[FM Discuss] Report from FLOSS Manuals presentation at DebConf

[Andy Oram]

I had a great time at the Debian conference this week. My presentation
on FLOSS Manuals, which I kept very informal because it was scheduled
at five o'clock in the afternoon, turned out to be surprisingly
popular. About 30 people came, and they were very interested in
documentation. A couple people wanted to do some writing, and they
wanted the kinds of things (like a pretty print-out) that FLOSS
Manuals offers. Our reputation has preceded us, but the attendees were
still surprised by parts of the talk.

Mushon Zer-Aviv was at the conference, so he shared leadership of the
session with me. As people on this list should have seen, I tried to
pull together a panel, but for various reasons everybody else had to
drop out. Mushon and I did fine, though. He knows a lot more than I do
about design and booki development.

I think free software teams are looking for 1) something that makes it
possible to produce weighty, introductory texts, and 2) something to
inspire authors by providing attractive output. FLOSS Manuals offers
these things, and it has traveled an enormous distance over the past
year or so. Another feature that projects are anxiously waiting for is
import and export involving other popular formats.

Not much is happening on the official Debian wiki. They're discussing
ways to get more contributions and organize it better, but I think
they're running into the limitations offered by standard wikis.

Andy