Hi Paolo,
I find this sort of pages with too long list to chose from a
little bit confusing (i.e. too many choices in one place):
http://www.openjena.org/documentation.html
This is basically the issue in a nutshell. We *already have* a lot of
content. On the whole, it's good useful information, but it's often hard
to navigate and locate the what people need. We *should not* be
considering getting rid of any of it, or rewriting from scratch. The
issue then, is how to organize what we have. Getting the navigation
right is a central problem in the usability of web sites [1].
You're right to say that the current jump-list page of links is hard to
use. I agree. But I can't see how you can you can claim that we have
neither a flat structure nor a hierarchy.
You propose a simple structure based on the internal organization of the
software: ARQ, inference, ontology etc. This does not work for people
who don't already know the internal structure of the code, which is, I
claim, most people. We need to try to see this from the point of view of
people outside the project. Users rarely, or never, arrive with a goal
to the effect of "I need to read tutorial on ARQ".
Jena is a complex collection of functionality, and our users have very
diverse needs. Unless we recognise that, we're doing them a disservice
and making life harder for ourselves in the long run.
Ian
[1] http://www.useit.com/alertbox/ia-mistakes.html
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Ian Dickinson Epimorphics Ltd, Bristol, UK
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