[FM Discuss] Recruiting more editors for book sprints

[Andy Oram]

At the Google Summer of Code sprint this past week I intervened
heavily in the writing process of the team I was involved with. They
told me at the end that they wouldn't have been able to do the book
without my help. From discussions during the full-group meetings I got
the sense that Anne Gentle played a similar role for her team, and
probably other "floaters" did too. My own suggestions ranged from the
macro-level to the micro-level. They included:

* Pointing out that certain sections assumed certain background, and
that perhaps they're readers needed additional background sections.
Similarly, I highlighted confusing passages as symptoms of missing
information, and helped the authors decide whether to remove them or
to write new chapters to cover them adequately.

* Helping to finalize the outline by asking questions while we were
writing chapters, such as "what ties all these chapters together?"

* Rewriting chapters to move prerequisites before the processes that
depend on them, and other such rearrangements.

* Adding introductions and transitional passages.

Editing proved to be more than a one-time activity. The help I gave
could not be encapsulated into a phone call during the initial outline
process. Nor could it be imposed at the end during a post-sprint
cleanup. IRC is not enough bandwidth to intervene in live discussions.
I've done all of those activities and I think they can be moderately
helpful, but nothing can substitute from being present while the book
grows organically and helping to splice, graft, and prune.

I assume Adam has reached the same conclusions, and that's why he
invited floaters to the sprint last week. The question is how this
could be done at every sprint. The organizers are paying a lot of
money already to bring subject-matter experts to the sprint. While
these experts do it for love of community and the chance to meet
fellow community members, outside editors need extra incentives.
Projects may be able to find someone associated with the project who
can do light editing and fix style and grammar errors, but they are
highly unlikely to find someone with professional skills as a
developmental editor.

However, I can't believe most funders would be willing to pay for
their travel and add in enough money to make it a worthwhile career
option for a professional writer or editor. Perhaps if they happen to
find a qualified local person where the spring is being held, they
could devote some compensation to enlisting participation. That's
asking for a lot of luck.

So as always I'm pondering the value of professionalism in
crowdsourced work like this, and how it can be institutionalized.

Andy