Graye Shattky of Otago Memorybank got in touch with a starting point of requested improvements to Kete. I think they’re an excellent starting point to get a sense of priorities for improving Kete.

The core upgrade is still in progress but it’s a good time to consider what improvements to the Kete product might look like and how they would make your life easier.

I’ve copied their list below. Please drop notes in the comments either commenting on the below features and whether they are the top priorities for you, describing additional features that you think need attention, and whether you think you could support work that would deliver these.

Or feel free to put a document up with your own version of features (you could use old.kete.net.nz or you could share a public Google document).

Graye and his group do great work at Otago Memorybank (http://memorybank.co.nz/). Take a moment and review their archives. He has expressed interest in promoting the project to community funders so feel welcome to comment with any suggestions or offers to help him.

MemoryBank – Desirable Upgrades / Functions in kete

1. Compatibility with mobile devices.  Enable easy search and edit functions for i-pads and androids.

2. Simplify the procedure for adding images within the description text box. Having pressed the camera icon, amend the ‘select image’ pop up window by enlarging/highlighting the ‘Upload new image’ hyperlink and re-locating the ‘search’ button lower on the screen. Having clicked ‘Upload new image’, remove unnecessary editing icons from the new screen and request only ‘title, caption and alignment; there is no necessity to repeat description details which have already been recorded.

3. Enable up-loading of multiple images for use by all contributing members (currently only enabled for administrators using ‘import set’ function).  Ideally, should be able to highlight multiple images and upload as a ‘one click’ function.

4. Video viewing – needs to be quick, simple and compatible with all commonly used systems. Present embedding of Youtube clips requires skills probably greater than those possessed by the average contributor.

5. Slide show viewing – enable the following functions:

• click on the image’ function which increases the image to full screen size (including title and caption)
  
• click in the right  margin’  scrolls forward through the gallery of images;
• ‘click in the left margin’ scrolls back through the gallery.
• Add a re-order function which enables the sequence of images to be changed.

6. Easily ingest images from Social Media (predominantly Facebook)

Memory Bank are finding many community members being happy to scan and share local heritage items on their Facebook wall. They would like a solution to easily accept all images into their Kete collection for archiving.

One of the Memorybank images of Central Otago

Josh’s comments – if you’re having trouble commenting I’ve reported a bug to JD at Horowhenua, the website master.

Compatibility with mobile devices Probably easiest delivered by developing mobile stylesheets – m.kete.net.nz layouts with some mobile optimised functionality. Search functions and add item functions would seem to make sense [requires upgrade, medium cost]
Simplify the procedure for adding images within the description text box. this text viewer is being upgraded anyway. It’s an old text editor. I’m not certain if the default interaction will be as you describe but should be a lot easier [requires upgrade but is included in current roadmap]
Enable uploading of multiple images for use by all contributing members – requires upgrade but low cost – really good idea Graye, I’ll do my best to bundle that in as we’re currently upgrading the user management system
Video viewing – this one is a little more involved. Video online is still a mess and some would say getting worse, not better with modern device fragmentation. Will need to take a look at what can be done in-app. A bit of a hack might be to store the video file and lodge it in Youtube and auto embed the file. This would ride on the coattails of Youtube’s infrastructure – but this would violate the privacy expectations of some Ketes – large but some moderate interim steps or possible hacks]
Slide show viewing
if you’re comfortable having a basic version of this, I’d tentatively say it was low/medium
Easily ingest images from Social Media (predominantly Facebook)
ingestion of the images is fairly easy but how the feature would operate might be tricky. I can see an admin ability to subscribe to a public feed and ingest all new images that appear there. Would rely on Facebook groups being public information. A larger piece of work to make it more robust but I think the light approach could work