[FM Discuss] Recruiting more editors for book sprints

[adam at flossmanuals.net]

> what is interesting for me is that the booksprint model breaks open
> traditional methods for book production and offers the possibility for
> different processes, according to the strengths of the collaborators. a
> key task of the facilitator is to observe the group then subtly or
> overtly get people to work on the particular things that they can do
> best. i've gone in to a sprint as a proofreader but ended up doing all
> kinds of other things as well, from structure & editing to writing. the
> combination of the need to just get stuck in & get the job done, along
> with the flexibility to put down one task & pick up another, means that
> you don't lose time struggling with something - you change to something
> you can do better and allow someone else to bring their perspective to
> whatever you were struggling with.
>


+10,000,000,000

> this does result in a broad range of voices within one book, which isn't
> desirable according to traditional book production methods; but within a
> networked, open source environment, what it says to me is that this is a
> book that was created by a community & that has the richness of that
> community embedded within it. it's also never "finished" in the finite
> sense of traditional publishing; it can be updated and improved on an
> ongoing basis.
>


+20,000,000,000!

:)))))


> i think we will evolve new "roles" within the book sprint methodology &
> that at this stage it's important to be as open as possible about how it
> can be.
>
> h : )
>
> On 24/10/11 6:56 AM, adam at flossmanuals.net wrote:
>> Just landed in frankfurt. I think we are talking in fundamentally
>> different languages andy. I don't challenge the importance of an editor
>> at
>> a publisher like oreilly. I do challenge that role in a book sprint.
>> Adam
>>
>>> Had a day to think about editing and group writing...
>>>
>>> FLOSS Manuals has shown some pretty surprising things about group
>>> development. It shows that cooperating amateur authors can produce
>>> long content. Wikipedia, in contrast, shows that they can produce a
>>> lot of content, but in relatively short pages. The other achievement
>>> FLOSS Manuals is striving for, as I understand it, is long content
>>> that's cohesive and builds from start to finish, like good books
>>> traditionally do. That's where you have to measure your output against
>>> the top authors and editors. I admit, lots of traditionally published
>>> books lack cohesion and don't build well. But we want great results,
>>> not average results.
>>>
>>> I think you've shown that the cooperating authors can present content
>>> from the reader's point of view. They can choose relevant topics and
>>> arrange them in a reasonable order. They can even eliminate most of
>>> the redundancy that tends to insert itself when many people write at
>>> the same time. But I don't believe you've shown that they can do all
>>> the things I do as editor, such as make sure introductory material
>>> appears in the right place, justify new material to make readers see
>>> its relevance, and highlight the most important concepts (which are
>>> often implicit). In short, there's kind of a high-level overview of
>>> the manual that is more likely to come from an editor than from
>>> authors (or from tech reviewers, as I noticed at O'Reilly). This is
>>> why I noticed lots of scattered problems along those lines in the
>>> second edition of the CiviCRM manual after it was finished, although
>>> it was still an impressive product.
>>>
>>> Andy
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
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>>>
>>
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>
>
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