[FM Discuss] Does FLOSS Manuals hurt other doc efforts?

[adam]

I have had a defensive block a few times from projects. A couple of
times it has been made clear that there is an official _book_ available
already (it seems a book is even more worthy of being defended). I have
even had this from a project who told me there 'will be' an official
book.

It seems that the traditional publishing model has held up manual
writers on pedestals so they feel that this is a position of prestige.
Hence any band of wandering documentation writers are definitely not
invited in by 'the author' for fear of diminishing their own position as
'the author' of 'the documentation'.

or something like that...



adam 



On Wed, 2010-11-17 at 09:31 -0500, Andy Oram wrote:
> Isn't it funny how people can feel defensive about anything, even
> "open" documentation?
> 
> I thought that free software projects were happy to have anybody write
> anything (that's good) about the software and post it anywhere. Many
> sites link freely to docs, videos, and screencasts written by others.
> 
> So I'd like to engage in dialog with these mysterious people who are
> so concerned about the use of the "official" documentation and find
> out what their fears are. Are they just afraid that work invested in
> documentation will go to waste? Or that developers will stop spending
> time improving documentation because they figure someone else will
> cover it? Or that divergent sources of information will confuse
> people?
> 
> Andy
> 
> On 11/17/2010 07:08 AM, Scott Nesbitt wrote:
> > This is something that Adam and I have been discussing in a few
> emails, 
> > and now it's time to take the idea to the wider list for comment.
> > 
> > Here's the background: last month, I did a presentation about FLOSS 
> > Manuals at the Free Software Open Source Symposium. During the 
> > presentation (and a couple of times during the day) people asked me
> if 
> > FLOSS Manuals drives people away from the "official" documentation.
> I 
> > try to explain that one of the goals of FLOSS Manuals is to get
> people 
> > up and running with whatever technology quickly and in a very
> friendly 
> > way. But FMs don't cover everything -- FLOSS Manuals gets you going.
> If 
> > you want to delve deep, deep into the software or technology, the 
> > official docs are still there. That seems to get them even more
> interested.
> > 
> > But that question showed something of a gap in perception, IMO. In
> my 
> > mind, it's not FLOSS Manuals vs. the official documentation or
> other 
> > docs/sources of information. There's not such thing as too much 
> > documentation and no one source can be THE source. FM doesn't try to
> be 
> > the last word in documentation. It doesn't answer all the questions
> or 
> > have all the information. The FM should (and usually does) point
> people 
> > to other sources of documentation so they can get a deeper view.
> > 
> > So, what are your thoughts on this? Does FLOSS Manuals hurt, hinder,
> or 
> > put into the shade other documentation efforts? Or are we one big 
> > ecosystem, living in something akin to symbiosis (or commensalism)? 
> > Let's get some discussion going!
> > 
> > I'm looking forward to your comments. Which, unfortunately, I won't
> be 
> > able to read until this evening (Eastern time) :-)
> > 
> > Scott
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
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> 
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