[FM Discuss] Beyond manuals

[Andy Oram]

Thanks for the validation and the extra ideas. Especially for mentioning education again. O'Reilly's Head First approach is promising in that area, but it requires a big investment. The governments do have the funds.

Andy

----- Original Message -----
From: "Edward Cherlin" <echerlin at gmail.com>
To: discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2009 9:02:09 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re: [FM Discuss] Beyond manuals

On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 5:11 PM, Andy Oram <andyo at oreilly.com> wrote:
> Ed asked some very deep questions on Tuesday about my whole motivation for being part of FLOSS Manuals. Well, two days is not such a bad gap for such heavy questions.
>
> For O'Reilly:
>
> * As I wrote in earlier mail, I think we need to get really serious about communities--to embed ourselves in communities.

+1

Not just communities of FLOSS developers and users of particular
programs. We have a chance to become one of the leading voices of Open
IP--FLOSS, Creative Commons, Open Access and others. Some of the key
communities are government (Use of FLOSS, legislation on IP...),
multimedia, human rights groups (right to education, right to
information, rights against monopoly...), teachers, students, parents

> We have to produce free documentation and find ways to get paid for it. I'm hoping to build a new business on serving communities. One might call it a new branch of publishing.

I have suggested targeting education as one of several areas to make
money. Netbook computers cost less than textbooks in all but the
poorest countries, where the textbooks are pitiful. We can talk to
Ministries of Education, starting in countries that have already
decided to deploy OPLC XOs or other computers to all children; US
state education departments; the Obama Administration; NGOs;
international aid agencies. I can dig out examples of teaching
materials funded by various organizations in recent years.

> * I think most of the people in our company are pursuing short-term mechanisms for prolonging our role as trusted information source. I don't know whether these mechanisms are sustainable, but I'm ready for a big leap and to swallow the rules of crowdsourcing whole.

FLOSS is sustainable. Wikpedia is sustainable. Both require
fund-raising and corporate support. I take these examples as an
existence proof. It can be done. Now what is the best way for us to do
it?

> For FLOSS Manuals:
>
> * I want to find ways to ensure success in two ways. I think we've succeeded through luck up to now, although I'm open to learning that what we're doing is a reliable way to succeed. The two ways we're successful is 1) Finding people willing to write, and 2) producing good documentation. I have hypotheses about how to put these goals on firmer ground, and I want to try them.

It is always luck when a founder turns out to have an appropriate
temperament and usable ideas, but we have that. In part the question
is whether that can be turned into a culture where newcomers absorb
what is necessary, or if not, they leave, preferably of their own
volition.

> For myself:
>
> * I want to make a living by doing work that I've always loved doing and that I'm convinced is worth paying for. I can see the difference I've made in many books at O'Reilly and elsewhere, and other people seem to validate my impression. I want to continue bringing writer together, bringing audiences together with writers, and editing their work.

FLOSS is a large part of the biggest serious attack on global poverty
and injustice ever, and bids fair to overturn much of inherited
economic custom and theory. There is far more to come.

> I got involved first with FLOSS Manuals because Adam flattered me by approaching me. Then I did it because it was fun. Soon I'll have to make sure I'm meeting the goals I've just listed, but I think I can get there.
>
> Andy
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>



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