[FM Discuss] Preparing presentation for New York Debian conference

[Andy Oram]

OK, I recommend that a site be created on FM for discussion and preparation of conference materials. Here is a draft of a summary for the presentation. We can refine it on a wiki.

Andy

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Started N years ago [NEED DATE HERE], FLOSS Manuals has been the locus
for over 40 volunteer-produced books and ties together a worldwide
community of over 1,000 people who care about free software and free
documentation. Like all community-based projects, the success of FLOSS
Manuals cannot be attributed to any single facet. Its technology is
not whiz-bang, but focuses on staying supple and on always evolving.
The site offers "good enough" tools for authoring, coordination,
remixing, and printing. Leadership remains loose and the impetus for
projects come from community members, new and old alike.

The FLOSS Manuals site offers books in two stages: an open wiki that
anyone can contribute to, and a more controlled stable site for
versions vetted by the projects responsible for the books' production
and maintenance. Many books are produced through an innovative process
called a book sprint, which is refined with each project and
documented in a FLOSS Manuals book of its own. The community also
stresses translation projects and offers support to people setting up
sites for translations and books in other languages.

This presentation describes the value of FLOSS Manuals, its
development processes and1 leadership style, and its strengths and
weaknesses as seen from its key organizers,