[FM Discuss] Preparing presentation for New York Debian conference

[Andy Oram]

Could somebody set up a page to work on the presentation on FM? Here is a tentative outline that could go there.

Andy

---

How successful is FLOSS Manuals?

  Show list of books

    Highlight categories, such as XO and Sugar

    Projects that expand scope (such as Collaborative Futures, How to
    Bypass Internet Censorship, GSoC Mentoring Guide)

    Books are mostly about applications, not for developers like most
    free software documentation. This reflects the origin of FLOSS
    Manuals among artists and other creative people, as well as the
    dearth in good documentation for applications.

  Display praise for books

  Discuss size of mailing list

  Discuss number of contributors to recent projects

Brief history

  Launched by Adam Hyde on DATE

  First book announced on DATE

  First grant on DATE

  Incorporated on DATE

Funding model

Modus operandi

  Getting a project started

    Anyone can propose

    Must be under open license

      Why GPL is default

    Administrator creates site on wiki

  Wiki-based development -- focus on "good enough" tools

    WYSISYG authoring interface

    Storage in HTML

    Index, set up for remixing

    Chat

  Read, write, and remix

    Concern for vetting material on write and remix sites

    Interchange: import and export

    Support for printing--desire to reach people with limited Internet
    access

  Booki development project

  Book sprints

    Describe basic operation

    Describe a couple projects and who came

    Requires trust in the people who are on site, doing main work

Major debates and decisions

   Books or smaller, interlocked documents?

     Despite trend on web toward multiple independent, loosely
     connected documents, FLOSS Manuals believe many topics deserve
     full books. Remix is a gesture toward the other, looser
     organizational model.

   Central control or come-one-come-all?

     Model strongly supports allowing any individual to contribute at
     the level he or she is able. But planners can encourage leaders
     in the topic area to do a sprint or play a major role. Tight-knit
     groups commonly do 90% or more of the work, particularly during a
     sprint.

   Standards or low barrier to entry?

     Suggestions on formatting and language use are kept to a minimum
     and are optional, so that nobody has to learn an insider's
     practice in order to contribute. Contributions can be harmonized
     by an editor later.