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HowToGetInvolved


How do I get involved in the Atom community?

Anyone interested in helping to move the effort to develop and promote Atom forward is welcome to get involved in the process. This page will help you get acquainted with how the process works.

The Current State of Things

First, get up to speed on where Atom currently sits by reviewing the specifications. You'll find a link to the latest format and API specifications on the FrontPage. Also take a look at the pages linked from AtomPubIssuesList to get an idea of changes that have been considered to the specifications. While not all of these will have been accepted, they will help you to understand the issues that we are trying to solve and the general opinion of the members of the community on those issues.

Discussion

In the past, lots of discussion was done here on the wiki. Now, to avoid cluttering the wiki, and in keeping with IETF policy, that happens on the [WWW]atom-syntax mailing list. Please join the mailing list to get involved in the discussion.

We would like to get as much value out of the mailing list as possible without the volume overrunning our lives. If you have something worth saying, don't be afraid to say it. But please try to write clearly and concisely.

Implementations

Implement Atom support in your language or application of choice, then tell the list about it! Feel free to ask the list for help during development--it will help us to make the spec clearer and more precise.

Proposals

If you want to propose a change to the specification, it's probably best to float the idea on the mailing list first. If the discussion doesn't prompt you to change your mind, then the next step (which shouldn't be put off too long) is to write up a concrete proposal here on the wiki. Having something concrete to discuss saves everyone's time.

Before you get started, consider visiting the UserPreferences page and signing in. That way, it's clear who has been editing a given Proposal.

To create a proposal, [WWW]create a new page with a name beginning with "Pace" (even after being given a definition, I don't quite understand what that means! Fortunately, it's not important to understand it!). Copy the structure from another proposal (see CategoryProposals for a list), and fill it in as completely as you can. Then let everyone on the mailing list know that you've written it up.

Decisions

Decisions to date have been made by rough consensus and running code. Once an official working group is established, Atom will adopt the policies and procedures of the hosting standards organization.

Who's Involved?

For an overview of who is involved in the Atom community, see WhosWho.