Re: Who are tasks assigned to in Chandler?

On Oct 11, 2007, at 10:30 AM, Jeffrey Harris wrote:

> Hi Mimi,
>
>> For items that start out as emails, we could automatically change the
>> To: field to become 'Assigned to:'  when users stamp those emails  
>> as Tasks.
>
> Sounds good, is there a bug to track this overall concept of  
> spiffing up
> task + mail?  Or maybe we don't have a clear enough plan yet.

Yes there is, it was assigned to me, but I closed it as FIXED because  
we wrapped up the discussion threads on the list and logged all the  
bugs that came out of the discussion.

Bug#10149 Revisit WHO column and Addressing Stamp
http://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10149

>> I think these 2 features would help users 'discover' addressing as  
>> a way
>> of assigning tasks. A way to show/hide the cc and bcc fields would  
>> help
>> too. They scream email to users and help to squash any inkling  
>> that the
>> addressing fields could be used for anything other than addressing
>> communications.
>
> The From: field also doesn't have an obvious analog in a task-centric
> world.  Maybe we could relabel From: -> Assigned-by:?
>
> How about this:  If a message also has the task stamp, we
> - rename To -> assigned-to,
> - rename From -> assigned-by,

Do you think this is necessary? Seems like if To --> Assigned to:,  
then From is sort of obvious. I've always felt there's something  
vaguely fascist about 'Report/Assigner for Tasks and Organizer for  
Events'.

What about Owner for Tasks? I think that's more egalitarian and  
faithful to the kind of work dynamics we're espousing. At OSAF we  
always talk about task owners, not assignees. Assignees implies  
hierarchy. But perhaps owner isn't universal enough.

> - hide assigned-by if it matches assigned-to

Not sure about this. I'm toying with the idea of getting rid of the  
From: field altogether. For example, I went and 'assigned' all the  
Strategy collection tasks based on what Katie had already entered in  
the Title field. But I wasn't really the Assigner of those tasks.  
Maybe we can leave the From: field blank by default for newly created  
items and hide it unless the user fills something in? I will log a  
bug to track this.

> - hide any other messaging fields that are empty
> - add a [More/Less] button to show all the hidden fields

I think these 2 are covered in the expando-addressing fields bug...

> Also, now that we're pursuing task management, I've noticed various
> problems with the mail stamp in the dashboard:
>
> - In the Chandler Evangelism collection, everyone's tasks show up as
> being from me (filed bug 11027)
> - The draft icon for task-messages seems inappropriate and  
> distracting;
> I'm never planning on sending emails about the task, it's just an
> assigned task.

Yea, it may make more sense to denote items that have been 'sent'  
than to call out items in 'draft' mode. Such is the wonders of moving  
from an email-centric world to a sharing-centric world!!

https://bugzilla.osafoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11030


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