[FM Discuss] weihnacht prezzy

Fri Dec 18 11:18:07 PST 2009

On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 05:54, 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.

I'll try it out as soon as I get to Indiana. I can start with the
Discovery book I have been working on.

> 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.

Fine.

> 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! :)

The Shuttleworth Foundation, the US government, Spain, and the state
of California all have programs for replacing printed textbooks with
(eventually interactive) electronic learning materials. There is a lot
of grant funding available.

> * 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

When can we sprint?

> * 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.

OLPC and Sugar Labs are looking at that collection to see what should
be offered to schools and students first, and in what form.

> 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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Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
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