[FM Discuss] Fwd: [FM NEWS] Newsletter #2

Thu Apr 14 09:35:18 PDT 2011

the second of the newsletters

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [FM NEWS] Newsletter #2
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2011 18:32:38 +0200
From: pr at lists.flossmanuals.net
Reply-To: adam at flossmanuals.net
To: pr-floss <pr at flossmanuals.net>

hi,

I didn't expect to follow up the first newsletter so quickly but there
has been a lot happening at FLOSS Manuals. I'm always a bit amazed when
I write down all the things we are doing. Somehow it seems to add up to
so much more than the various to-do lists, emails marked 'urgent' and
discussions on the FM mailing list. One of the reasons for this is I
think FM is maturing a lot as a community - there is more chatter across
projects and people helping each other out - thats the start of the
'exponential value' a healthy community can produce...Also we have spent
some time making the new tools so that there is less work to be done by
FM admins - effectively all admin tasks (creating manuals, publishing,
creating new translations) can be done by anyone with an account on
http://booki.flossmanuals.net. There have been many days when I have
woken up to see a new manual listed and a lot of work already done on
it...very exciting to see....

So, onto the news. First - if you would like to be removed from this
newsletter please write to pr at flossmanuals.net with the subject
'unsubscribe'.

OK...news...fwe will start with some updates from the new French FLOSS
Manuals (http://fr.flossmanuals.net) and then some news on the English
FM activity and some more general FM info.

Items:
1. Recent French Book Sprints
2. Ardour manual now in French
3. Future French Plans
4. FM Conference
5. Sourcefabric Sprint
6. Security Sprint (Handbook for journalists)
7. Mozilla Sprint
8. Major improvements to Booki coming
9. Luka Frelih joins us to maintain Objavi
10. How To Bypass Internet Censorship currently being translated into 8
languages

--------------------------
Recent French Book Sprints
--------------------------
FLOSS Manuals francophone was officially launched late last year with
the Book Sprint about Processing (November). Adam (FM head honcho) and
Elisa (French FM Manager) facilitated the Processing Book Sprint in Paris.
http://fr.flossmanuals.net/Processing/Introduction

The book is available on lulu too :
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/processing-dessiner-et-cr%C3%A9er-avec-du-code-informatique/15366273

In February there was also another Book Sprint about Pure Data:
http://fr.flossmanuals.net/Puredata/Introduction
We plan to put it on lulu in few weeks

During the Book Sprint one of the sprinters - Anne Goldenberg - wrote a
very nice article about Booksprint on wikipedia
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booksprint

In March of this year there was also a translation sprint about
Thunderbird (originally written in English). The French team translated
the English book on FM in one weekend and spent some days on proofreading.
It's our ultimate Fr manual online :)

---------------------------
Ardour manual now in French
---------------------------
The English manual about Ardour was translate by a hero : Olivier
Humbert. The manual now needs just a proofread and will be cleaned up
shortly and added to the front page of French FLOSS Manuals.

-------------------
Future French plans
-------------------
For LGM (Libre Graphics Meeting in Montreal, May 2011) we have made a
proposal to speak about FLOSS Manuals.
http://www.libregraphicsmeeting.org/

We have also made a proposal to RMLL to speak about FLOSS Manuals & Booki
http://2011.rmll.info/

Also we plan to have a Book Sprint just before RMLL about Scribus with
the french team and french contributors of Scribus. During RMLL the
Bookimobile will come to print free manuals (on demand). The Bookimobile
will produce all the manuals of the FLOSS Manuals community to give away.

We are thinking also to train facilitators to get more amazing free
manuals :-)

News on the french FM activities contributed by:
Elisa
Manager of Floss Manuals francophone
http://fr.flossmanuals.net

-------------
FM Conference
-------------
We are considering having a very informal conference in Berlin at the
end of August to talk about free documentation. It will be open to
anyone and we will keep it as low cost as possible. Somehow we will find
some funds to cover travel costs for those that can't afford it. Stay
tuned for more info...

-------------------
Sourcefabric Sprint
-------------------
Berlin based Sourcefabric will be sprinting next week with Adam Hyde
facilitating. SF have done a lot with the manuals they created on FM as
you can see here:
http://www.sourcefabric.org/en/community/blog/581/Digital-manuals-for-a-digital-media.htm

Look for updates shortly on the FM website for the results of next weeks
sprint.

---------------
Security Sprint
---------------
Amsterdam based Greenhost.nl are bringing a team of friendly Dutch geeks
to Berlin to sprint at the end of April. Adam Hyde will be facilitating
and the results will be a finished book on security for jouranlists. It
should be a very worthwhile handbook for journos...

If you would like to contribute to this sprint onsite in Berlin then
please contact adam at flossmanuals.net

Remote contributions also welcome. Watch the FLOSS Manuals mailing list
for information.
http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net

--------------
Mozilla Sprint
--------------
Adam will be joining the Mozilla team in Toronto in May (with Allen Gunn
from Aspiration) for a sprint intended to produce raw materials to
improve internet literacy. Watch Mark Surmans blog for further details:
https://commonspace.wordpress.com/

----------------------------------
Major improvements to Booki coming
----------------------------------
Booki is a software developed by FLOSS Manuals. Booki started as a
system to replace the 'old' FM tools (based on TWiki) but has evolved
into a book production software useful in many contexts. We have
implemented a version at http://www.booki.cc for anyone to use or you
can download and install the software yourself.

Booki is currently going through two processes to improve it - one is a
review by our friends and allies Aspiration
(http://www.aspirationtech.org). After this process we will start two
major development processes - one to reach development goals set by this
review (sponsored by OSI) and the second to implement a translation
workflow (sponsored by Internews). Watch the booki blog for more
information:
http://blog.booki.cc

---------------------------------------
Luka Frelih joins us to maintain Objavi
---------------------------------------
Long time friend of FLOSS Manuals - Luka Frelih - is joining the
development team to maintain Objavi. Objavi is the publishing engine for
Booki. Douglas Bagnal is still part of the team but he has other more
pressing priorities (like a growing family :).

FLOSS Manuals does not have any fulltime employees - Luka is working
part time on the project but he brings a lot of passion and energy to it
and you can look forward to seeing some changes to Objavi in the next
weeks and months.
http://booki-dev.flossmanuals.net

--------------------------------------------------------------------
How To Bypass Internet Censorship currently being translated into 8
languages
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The amazing manual "How To Bypass Internet Censorship" which was
recently updated in a sprint in Berlin is being now translated into 8
languages:
Spanish, Arabic, French, Burmese, Farsi, Chinese, Vietnamese and Russian

They will be completed by mid June.
http://www.howtobypassinternetcensorship.org/

------------------------------------------

This newsletter compiled by Adam Hyde
adam at flossmanuals.net

It is an 'every now and then' publication.

------------------------------------------

-- 

--
Adam Hyde
Founder FLOSS Manuals
Project Manager Booki
Book Sprint Facilitator
+49 01774935122
_______________________________________________
This newsletter will be posted on a semi regular basis as news comes to 
hand in sufficient volume to warrant it! All inquiries to :
Adam Hyde
adam at flossmanuals.net
+49 01774935122

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