[FM Discuss] scribn the bazaar

[Andy Oram]

Your list of people to include in a sprint would be a good addition to our Book Sprints book, Ed. The page http://en.flossmanuals.net/BookSprints/PrePlanning has a section called "Finding Authors" where you could put it.

The news of the book sprint approach and FLOSS Manuals is definitely circulating around O'Reilly. I got some "hmmms" when I first told them about it, but Adam's trip to FOO made a big difference. Still, it's frustrating. I heard at least once from someone trying to see how a particular project would do as a sprint, and I replied in detail, then heard nothing more.

Andy

----- Original Message -----
From: "Edward Cherlin" <echerlin at gmail.com>
To: discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
Sent: Friday, November 20, 2009 4:05:19 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re: [FM Discuss] scribn the bazaar

On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 04:48, adam hyde <adam at flossmanuals.net> wrote:
> On Fri, 2009-11-06 at 06:39 -0500, Andy Oram wrote:
>> Can you clarify the difference between the FLOSS Manuals approach and
>> the top-down approach? Is the first approach leaving it up to authors
>> to self-select and write what they want to write, while the second
>> approach identifies topics in advance and tries to assign them to
>> authors?
>
> yes
>
> adam

Actually, I found that there was a lot more to it when I joined Adam
in a sprint. Also, publishers often think of titles they want and go
looking for suitable authors.

We gather diverse, talented, committed groups to work on sprints. You
want someone who knows the purpose of the book, some subject-matter
experts, and also a diagram and concept artist, some eagle-eyed
editors, at least one generalist, and at least one person representing
the reader to keep the techies from assuming too much, and to make
sure everything specialized is defined in a way that the intended
reader can understand. A cook is good to have. Everybody should know
how to have fun.

Having someone willing to pay expenses wouldn't hurt.

We also have the possibility of working with authors to create a group
to take care of whatever bits they don't know, and to speed up
authorship and production to unheard-of rates. O'Reilly has expressed
interest, but doesn't seem to know how to start. I would love to have
a drop-in sprintfest at the next OSCON and olsewhere, where people can
show up with works in progress, and anybody can join any team they
find interesting, where they have something to contribute. A bit like
the code sprints at PyCon and elsewhere.

I can expand on these ideas if others are interested.

>>
>> Andy
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "adam hyde" <adam at flossmanuals.net>
>> To: "floss" <discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
>> Sent: Thursday, November 5, 2009 1:59:43 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
>> Subject: [FM Discuss] scribn the bazaar
>>
>> hi,
>>
>> Recently I have been pondering the nature of Book Sprints and the FLOSS
>> Manuals community. It seems to me, in the somewhat simplistic
>> characterisation of Eric Raymond, that we are operating in the bazaar.
>> That is, we are a self-organising and rather ad-hoc community. It could
>> be described as organised from the bottom-up, unstructured, and open.
>>
>> However, we produce extremely good manuals, and we do it very fast.
>>
>> The Cathedral model for production, is close to how a traditional
>> publisher might work. Indeed, it has often been cited by media
>> commentators that with the advent of the book, the 'book in stone' (the
>> Cathedral) was to be replaced by paper. It might have seemed at the time
>> that books would overthrow architecture. However, it actually seems more
>> accurate to say that paper has maintained the architecture quite well.
>> That is, top-down, highly structured, and closed.
>>
>> I have some problems with the Cathedral as a publishing model, but it
>> has its place, and if it works, it works. However what I see as
>> problematic is the evolution of relatively recent writing projects that
>> are related to open source but do not seem to recognise their own
>> Cathedralness. This seems to me to be very interesting and problematic
>> because without recognising their own nature they fail on their own
>> terms.
>>
>> These projects want to catalyse networks, and return a product - often
>> 'a book'. They are often characterised by the thorough research of the
>> proposed contents of the book, the attraction of collaborative partners
>> based on network status, and the assignment of chapters to authors.
>>
>> What I find interesting is that these projects, while seeing themselves
>> 'part of the bazaar' and wanting to rapidly produce material, and foster
>> collaboration, seem instead to produce books very slowly and without
>> much collaborative contributions within the text. They seem, in other
>> words, to mirror quite closely the Cathedral model for production.
>>
>> thoughts...?
>>
>> adam
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Adam Hyde
>> Founder FLOSS Manuals
>> German mobile : + 49 15 2230 54563
>> Email : adam at flossmanuals.net
>> irc: irc.freenode.net #flossmanuals
>>
>> "Free manuals for free software"
>> http://www.flossmanuals.net/about
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>
>
> --
> Adam Hyde
> Founder FLOSS Manuals
> German mobile : + 49 15 2230 54563
> Email : adam at flossmanuals.net
> irc: irc.freenode.net #flossmanuals
>
> "Free manuals for free software"
> http://www.flossmanuals.net/about
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
> http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net
>



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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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