-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Monday 07 Jun 2004 22:02, Karsten Wade wrote: > There are a few FedoraNEWS.ORG contributors on this list, and I've been > considering a few notions I'd like to discuss with this whole group of > writers, to see what develops. We're here... > > I want to acknowledge that FedoraNEWS.ORG has been doing a great service > to the Fedora community. The accuracy, timeliness, and usefulness of > the articles is great. I've personally used several tutorials to > accomplish new things with Fedora Core, such as setting up a yum > repository. Thank you. We try. I don't know how many of us are subscribers here. > It seems that the niche FedoraNEWS.ORG documentation and the Fedora docs > project (FDP) fill are not the same. I think the two groups (ideally) > provide different and useful services to Fedora users. Agreed. > > I see the FedoraNEWS.ORG articles as generally being timely, short, and > focused on solving single problems. These articles are responsive and > useful during test periods. Over the longterm, there may be less > attraction in maintaining much of the docs because the problems they > solve are no longer problems. Yes, My apt test1 howto was hits thousands of times, but is no longer valid. > > I see the Fedora docs project as providing longer, broader documents > that focus on multiple aspects of using Fedora Core or are more complex > in their handling. There is room to grow into sizable books. Normally, > the majority of the content in an FDP guide shouldn't change very much > from Fedora Core release to release, typically just details of command > usage and so forth. More like manuals. > > Even if you accept my definitions as entirely true, there is still > plenty of room for crossover, and it was exactly that fact I have in > mind. > > I'm wondering about the possibility of converting some of the longer > FedoraNEWS.ORG articles/tutorials into formal FDP guides. I would > envision something like this: > > 1. Identify FedoraNEWS.ORG tutorials which have momentum and scope to be > maintainable for the long term. There are a few I would like to do, I have a list of about 20 or so, but what with my son just arriving... > > 2. The author(s) either convert the content to FDP standard DocBook, or > enlist the help of other FDP contributors to convert. Once in DocBook, > this is maintainable as the single source for all target systems, > hopefully including FedoraNEWS.ORG. Not hard. I agree with docbook for long term docs, but for short docs/howtos it can be a pain. We would need to write our own css/xslt to keep it within the FedoraNEW.ORG look/style also. I bought a "Learning XML" O'reilly book for christmas (6 months ago) and most of the requirements are in there. Again, just the time. > > 3. Either the original author can continue maintaining, take on a joint > maintainer from existing FDP writers, or hand over maintenance if there > is someone interested in taking it on. The bigger ones would benefit from a joint effort. > > It might be possible to stitch together several FedoraNEWS.ORG articles > into one guide, for example a Fedora Yum Guide that includes how to > configure and use yum, how to set up a repository, solutions for common > problems, customizations, etc. These could easily be rendered for FDP > as one guide, and for FedoraNEWS.ORG as a series of short articles. > Single source, multiple audiences. Yes. I also think Alex's RPM is brilliant, and the tips section too. > > One of my goals is clear - to increase the quantity and usefulness of > the FDP guides. Hopefully there is something useful in here for the > FedoraNEWS.ORG contributors. I agree, and I will do as much as I can. > > I'm usually hanging out at #fedora-docs on irc.freenode.net, or can come > over to #fedoranews.org for discussion. I know licensing is one thing > to cover; fortunately, a copyright holder can dual-license, so that is a > solution. So far, FDP docs are under the GNU FDL 1.2+ (e.g. > http://fedora.redhat.com/participate/documentation-guide/ln-legalnotice.htm >l). Since the CC license used by FedoraNEWS.ORG allows it > (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/1.0/), anyone could make a > derivative work from FedoraNEWS.ORG articles, but it seems like a better > idea to collaborate and single-source. Again, agreed. I hope I speak for the rest of the writers. - -- Kind Regards, Gavin Henry. http://www.magicfx.co.uk http://FedoraNEWS.ORG/ghenry http://shorl.com/dokypyrirypa http://www.suretecsystems.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFAxOQbgNqd7Kng8UoRAvyyAJ4hQtbN4cUrmQ/TvcmHzNr/VTAqoQCdG3la egVBaOLVaOD1DugBoGXHNm0= =hMln -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
