[FM Discuss] weihnacht prezzy

Fri Dec 18 10:39:16 PST 2009

hey anne...brief comment on your question below..

On Fri, 2009-12-18 at 10:51 -0600, Anne Gentle wrote:
> I really like this "group" idea - though right now, I couldn't tell
> you whether the person is a member of the group or if the content is a
> member of the group.

both people and books can belong to groups. You could imagine FM as a
group of both books and people. However, Booki supports multiple groups
whereas our current set up could be said to support one group - FM...

adam

>  I like the concept, it plays well in both
> collaborative authoring and "freeing" content. Maybe that's the point
> - that group inclusion can be writers, readers, or the content itself.
> 
> Thanks for sharing -
> Anne
> 
> On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 7:54 AM, adam hyde <adam at flossmanuals.net> wrote:
> > ola,
> >
> > so...FM lab has been busy behind the scenes. As many know, we have
> > received some funding support from the OSI and Archive.org for the
> > development of a new collaborative authoring platform. The platform has
> > been mentioned several times on this list as a future cure all for our
> > technical wishes and frustrations, a revolution in publishing, a
> > promise, and a vague idea which may or may not be happening.
> >
> > Well, I am very pleased to say that Booki has been happening, and it is
> > in pretty good shape. We are now in a position to show the FM Community
> > what we are working on and invite discussion about the project.
> >
> > Before proceeding, I want to make it clear that we are not yet
> > interested in bug reports. The platform is alpha and we wish to do a lot
> > more work on it before we start testing on scale. However, when we are
> > ready to start testing I invite everyone on this list to consider
> > helping us test the platform. I will post to the list specific testing
> > request and information on how to submit bug reports when the time
> > comes.
> >
> > For now what we are primarily interested in is your thoughts on the
> > possibilities for the platform, and any comments you may wish to make
> > good, bad or otherwise. We are also looking for people to help us
> > immediately in the following ways:
> > * help us find some more $ for development. I would like to find $25,000
> > USD from somewhere quickly if possible to continue the development. If
> > you know where we can find this then now is your time to help out! :)
> > * become a developer (primarily the platform is written in python)
> > * help us document that platform so that developers know what it is we
> > are doing and can find a place to start
> > * give us a fat new machine and free rackspace to host the project
> >
> > The dev team consists of Aco and Douglas, with me being the distracting
> > milestone manager ;) So far the development has split into two threads -
> > booki development which is done by Aco, and the import (espri) and
> > export (objavi) components which are developed by Doug.
> >
> > For those that are interested in helping with the dev, please see see
> > here:
> > http://booki-dev.flossmanuals.net/
> >
> > for the git repos etc.
> >
> > We also have a dev channel in irc:
> > irc.freenode.net
> > #fm-tech
> >
> > ok...a few words about Booki and what it is. First, as mentioned above,
> > Booki is really a ecosystem of 3 technologies. The namesake code base
> > (Booki) is where users create accounts, create books, and collaborate.
> > Booki interacts with Objavi, the export engine, to export to book
> > formatted PDF, screen formatted PDF, Openoffice (odt), and epub. Booki
> > also interacts with Espri, the import engine, to import from
> > Archive.org, and any epub that is online. Espri will also, in time,
> > manage imports from FLOSS Manuals, and Wikibooks.
> >
> > So, the set up is a little different from FM as we know it. At its heart
> > - a tech for the collaborative development of books - Booki and FM are
> > the same and many of the tools look the same but they act slightly
> > differently - you will see when you look at the edit interface for
> > example.
> >
> > On another level, Booki is quite different from FM. Not in just the way
> > the background code is structured, but the ideas manifest in the
> > interface will be new to many. For example, Booki works with users and
> > groups. FM is one group, in our example installation, and we have many
> > groups. A book is created and owned by a Booki user, and that book can
> > be associated with none, one, or more groups. For example, Inkscape may
> > wish to develop several manuals, and associate some with FM, associate a
> > subset of these with the 'Free Software for Design' group, associate
> > some books only with the Free Software Development Group etc.
> >
> > This is quite different from how we act now, and it raises a lot of
> > interesting questions and exciting new possibilities for working
> > methodologies.
> >
> > Also, the Booki user has much more control and many of the admin tasks
> > that are solely mine in FM are farmed out to owners/maintainers etc. For
> > example, publishing will be the responsibility of the owner/maintainer
> > and we place these tools in their hands.
> >
> > Also, we have a very interesting focus on importing content.
> > Specifically, Archive.org has 1.6 million books which are available as
> > epubs. You can import any of these into booki and work on them. Many of
> > these are fantastically interesting books...take a look at the
> > archive.org text archive and you will see.
> >
> > Additionally, books can be uploaded immediately to Archive.org..this is
> > the start of us providing more distribution channels for content. If you
> > can imagine, books might also be made available by rss, torrent, iphone
> > download etc etc etc
> >
> > So...one last word before I post the URL. Doug and Aco have done a
> > stellar job. They are both amazing to work with and I think Booki is
> > going to become more and more extraordinary. Many many thanks to them
> > both for being such a pleasure to work with and for doing such
> > outstanding work.
> >
> > have a peep:
> > http://www.booki.cc
> >
> > note : There is NO design in place yet, and you will discover bugs,
> > thats not the point. Try and get a feel for the ideas inherent in the
> > tool. This is what we are interested in discussing.
> >
> > adam
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Adam Hyde
> > Founder FLOSS Manuals
> > German mobile : + 49 177 4935122
> > Email : adam at flossmanuals.net
> > irc: irc.freenode.net #flossmanuals
> >
> > "Free manuals for free software"
> > http://www.flossmanuals.net/about
> >
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> >
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-- 
Adam Hyde
Founder FLOSS Manuals
German mobile : + 49 177 4935122
Email : adam at flossmanuals.net
irc: irc.freenode.net #flossmanuals

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