Kavi: Trial Planned for New ATSC ‘Comment Manager’ Software

Posted on August 1, 2013 in ATSC News

New Tool to Help Streamline Process, Drive Standards Consensus

More often than not, comments are received from one or more members on any given ballot. The process of collecting the comments and documenting the final resolutions has changed little over the years since ATSC online activities were ported over to the powerful Kavi platform. That’s about to change as we integrate a newly updated version of Kavi’s “Comment Manager.”

Comment Manager provides a structured method of dealing with ballot comments and documenting resolutions. It’s designed to help organizations produce high-quality content through dynamic collaboration that quickly achieves consensus. Kavi achieves this through a variety of features that enable participants to easily engage, whether they are a Chair, Comment Manager or Committee Member. This feature has been available from Kavi for some time, but with a new release this month, ATSC has decided to move forward with this robust new tool.

Many members may already be familiar with Comment Manager, since it is used by a number of standards development organizations. Comment Manager will be tested on a trial basis for an upcoming ballot to let contributors gain experience with the functions and features. The new visual appearance and organization of data on-screen are intended to improve usability and shorten the learning curve.

From the perspective of the voting member, Comment Manager will be essentially invisible. The feature, instead, is focused on dealing with comments after the ballot has closed. Historically, this function has been done by a comment resolution group. That will not change. The function of Comment Manager is to provide tools for the comment resolution group and to fully document discussions and decisions.

Members will learn more about the ATSC’s new Comment Manager tool in the coming weeks.

Posted in ATSC News