[FM Discuss] Finnish version of FLOSS Manuals

[Edward Cherlin]

Yes, an Open Source GIS manual is absolutely necessary for economic
development worldwide, for mapping agriculture, ecologies,
environmental damage, and much more, and for planning electricity and
communication grids, roads, and other infrastructure. See, for
example, the map of fiber optics in Africa referenced in my article,

http://www.olpcnews.com/internet/access/internet_bandwidth_bonanza_africa.html

It is also necessary in order to give civil society access to the data
needed for political advocacy and decision-making.

If Adam Hyde agrees, I think that FLOSS Manuals would be the perfect
place to retarget your book for Linux, and finish it. Actually, we
need a book explaining what GIS is, what you can do with it, and the
range of software, file formats, data sources, and so on involved.

I am copying this reply to some of my contacts in the GIS world. Tim
Foresman, a geographer at U. Maryland, ran the International Symposium
on Digital Earth in Berkeley two years ago. Ray Cromwell's Timepedia
business model includes making all government time-series mapping data
available in standard formats for free, and offering consulting
services on how to navigate and use this embarrassment of riches.

On Tue, May 5, 2009 at 5:57 AM, Tomi Toivio <tomi.olavi.toivio at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I am starting here in Finland as an Open Source coordinator for the Medios
> project. The goal is to translate the FLOSS Manuals into Finnish, as well as
> to create a network of users through advocacy and training.
>
> FLOSS Manuals seems to be a great project. I have been thinking that
> there are a lot of programmers involved in Open Source, but too few
> technical writers. Maybe this project is the answer?

Part of the answer, anyway.

> I have been working as a technical writer, technical translator, journalist,
> etc. I have a M.Soc.Sci degree from the University of Helsinki. And so on.

I have been working as a technical writer, but I'm a Generalist, with
a degree in Math and Philosophy from Yale and a qualification as
Teacher of Buddhism from Shasta Abbey Seminary. I administered two
localization projects for OLPC until we could find people from Haiti
and Cambodia to take over.

> Localization is the main goal, but I would like to participate in the
> technical writing process as well. I am also very interested in the use of
> these technologies for creation of participatory media.

My key project right now is interactive learning materials (which we
still call "textbooks" for lack of a better term) incorporating Sugar
and other Free Software. That's just part of the plan that you can see
on the Earth Treasury Web site. The outline of the textbook project is
at

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Creating_textbooks

When we get to the geography textbooks, GIS will be an essential component.

> The training aspect of this project is a bit similar to what I was doing for
> a development NGO in Kenya last year, though I was spending more time
> working on more specialized Open Source GIS software.

We should get you into contact with the Asante Foundation. The Maasai
of Kenya, among many others, need this GIS capability, although they
don't know it yet. ^_^

> I wrote this Open
> Source GIS manual (Geoserver, uDig, Postgis etc.) for a participatory GIS
> project in Kenya, but it is still quite incomplete:
> http://www.esnips.com/doc/d453ceb8-53d6-4c6b-9cd8-d3c83c61c619/Geoserver-Manual

Not at all bad, although limited to installation and features.

> Sorry, this manual is for Windows XP although we were running Geoserver on
> Ubuntu. Does anybody think that a GIS manual like that would be useful if a
> generic data set is used as an example?
>
> Best Regards
> Tomi Toivio
>
>
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>
>



-- 
Silent Thunder (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) is my name
And Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, The Truth my destination.
http://earthtreasury.org/worknet (Edward Mokurai Cherlin)