[FM Discuss] ars entry - first attempt

[adam hyde]

below is my first attempt. we have 8 days to improve it. We can also
upload an extra document about the project and all its facets.

any suggestions on improvements are very welcome.

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* Titel / name of the project:  FLOSS Manuals

* Type of project:  Community-Projekt

* Description of the project:  FLOSS Manuals is a community of free
documentation writers. We write manuals about how to use free software.
Largely the manuals are written by artists who have a great deal of
experience with free software and often have experience leading
workshops on these technologies.

In addition more and more developers are looking to FLOSS Manuals to be
the repository and community to develop the documentation for their
projects. One Laptop Per Child and Inkscape are both utlising the FLOSS
Manuals toolkits and interacting with the community to build and improve
their docs.

* URL of the project:  http://www.flossmanuals.net

* Objectives:  Our main objective is to increase the uptake of free
softwares through the provision of excellent free documentation.

* Language and context:  We are a distributed international community.
Currently we are extending into Farsi and Bengali communities with the
development of localised FLOSS Manuals sites and communities in each
language.

* Project history:  The project was launched in October 2007.

FLOSS Manuals genesis began in 2004 when Adam Hyde from r a d i o q u a
l i a (http://www.radioqualia.net) put his workshop notes online for his
teachings on free software tools for streaming media. After this,
through a residency with MAMA (New Media Lab, Zagreb) Adam put all the
content in a wiki so he could update it (2006). In 2007 this wiki
(TWiki) was extended with custom plugins for FLOSS Manuals so it could
be a collaborative authoring platform for free documentation on free
software. The official launch was in Amsterdam, October 2007.

* Involved People:  There is a wide community of writers and they focus
on one or more documentation projects within FLOSS Manuals. We have, for
example, artists like Julian Oliver (http://www.selectparks.net), Derek
Holzer (http://www.umatic.nl) and Sophea Lerner (http://phonebox.org)
heading the Blender, PureData and Audacity manuals.

Alongside this the official documentation teams from the One Laptop per
Child and Inkscape (free software vector graphic program) use FLOSS
Manuals for creating the 'official' documentation for their projects.

Most people involved are either new media artists that use free
software, or free software advocates and enthusiasts that see better
documentation as the key to the increased uptake of free software in the
desktop.

* Lessons learned:  We mix voluntary and paid contributions and this
works very well although it is usually frowned on by other 'free
culture' projects. We intend to find away where payments are possible
but not always required. In this way we build and maintain experience
within the organisation.

Also, our platform surpasses anything available as a platform for
collaborative authoring of books. We have created many tools that turn
TWiki into a authoring platform from which we can output digital and
books (via print on demand).

So far nothing has 'not worked'.

* Technological basis:  We are an all GPL system. We are built on TWiki,
and we develop customised plugins that we feed back into the TWiki
repository.

All coding is in perl although we are currently using python for a PDF
formatting module. This will tie FLOSS Manuals directly into print on
demand so that books can be published and available for purchase after
one click.

We currently output to downloadable PDF and online HTML.

It is also possible to remix (http://www.flossmanuals.net/remix) content
to make your own manuals from available content. This means you can
create lovely PDF, or downloadable HTML (with your own CSS) through a
simple drag and drop process.

Additionally we have a 'Live Manual' api which enables you to embed your
remixed manual into any webpage, CMS, or Blog by cutting and pasting 5
lines of HTML.

we have done tis on a shoe string and the functionality exceeds anything
else available.

* Solutions:  The solution is inpart a software solution. We have built
plugins to turn a wiki into a publishing system, suited for
collaborative authoring and outputting to multiple sot and hard copy
formats. There is nothing like this available until now. Most
importantly we have developed copyright tracking functionality for
appropriate accreditation of contributions, and index manager for
determining the sequence of chapters via a simple drag and drop process,
sophisticated output to PDF, and the ability to remix any content to
make your own document.

The Live Journal API is entirely innovative. Nothing exists to parallel
it. It enables anyone to embed full manuals in their own webpage or blog
through the pasting of 5 simple lines of HTML.

All these plugins we have released as GPL.

* Implementations:  We have English manuals, and Dutch Manuals. On the
horizon is a complete site in Farsi, and then we move t the
implementation of a Bengali site.

* Users:  Anyone that has a need for desktop software is a potential
user.

* License:  All technologies are available via GPL. In addition, all
content is available under GPL (GPL is a content license too, please
see : http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/nonsoftware-copyleft.html

* Statement of Reasons:  With 60% of all websites running on free
software, why do only 1.7% of all computer users have free software on
their desktops? The answer is simple, the deficiency is :

“not in the software-it is the lack of good free manuals”

(Free Software Foundation)

FLOSS Manuals provides high quality manuals about how to use free
software - to anyone, for free.

FLOSS Manuals fulfills our mission through our innovative online
collaborative authoring system. Our community of contributors is lead by
some of the brightest minds in documentation and free software
internationally.

There is nothing like it in terms of content or technology available
anywhere.

* Planned use of prize money:  To hold a Free Documentation Symposium.
The first of its kind internationally. This event will bring together
key members of the FLOSS Manuals community with other documentation
writers to look at techniques and technologies to improve the quality
and quantity of free documentation.


-- 
Adam Hyde
FLOSS Manuals

http://www.flossmanuals.net