JKSikhs.com is a sewadar (volunteer) driven initiative in which anyone connected with the Sikh community of Jammu and Kashmir can get involved. This article describes how people can contribute time and effort to this project in a constructive way. 

In this first article of the series, we introduce the "JKSikhs Website" category (This can be accessed from Editorials -> Categories -> JKSikhs Website). The category will include updates from the development front, such as major new releases or major content updates to the website. 

We are inspired by the manner in which sewa is performed in Gurdwaras or Guru ka Langar.  Although all members of the sangat are eager to play their part, our foremost duty is to observe what's going on: we see individuals regardless of their wealth or status or educational accomplishments engaged in all aspects of sewa - each according to their free will (i.e. things they want to do), their self-assessed knowledge (what they can do), and need (what needs to be done). So, if we see the joda-ghar unattended, we don't wait for someone to appoint us in a position - we get on with lining up the shoes, and cleaning or polishing them as well, if we have resources at hand. 

Other volunteers might look at the langar hall or kitchen and see if there are duties that need to be performed there - of course, even if one is a michelin-star chef, there is no guarantee one would be appointed as the chief of langar cooking straightaway! One might have to start maybe with cleaning used utensils, or maybe helping with vartaana (serving the langar) for a while. 

No one is judged and no one is appointed. It is perfectly okay and desirable to ask questions rather than charge in with a know-it-all attitude. All of us lack many skills and know other ones, and this is perfectly normal – some of us are more creative, others have better verbal ability, whereas some have different types of technical know-how. No one is in any organisation, and no one is working for a wage or reward. 

So, with this background, we start with the various roles in which users can engage with the site. All roles are equally valuable, and there is no hierarchy involved – there is no rigid boundary – people can get involved according to need, ability, and choice.

These are people who use this website - as general reading and learning. You are welcome to offer suggestions by writing to us on info@jksikhs.com

If you see something not working or missing, please write to us about how this can be improved. 

You can choose to write something either for the main body of the website or articles under your own name. Some people might become regular contributors to the website and others might choose to write guest articles to be featured here. 

In the main body of the website, as of this writing (13th July 2020), all the sections so far only contain some introductionary text. So, this is currently a work in progress* - many subject areas need to be expanded upon. For instance, under "History and Culture", we would like to add a sub-section for “Languages” covering the different languages and dialects spoken by Sikhs in different parts of Jammu and Kashmir.

The content we are seeking here needs to be highly accurate and backed by multiple scholarly sources. It will also undergo heavy editing to conform to the JKSikhs style guide. 

For more informal writing (such as your opinions on different subjects relevant to Sikhs of Jammu and Kashmir, your commentary on media coverage, interviews you conducted), you can simply write articles that will be published under your name. This article you are reading is an example. 

Depending on language skills, authors also need to translate existing content to other languages (priority might be to have a complete version of the site in Gurmukhi)

Other types of content that you can contribute include graphics, photographs of Gurdwaras, villages, and any other place connected to Sikhs of Jammu and Kashmir. 

 (*in some ways, this will likely always remain work in progress - can we ever claim to have collected all the possible knowledge about any subject? Our goal is not to "become perfect and complete" by a given date but to "keep improving constantly")

An important activity under this role is also to actively reach out to other scholars and authors on behalf of JKSikhs team to invite their contribution, or seek their written permission to use their content for the site. Any communication on behalf of the JKSikhs team must happen after consultation and by designated individuals only.

Some teammates can also take up social media engagement under this role (creating and managing social media accounts, and posting updates after checking with the team) 

 

3) Editors:

Editors are responsible for proof-reading, fact-checking, plagiariam-detection, and …editing all the text that goes on the website. Editors must be well-versed with the JKSikhs Style Guide and ensure that all text in the main body of the website conforms to it. 

During early days, multiple editors might review a particular piece of writing. 

4) CMS Content Writers:

These are teammates who actually update content (text, photographs) on to the website after it has been edited. This actually does not require any technical skills but simply needs getting used to the “Django Content management system (CMS)” (the technology used to build this site). Editors can themselves also be CMS Content Writers if they like, else, other teammates can take on that role.

To get an idea for what this involves, also see this: https://www.imagescape.com/blog/2016/05/05/end-user-focused-django-tutorials/

"Keep it simple" is an important goal to keep in mind. 

Each section of the website will have a team of one to three content writers and all content for that particular section or sub-section must go through them.

To understand what is involved in this task, CMS Content Writers can do these:

•Read the document “Steps to add a Gurdwara details page”

•Login to the site in edit mode, and see the layouts of different pages – different pages have currently been set up with various layouts as examples. You can also practice by creating new pages (but please don't click the 'Publish' button, and please keep the team informed)

•Read general documents online on how to add content to DJango CMS (simply learning is also an important contribution - all of us are learning, plus it helps to ask more useful questions)

•Always aim to leave the page you are responsible for in a 'presentable' state. The goal should be to leave something better than it was before, even if it is a small change. Some people might believe that re-creating everything from scratch might be a good idea - there are many tools available online for that, so depending on your time and resources, please feel free to try your ideas. 

A layout is simply an arrangement of widgets (e.g. text, images, videos, snippets). Content writers can be creative according to the nature of content they are updating. In some areas, consistency is necessary – for instance, each Gurdwara details page must have the same broad layout, but as noted in the document, this is not a complicated task, and you can always reach out to the developers & systems administrators for help, guidance, or ideas.

5) Developers:

As noted before, most of the ‘development’ of this website is accomplished by non-technical volunteers. Adding content, and creating layouts according to the needs of different subject areas do not require technical skills. 

The website is supported by a small team of core developers who take care of more ‘global’ aspects of the website and to support other users where necessary. 

To get a view of what the development team work on, anyone can examine the open issues list here (and suggest updates to it): https://github.com/jksikhs/cms.jksikhs.com/issues 

New developers can get involved by reading this: https://github.com/jksikhs/cms.jksikhs.com/blob/staging/README.md

 

6) Systems administrators:

These individuals are involved in the setup and provisioning of the environment (such as the domain names, email aliases, hosting, and backups). We often second as developers as well.

Sysadmins are also responsible for creating appropriate role based access control for other teammates who update content to the site.

If in doubt, simply ask by sending an email to info@jksikhs.com

 

Quality assurance (QA)

Constructive ideas, defect reports, change requests are welcome from everyone – first go through the issues lists, documents, ask questions, have a look at previous conversations, and then by all means, make recommendations. Examples:

•“Let us have a section on the home page for “latest news” - I would like to manage this/or can you suggest ways of accomplishing this please /and, can you facilitate access OR please tell me what do I need to accomplish this?”

•”in the Gurdwara details page, it would be nice to have the map on top-right side. What does everyone think? If no one else is working on this, I take the responsibility of updating the existing pages, and the template mentioned in document ‘Steps to add Gurdwara details page.docx’. I will amend the document as well so the next person uses the most up to date layout” 

•”...thank you for your write up. But instead of this word, I suggest we use that one for the following reasons... what does the team think?”

•" I have identified a template here: https://colorlib.com/wp/cat/bootstrap/  I think this will look better when applied to JKSikhs.com - Can other teammates review this? If agreed, we can request developers to assess the feasibility of incorporating it on JKSikhs.com 

Helpful contribution typically starts with a description of what you were trying to do, and what stopped you from achieving that. 

 

Get Involved...

•To get involved, please send an email to: info@jksikhs.com detailing how you would like to participate, what you would like to contribute, and we will identify areas where you can help. 

•For existing team, please make sure you are subscribed to the team mailing list: https://groups.google.com/d/forum/jksikhs-internal - Transparent communication is an important aspect of this project - rest of the team must be made aware of what everyone is working on, so that effort is not duplicated

•Please go through all sections of the current site, read the documents (and update where necessary or where you find gaps), learn about areas you are not familiar with, ask questions, identify specific issues, communicate them to us

•Observing and learning is a big sewa as well