On Wed, 2007-08-01 at 23:30 +0530, Rahul Sundaram wrote:
> Hi
>
> I see a large number of mails here about meetings, processes and tools
> but the primary output of the documentation team that is useful for end
> users is good quality content that they can refer to but there doesn't
> seem to enough interest or progress being made. If the number of
> meetings and steering committee members are more than the number of
> active documentation we maintain, I would say the priorities are wrong.
>
> Did folks notice that or agree with me?
I notice it and don't agree with you.
Rahul, don't make me waste time explaining why making an open source
project have a good infrastructure is necessary. One word explains it
-- leverage. When people are enabled to contribute with enough tools
and processes, the toolers and process writers and leaders have
multiplied their own efforts exponentially. The other alternative is to
give up all that good work and just spend our time writing something,
where we are multiplying our efforts by a whopping "one."
Also, do you think you should dictate what people spend their time on?
If someone wants to work on tools instead of content, who cares? Who
are you to try to make people feel bad for working on what they are
interested in?
I agree we have a huge lack of active writing contributors.
I don't know why, but I presume thinks like requiring the GPG-signed CLA
for the Wiki are a part of it -- since that is the only difference
between this open documentation community and most others.
So, I've done all the work to fix that, we're just waiting for Moin 1.6
to drop.
Another is a very noticeable lack of content from Red Hat when we got
started; quite different from the rest of Fedora, who had an entire
distro to start with. Heck, even Infrastructure had more hardware to
start than Docs had content. Every other team, from Art to Engineering,
has had a paid person supporting the project, and therefore some kind of
budget. Everything we have done in Docs has been boot-strapped.
But ultimately, in the last three years, we have:
* Opened the CVS wide open
* Taught Wiki and XML fundamentals
* Taught writing and editing fundamentals
* Produced the best release notes
* Written and maintain solid installation content
* Responded to all content ideas and edit requests to the best of our
collective ability
* Done all we can to lower the barriers to entry so we are almost the
easiest project to get involved in
* All with a team of writers, editors, and techies that (at most time)
could be counted on two hands
- And often those were the same people you are berating for spending
too much time dealing with "meetings, processes and tools".
So, if all of that and opening the Wiki (so it is a larger body doing
community documentation) and adding Plone (so more than three people can
actual publish content on docs.fedoraproject.org) aren't enough, then I
guess I've failed. Good thing I've already said I won't stand for
leader re-election, since I guess by your account I don't deserve it.
- Karsten
--
Karsten Wade ^ Fedora Documentation Project
Sr. Developer Relations Mgr. | fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject
quaid.108.redhat.com | gpg key: AD0E0C41
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