[FM Discuss] FM meeting end of Sept/early October?

[John Curwood]

It's probably a good idea to really try and get this discussion going.

On 25/07/2011, at 10:51 PM, Daniel James wrote:

> Hi Helen,
>
>> so it's up to all of us to take on a slice of ownership, make the
>> meeting happen, & front up for some of the work.
>
> It might be beneficial to have an online discussion beforehand about
> where the contributors see this project going, particularly if Adam
> intends to take a step back. Then people will know whether there's an
> in-person meeting worth having.
I think this is a great idea, unfortunately I can't make it over to a  
meeting in Europe until probably the new year, so an online  
discussion is the way for me to participate. I probably can't  
contribute to things like fundraising ideas or financial models for  
non-profits / openly licensed books as I have absolutely no  
experience in this area. However as a trainer and writer, I love  
Booki, FM and their potentials so will contribute to the discussion  
wherever I can.
>
> My personal view is that any project has to be put on a sustainable
> financial footing, in order to ensure its long-term survival. From my
> experience, most people cannot sustain more than a year or two of
> intensive voluntary work. Also, the right person to start a project is
> not necessarily the right person to sustain and grow it towards
> self-sufficiency - these roles perhaps require different personal  
> qualities.
>
> It seems to me that Flossmanuals and Booki have great potential.
> Technical writing is a valuable skill, and opening it up to
> collaborative authoring and simultaneous translation might make the  
> old
> workflows redundant (just as Wikipedia has killed the conventional
> encyclopedia).
>
> However in the current state, I don't see FM being able to take it's
> rightful place in the forefront of that new model. It's just not  
> visible
> enough to the publishing industry or the book-reading public, and it
> doesn't have much of a business model that I can see. Running book
> sprints might pay a few people every now and again, but that income
> doesn't scale well. (There are far more readers than writers, we  
> hope).
>
> What I would suggest is that after registering as a formal non-profit
> organisation (did this happen already?) that an experienced fund- 
> raiser
> is recruited on a commission basis. The aim would be to raise just
> enough cash to get the complete Booki system in a shape where anyone
> with a little LAMP experience could deploy it. Right now it's just too
> complicated and mysterious.
This would definitely increase it's desirability as a writing/ 
publishing tool for other organisations. I know James has been having  
a lot of issues in this area.
>
> There has to be a high-profile campaign to persuade well-known Free
> Software projects and software corporations to adopt Booki as their
> documentation platform of choice. This might require the  
> recruitment of
> dedicated deployment support and PR teams.
>
> Then, there has to be a solid business model so that any time a member
> of the public buys a book made with Booki, some income flows back to
> sustain the development of the tools. Right now, that money is flowing
> back to Microsoft and Adobe, even when the book is about Free  
> Software.
>
> Finally, there has to be a link to revenue in the end-user training
> market. This market is huge, and FM authors are in a great position to
> benefit from it (folks, put your hand up if you've ever been on a
> training course where the trainer didn't know what they were talking
> about, and was just reading from someone else's textbook).
I know this is one area I would love to pursue.
>
> What I would hope is that Adam can stay in the leadership role for  
> long
> enough to see the project build a solid foundation. As much as I enjoy
> the collaborative model, I do acknowledge the role of leaders in
> bringing everyone else along.
You do need someone who can keep everyone one else enthusiastic and  
motivated, otherwise things could slow down to a trickle and then stop.

Cheers,

John

>
> So, what does everyone else think? :-)
>
> Cheers!
>
> Daniel
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