Release phases

The release of the web-based discussion board of the Electricity System Group at Imperial College London is going to be carried out in three phases.

Alpha phase (started 27th January 2005)
This phase lasts from the initial construction of the website, up until substantial positive feedback is gathered from a selected group of alpha testers. Here are the key goals:

• To put together a website which whose format is friendly and interesting to our target users;
• To start having some content on the main website;
• To prepare the bulk of the supporting documentation;
• To avoid serious mistakes.

The alpha phase ends with the limited release.

Beta phase (Started 10th February 2005)
Limited release: the existence of the main website is advertised to all existing members of the Electricity System Group at Imperial College London, and they are all invited to become members of the discussion board. This phase lasts from the limited release to a maximum (arbitrary) time of two months. Its key goals are:

• To finalize the contents of the editorial policy of the discussion board;
  
• To pull together a critical mass of active discussion board members;
• To publish a satisfactory amount of members' material, so as to kickstart discussions and feedbacks
• To refine the structure and format of the main website before the full release;
• To assemble a strategy for the subsequent advertisement of the discussion board to potential contributors outside the Imperial College.
  

There has got to be some kind of criteria to determine whether there is a critical mass of active members of the discussion board. Unless somebody suggests me otherwise, I'm going to assume that reaching critical mass means that "every member of the discussion board has published at least one post". Clearly, if this condition is satisfied earlier than in two months time, and if the members of the discussion board agree, we'll consider the phase completed.

While I imagine the editorial board will always be open to meaningful suggestions, by this time, I would expect any major discussion relating to editorial policy, posting guidelines, terms of service, disclaimer and any other significant procedure - which is material to the management of the discussion board - to be settled.

The beta phase ends with the full release. members are encouraged to advertise the main website to any relevant contacts, preferably within academic institutions.

Full release (Expected start: 10 April 2005)
Members are encouraged to advertise the main website to any relevant contacts, external to the Imperial College London, and preferably within academic institutions. Members of the discussion board agree on a procedure to assess the feedback gathered from published posts and comments. Unless somebody suggests me otherwise, I'm going to assume that the feedback from the discussion board is gathered for ten months, leading to the review of the first year of operations.

Review of the first year (Expected in February 2006)
An assessment of the first year of operation is drafted and published.