[FM Discuss] Recruiting more editors for book sprints
adam hyde
adam at flossmanuals.net
Tue Oct 25 03:43:02 PDT 2011
On 23/10/11 07:50, Jennifer wrote:
> Hi Adam,
>
> I'm pretty much game for anything, though my technical abilities are
> basically those of the average non-technical end user. My research
> involves the rhetoric of FLOSS, intellectual property, and composing
> processes in technical communication.
interesting. well, i wonder if you would enjoy getting into the process
with a remote sprint - there is the thunderbird sprint coming up more
info here:
http://scottnesbitt.net/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=floss_manuals:thunderbird_update_sprint
after this we will be having more sprint conferences. we had one last
week and made 4 books at once. we are aiming to do more of this starting
early next year...these events will combine unconf with Book Sprints...
adam
>
> Jennifer
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Oct 23, 2011 at 12:21 AM, adam hyde <adam at flossmanuals.net
> <mailto:adam at flossmanuals.net>> wrote:
>
> hey Jennifer,
>
> What kind of topics are you interested in? There are some sprints
> coming up soon that you might be interested in.
>
> adam
>
>
> On 23/10/11 06:04, Jennifer wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I'd love to get involved with FLOSS but am a little unsure about
> how to
> go about doing so. I'm an academic who teaches various technical
> writing
> courses and have a couple years experience as a technical writer and
> editor in the field of civil engineering. The reason that I'm
> responding
> to your post is that as an academic, my university will pay my
> expenses
> to attend a conference as long as I'm presenting at it. I know
> that with
> Google Summer of Code, there was an unconference. Is it typical
> for a
> book sprint to also have a conference or unconference that would
> allow
> an academic such as myself to have her way paid by her
> university? And
> is this an avenue from which FLOSS might be interested in
> cultivating
> contributors?
>
> Jennifer Maher
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Oct 22, 2011 at 11:25 PM, Andy Oram <andyo at oreilly.com
> <mailto:andyo at oreilly.com>
> <mailto:andyo at oreilly.com <mailto:andyo at oreilly.com>>> wrote:
>
> 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
> ___________________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
> <mailto:Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
> <mailto:Discuss at lists.__flossmanuals.net
> <mailto:Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>>
> http://lists.flossmanuals.net/____listinfo.cgi/discuss-____flossmanuals.net
> <http://lists.flossmanuals.net/__listinfo.cgi/discuss-__flossmanuals.net>
> <http://lists.flossmanuals.__net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-__flossmanuals.net
> <http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net>>
>
>
>
>
>
> _________________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
> <mailto:Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
> http://lists.flossmanuals.net/__listinfo.cgi/discuss-__flossmanuals.net
> <http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net>
>
> _________________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net <mailto:Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net>
> http://lists.flossmanuals.net/__listinfo.cgi/discuss-__flossmanuals.net
> <http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
> http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net
More information about the Discuss
mailing list