[FM Discuss] command line manual - please have a squiz

[adam hyde]

hey,

It was a very interesting sprint. Of course you made a huge positive
contribution to it Andy. It might be interesting to compare the results
of the How to Bypass Internet Censorship manual with the Command Line
manuals as I think they both arrive at a similar level, but through
quite different processes. 

The Bypassing process relied heavily on internal realspace conversations
to structure the content, while the CLI manual largely relied on you to
structure the content as most contributors were remote. 

Putting the structure of the content aside for a moment, my experience
so far from witnessing all the sprints closely, is that there are two
key elements to this process :
1. trust
2. explicit and implicit illustration of the desired tone and scope

Luck comes into it of course, but I see that as a raw material from
which we are learning to derive good content.

adam



On Thu, 2009-04-09 at 10:26 -0400, Andy Oram wrote:
> Thanks for compliments, Adam. I do think I helped. The original outline held up really well. I think it as important not just to give people slots to fill in, but to direct their thinking. For instance, "gee, if you're serious about using the command line, you'd better learn a text editor, shouldn't you?"
> 
> I was trying to set a framework for a broad and helpful way of thinking about readers and their needs.
> 
> So I wonder how much the surprisingly high quality of contributions were due to setting the right expectations, and how much were due to luck.
> 
> And I added a ton of material, both things that were missing and glue for material that was good.
> 
> On CiviCRM, I am keeping track of my time so I find out how much of a commitment I need to make on a typical project of this type.
> 
> Andy
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "adam hyde" <adam at flossmanuals.net>
> To: "floss" <discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
> Sent: Thursday, April 9, 2009 6:42:00 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
> Subject: [FM Discuss] command line manual - please have a squiz
> 
> soooo....the rather amazing command line manual is pretty much good to
> go...we will send to the FSF and they will print 200 and give us the $
> which in turn goes towards another collab sprint with the FSF...
> 
> there has been some amazing contribs to this manual and no little thanks
> to andy for being the master maintainer for the manual...it looks and
> reads fantastico!
> 
> there is a copy of the pdf here:
> http://adam.engagetv.com/cli/
> 
> this will go to the printer. there might be a few tweaks, but this is
> pretty much it
> 
> last call for feedback...
> 
> adam
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Adam Hyde
> Founder FLOSS Manuals
> German mobile : + 49 15 2230 54563
> Email : adam at flossmanuals.net
> irc: irc.freenode.net #flossmanuals
> 
> "Free manuals for free software"
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> 
> 
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-- 
Adam Hyde
Founder FLOSS Manuals
German mobile : + 49 15 2230 54563
Email : adam at flossmanuals.net
irc: irc.freenode.net #flossmanuals

"Free manuals for free software"
http://www.flossmanuals.net/about