 2. Big Picture • Sharing/Public (opt-in) • Groups • Simpler assignment rules and interfaces • Better mobile • Better search • Better notifications • Evaluations
  • 3. What I’m Covering Today • Groups • Categories, Tags & Areas of Expertise • Getting Questions into AaE • Assignments • Openness & Privacy
  • 4. Groups • Groups were created from: • Every widget • Every primary “Area of Expertise” • Question Wrangler community
  • 5. What can you do with Groups? • Assign questions directly to a group • Groups can decide if they want a “Question pool” or individual assignments • Define geographic region and only accept questions that match it • Decide if the question submitter has the choice to make their question public.
  • 6. Categories, Tags & Areas of Expertise • The category hierarchy (49 terms and growing) didn’t work well. • Each expert’s “areas of expertise” have been converted to tags for that expert. • Sub-categories for each “area of expertise” have been converted to tags for that group. • The tagging UI is designed to make it easy to use existing terms.
  • 7. Getting Questions into AaE • Current model • the multi-purpose Ask form on www.extension.org • Individual Ask widgets embedded in thousands of pages across the web
  • 8. The Goal • The trend: widget submissions are outstripping www submissions • Continue to increase the number of questions that come in through dedicated widgets
  • 9. How • Existing widgets • Group’s Ask form (each group has a dedicated URL) • A generic Ask form (which sends questions directly to the QW group) • Every piece of content on www will have a link to the group’s Ask form or include its embedded widget.
  • 10. Question Wranglers • Will handle groupless questions • Will handle location non-matches • Use the new reassignment UI to assign to the best Group or Expert
  • 11. Simplified Rules • Questions from widgets or via Group Ask pages are assigned to that Group. • UNLESS the group has defined a geographic area. Non-matches go to the QW Group. • Questions submitted through the generic Ask form are assigned to the QW group
  • 12. Automatic vs Manual • Automatic assignments are only based on question source (i.e. which widget/form) and geographic location. • Manual reassignments use tags and/or geography to find a matching group or expert.
  • 13. Groups and Experts • Define locations (for automatic assignments) • Define tags (for manual assignments) • In the future, may experiment with tag-based automatic assignments
  • 14. Openness and Privacy • Public sharing is opt-in • Questions can be marked public, and are publicly searchable and browsable • Robust GA tracking baked into Public questions • Limited Group Expert profiles are publicly viewable • e.g. default: Ben M. • Ability for the public to comment
  • 15. Who Controls Privacy? • The submitter can choose to make a question public • Experts can choose to make public questions private • Groups can choose to give submitters the option (default is private) • All existing questions will be marked private when migrated to AaE 2.0
  • 16. Time Line • 3 weeks out (hopefully) • The demo site is running: http://dev.ask.extension.org • The look and feel is an evolving design