[FM Discuss] Winter Camp Agenda

[adam hyde]

dear all,

So, the FM Summit is next week and its shaping up to be exciting. I
think its time to talk a little about the schedule and what we have to
achieve. As far as it goes, we need to fit into the Wintercamp plan :
http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/wintercamp

That means we can break into roughly 3-4 hour sessions, twice per day on
Wednesday, Thurs, and Fri. I have asked if we can also work Saturday but
so far no response, so I am guessing we will be in plenaries on
Saturday.

I think the overall plan Winter Camp has is a good one, and it will be
great for us to mix with the other groups. Those that followed the
discussion on the wintercamp list between me and Geert will know I have
expressed my reservations about the structure. However if Network
Cultures aren't going to change the schedule then we should make the
best with what we have. They are doing us a great favor by putting this
on so I'm prepared to go with their flow.

So there are two things we need to get on top of. The first is that we
need to look at the topics, the second is that we need to agree on a
process.

As an overall theme I think we need to work on concrete results, at the
same time I think we also need to talk about the bigger picture - where
are we going, how etc...

We should decide on these topics either online this week or within the
first hour or so at the event. I have talked to Anne and Zita about how
this could be shaped and we all agree that it is important that we open
the floor to anyone to put forward their ideas about what should be
discussed. At the same time there are several things that I would like
to bring forward as important issues. So, I will outline these here and
then we should discuss these and any other ideas on the list and finish
this discussion in Amsterdam.

So, the five areas I think we need to address include :
Sustainability and Structure
Booki & FM Design
The Reading Context
Book Sprints
Admin training

Sustainability and Structure 
We need to look at the current structure of FM and workout how we are
going to distribute the capacity for current and future operations. We
also need to look at how to push book sales to generate revenue, and
strategies to get more writers involved. I would like it if we set
specific goals for book sales, identified areas in FM that needs more
attention, strategise some outreach initiatives (to writers), and
outline steps to address these issues. 

Booki and FM Design 
The coders should produce as much code as possible and align their
thinking on how Booki should work. We should decide on what a good goal
is for the code by the end of the week. Additionally, Lotte has already
done the design for the new FLOSS Manuals. It would be good to get
feedback about this and the implement the new design in the existing
platform by the end of the week.

The Reading Context 
I think we need to decide on what what the readers experience should
be. How do we engage with our readers and what social and technical
processes do we need to establish? This topic could also include
strategies for identifying audiences, how do we know what readers want,
getting the word out to more readers and what we would need to do to
improve the structure of content (for manuals, educational content
etc). We need to identify these issues and outline a specific strategy.

Book Sprints
How do we extend and improve the concept of the Book Sprint? Is it
possible to have mini-sprints on a frequent basis organised locally? How
do we fund sprints? Is there improvements we can make with the
methodology? How can we make the remote contribution experience richer?
What tools do we need to assist sprints?

Admin Training
I would like to train as many people as possible on basic Admin tasks to
ensure these requests are dealt with quickly by more people than just
me.



So, those are the issues I think need to be addressed. If there
are thoughts on these or thoughts on other topics then lets discuss
them on the list and continue the conversation in Amsterdam.Its
important we try and pre-organise as much as we can now so we can
maximise the use of our time on site.

The people attending (with a brief intro from me) include: 

Adam Hyde FM
Founder. Coming from Berlin, Germany.

Aleksandar Erkalovic 
Programmer for FM. Aleksandar (Aco) has been responsible for not just
the code, Aco has considerably influenced the ideas and architecture
behind FM. Aco will demo a little of the new FM platform (booki) at the
camp. Aco is coming from Zagreb, Croatia.

Andy Oram
Andy is one of the Advisory Board to FM and has been involved a lot in
discussions about the future of FM. Andy is coming from Boston, USA.

Anne Gentle 
Anne came to FM via the OLPC project. Anne is now the manager of the
OLPC and Sugar docs (the official docs for these projects are
done by FM). Anne also organised the Sugar/OLPC Book Sprint. Anne is
coming from Austin, Texas.

Ali Kolahi Ahari
Ali is the manager of the Farsi (Persian) FLOSS Manuals. Ali is coming
from Christchurch, NZ.

David Farning
David approached FM about doing the docs for Sugar. David is on the
Sugar Board. David is coming from Wisconsin.

Douglas Bagnall 
Douglas has just joined FM and will be working on the code for Booki
and is currently working on testing the PDF generation and editor for
language support of Myanmar (Burmese), Farsi, Arabic and Chinese.
Douglas is coming from Wellington, New Zealand.

Ed Cherlin 
Ed was at the Bypassing Internet Censorship Book Sprint. Ed is coming
from San Francisco, California.

Janet Swisher 
Janet was at the OLPC/Sugar sprint and is leading the workshop for FM
at the Doctrain West event. Janet is coming from Austin Texas.

Lotte Meijer
Lotte designed the FM site. Lotte has also considerably helped secure
the initial funding from Digital Pioneers for FM to have the initial
plugins developed and the design done. Lotte designed the wonderful FM
logo and all you see at the FM site (including the book design).

Martin Kean
Martin recently joined FM and is relearning javascript inorder to
contribute to the Booki project. Martin is coming from Dunedin, New
Zealand.

Mick Fuzz
Mick has written a lot of the FM docs about video editing. Mick is
coming from Manchester, UK.

Minna Taarka
Minna is taking the lead on the development of the Finnish FLOSS
Manuals. Minna will be at the event for the last 2 days only. Minna is
coming from Helsinki, Finland.

Patrick Davison
Patrick co-organised the FLOSSify Book Sprint in NYC. Patrick is coming
to be a part of the Booki code team. Patrick is coming from New Yrok,
USA.

Zita Joyce,
Zita managed the development of the Farsi FM community and site, Zita
is also on the FM PR team. Zita is coming from Christchurch, NZ.


Also, on the first night the FM Board will attend which includes :
Eric Kluitenberg, Rene Post, Sacha van Geffen.


As for the schedule. We have a limited time, so I was thinking the first
full day (Wednesday) I will walk through the story so far, then we get
into it.

If we looked at the current topics I would imagine the break up on the
first day could look something like this :



DAY ONE:
FIRST SESSION :
*Introductions
Adams FM update and overview

SECOND SESSION:
*Booki and Design
Aco demo of code so far
Discussion of features and uses

Then the coders (Aco, Douglas, Martin, Patrick) code, and the rest of us
follow this :
Admin Training :: Creating and Maintaining Manuals


DAY TWO
Coders code all day and the rest follow this:

FIRST SESSION:
*Readership Context
Intro by Adam
How do we develop the readership context?


SECOND SESSION:
*Book Sprints
Intro by Anne
How to make these community events?
Raising $
Texts to be FLOSSified

Admin Training :: Publishing Manuals (html + books)
Adam + everyone (in a 1 hr session at the end of the day)



DAY THREE
Coders code all day and the rest follow this:

FIRST SESSION:
*Structure and Sustainability
Intro by Zita
Capacity
Fund raising
What do we want to do, and what do we need to do it

SECOND SESSION:
*Work Groups
Work towards practical goals set in previous days.

Admin Training :: Translation
Adam + everyone (in a 1 hr session at the end of the day)



The last day of the event (Saturday) is meant to be for public
presentations. My recommendation is that the coders continue that day,
those that choose to work on topics should, and then the rest FM attend
the public presentation. 


Sound ok?

adam

-- 
Adam Hyde
Founder FLOSS Manuals
German mobile : + 49 15 2230 54563
Email : adam at flossmanuals.net

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