[FM Discuss] thoughts on the gsoc event

[Lachlan Musicman]

Congratulations to all involved - an excellent result from all the
hard work put in

cheers
L.

On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 05:36, adam hyde <adam at flossmanuals.net> wrote:
> hey
>
> So a quick report. The GSoC (Google Summer of Code) Doc Summit happened last
> week. It was an event proposed by me to the GSoC Open Source Projects team.
> I had done 2 sprints with them, the first by invitation of Leslie Hawthorn
> (who has since left) and the second by Carol Smith and Cat Allman. These two
> sprints were focused on preparing manuals on the GSoC Mentoring process -
> one manual for students and one for mentors.
>
> They are both hosted on FM and are used by the teams.
>
> So, since we had pretty much written these guides and updated them the
> following year I proposed a doc summit instead to the GSoC team. They
> responded positively, mainly because I think they were happy with the 2
> other guides.
>
> Cat Allman came forward and said they would do it. We worked out the format
> quickly. It was actually easy since Gunner from Aspiration and I had talked
> about such an event and had it on the cards. The GSoC event was an
> opportunity to prototype this format. So the proposal was to combine an
> Unconf with a Book Sprint.
>
> As it happens this idea then got momentum as we discussed this format at the
> FM meet up which happened after the initial GSoC negotiations and before the
> GSoC event. At the FM meet up we agreed we must go ahead with this format
> "Sprint Unconf" so we were already planning more before the format was
> tested ;) I think there is more news of these ideas coming soon. If you want
> to be involved in the logistics for these events join the admin list:
> http://lists.flossmanuals.org/listinfo.cgi/admin-flossmanuals.org
>
> Note! the admin list is *not* for lurkers. You must take on tasks to push fm
> forward if you join this list.
>
> Ok, so then we sent out calls for proposals. We wanted both individuals and
> projects to apply. The application process was as simple as we could make it
> - I think it would take anyone 5 minutes at a minimum to apply. That is
> afterall the FM way - make participation easy.
>
> We got about 60 applications. 40 or so projects and the rest individuals.
> GSoC ad the budget to pay for about 20 people (food, accom, travel) so we
> tried to work out a good mix from the applications. We chose 4 projects,
> they all happened to be 2012 GSoC projects. This was not a filter by the
> way, we kept the process open to *any* free software project, it just turned
> out that way. On this note I also must say that I trust the motivations of
> the GSoC team implicitly. They have always been very open and are genuinely
> working to help free software wherever possible. I am very pleased we are
> working with them and hope it continues.
>
> Ok...so then there was the requisite logistics. The GSoC team, specifically
> Stephanie and Carol stepped in and made this easy.
>
> So then the event.
>
> Well Gunner, being the Unconf maestro stepped in and took care of formatting
> the unconf before the event. I feel its almost redundant to say he was
> awesome. It almost goes without saying ;) The first day he really got 30 (20
> from projects and about 10 individuals not affiliated with the 4 projects)
> people talking and feeling like one group. He also facilitated the process
> for Janet Swisher and Michael McAndrew who were guests ’presenters’ (it was
> an unconf so presentations dont fit the format so Gunner worked with Janet
> and Michael to make these interactive sessions).
>
> The next day was Sprint day #1. well, I have to say I wasnt sure how this
> was going to wok :) I had a pretty good feeling it was going to work, having
> now done 30 or so sprints, but i wasnt sure of the exact path. Facilitating
> 4 sprints concurrently is tricky. Thankfully Anne Goldenberg (on the board
> of the french fm) was there as I am training her to facilitate Book Sprints.
> So I briefed Anne and she took to working through the sprint with the
> OpenStreetMap team and I took to facilitating Sahana and KDE and Gunner
> helped here a lot for the first day especially with the generation of the
> ToC and oiling the engine for OpenMRS.
>
> We also divided the "floaters" (people not affiliated to projects) to the
> groups.
>
> Well, the rest is more or less sprinting. Writing, reviewing, yadda
> yadda...using the various tricks and methods developed over the last 3 or so
> years. All went pretty smoothly. I think the word counts were something like
> 25000 words or so for each of OpenStreetMap, OpenMRS, and Sahana Eden.
> 10,000 or so for KDE.
>
> All this time Tuukka (who was there) was working on the new dev for the
> lulu.com export. He finished the beta and implemented it about 35 seconds
> before we were planning to use it :D He didnt sweat! Very calm. Laleh Torabi
> designed some wonderful covers. So we invited Sahana Eden up to the front of
> the group and then exported the book DIRECT to lulu.com. Thats right, one
> push of the button and the book was IMMEDIATELY for sale in lulu.com....it
> was magic...
>
> We asked all groups before this to create a lulu account so they could
> manage the books themselves and take the revenue. Also I have to note that
> throughout the event we emphasised that we were using Booki for the sprint
> but groups can take the content off Fm at any point. I wanted to emphasise
> that this event was not to make these projects part of Fm but to help them
> make good documentation.
>
> We then went through the process back at the hotel for all the other groups.
>
> I think its fair to say that people were astonished.
>
> The last day was feedback and debrief unconf facilitated by Gunner and then
> ...you thought it had ended? no! The GSoC team had agreed to get paper books
> printed and so we distributed 20 of each of the four *beautiful* books to
> the mentor summit the next day. All bound and shiny...they looked amazing
> and set off quite a buzz.
>
> Ok...so things to think about.
>
> First, the event was much more successful than I hoped. Some things to think
> about:
> * The discussions elevated beyond "what are my issues right now" to
> discussing how we can oil collaboration between open source documentation
> projects.
> * one group already had 2 books released by established publishers. at first
> they didnt know why they should really do a book but at the end of the
> process they got it. closed source (proprietary) books are not good for open
> source. It was great to see this realisation evolve without me having to
> turn into an ideologue
> * the process of asking for proposals from groups meant that many applied
> not really knowing what they were going to do. some turned up thinking they
> would work on their wiki docs. We just bulldozed through those expectations
> and got them on the road to making books without allowing them time to
> think. at the end the appreciated it. I think this goes to show we helped
> people see another, more interesting, way to doing things.
> * I was particularly proud that at the end it was commonly accepted that
> wikis are just scratch pads and books require a much nicer readable
> narrative that is better for the reader
> * I have received a tonne of feedback about how the books have already been
> used by the groups.
> * booki has many bugs we need to address
> * having the floaters there really worked - groups loved the extra minds and
> muscle. I am hoping some of the floaters will continue to be involved in the
> groups they were connected to
> * the format absolutely worked. proof positive of the format for the future
> events...
> * as always we have a lot to thank Gunner and Aspiration for
> * the GSoC team were fantastic and I think they were pleased with it.
>
> thats it in brief...maybe some of the others that were there would like to
> chip in some thoughts...
>
>
>
>
> adam
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