[FM Discuss] Conference Sprints

[adam hyde]

hey

Its a good idea and something close (sans publisher and competitive
elements since I'm not sure those are so necessary) to what might be
coming up next year with the help of Minna. Minna is involved in the
Finnish FM and we discussed the possibility of getting some $ together
to do an FM event and your ideas would be a good start Ed.

Can I bring you into the preliminary discussions with Minna?

adam



On Sat, 2009-12-05 at 15:44 -0800, Edward Cherlin wrote:
> I would like to propose an ambitious event to be attached to various
> conferences, where FM offers to work with anybody who brings in a
> draft manuscript and is willing to put it under Free license. Here is
> the outline.
> 
> o Publicize the event beforehand. Invite writers and software
> developers to submit works in progress related to the subject of the
> conference, or bring them to the event on physical media, such as USB
> flash drives or CD-ROMS. Invite writers, editors, graphic artists,
> etc. to join sprints. Don't forget to invite the geek and media media.
> 
> o Set up a virtual assembly line for uploading manuscripts to the FM
> server; segmenting into chapters; applying initial formatting of
> headers, code, and tables; conversion of graphics to PNGs and SVGs;
> pull out keywords into a draft glossary, and whatever else we can do
> without the authors. We would operate as needed before those planning
> on physical attendance put down their tools to get ready to go to the
> conference. Unless you can get WiFi on the plane, of course. ^_^
> Remote participants can upload, clean, and start in whenever they
> like.
> 
> o Set up an assembly line at the conference to accept manuscripts and
> prepare them for later sprinting.
> 
> o Have Web pages ready for people to choose which sprints they would
> like to participate in, populated as drafts become available for work.
> Coordinate announcements during the conference.
> 
> o Run book sprints during the conference, and continue in parallel
> with code sprints at events like Pycon.
> 
> o Put out a Web page and a press release about books completed at the
> conference, with stats on early downloads and print sales, and a call
> for assistance for books started but not ready for readers or
> publishers.
> 
> o Invite publishers to discuss possible contracts with the authors on site.
> 
> o Offer publishers and software developers a conference special rate
> on any book they decide they want to publish, to have FM finish it
> within two weeks after the conference.
> 
> o Set up another assembly line for anybody wanting an ISBN and an
> Amazon listing.
> 
> In doing this, we would have to be sure that we can supply enough
> sprint management. Or we could decide how many sprints we can support,
> and offer them on a first-come, first-served basis during the
> conference, and figure out what to do with the overflow afterwards. Or
> we can announce one or more conference-related themes for the sprint,
> and limit participation to books within those themes.
> 
> Maybe somebody would be interested in providing a prize for the best
> book completed at the conference, according to attendees or an expert
> panel. Schedule a panel session of the winners.
> 
> We could also discuss with conference organizers the possibility of us
> doing their proceedings volume on contract.
> 


-- 
Adam Hyde
Founder FLOSS Manuals
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Email : adam at flossmanuals.net
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