[FM Discuss] a crazy moment pondering a manifesto

Fri Jun 29 07:58:55 PDT 2012

Michael,

A manifesto tries to persuade others.  "This is what we believe, what we
are trying to accomplish, and how we plan to do it.  You should join us."

A mission statement is just some crap you pretend to believe.

I've seen a growing tendency for churches to have mission statements.  When
I see one of these I want to grab the priest, smash his head against a
wall, and yell, "You have the Sermon on the Mount!"  You don't need an
effing mission statement!

But maybe that's just me.

As far as the attribution thing goes, I don't want to go all Ayn Rand on
you but there has to be some motivation to write a book.  I accept that
"Make Your Own Sugar Activities!" is not my exclusive property.  When I was
writing it there was some hope of getting collaborators to contribute
chapters but that fell through.  It is hard work writing a book like that.

New versions of Sugar will be based on Python 3, which pretty much breaks
every possible Python 2 program.  This will make MYOSA obsolete.  Someone
will need to redo all the examples in Python 3 and update the book.
Theoretically someone else could step up to do that work, but how likely is
that?

The Spanish translation was a lot of work too.

One week sprints can produce great books, but you're going to have some
"book slogs" too.

James Simmons

On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 7:19 AM, Michael McAndrew <
michaelmcandrew at thirdsectordesign.org> wrote:

> Not being flippant / funny but what is the difference between a manifesto
> and a mission statement? they both seem to describe some aim / goal.
>
> it is just word count? or is it that manifesto sounds cooler than mission
> statement? or something else that i am not getting?
>
> feel free to ignore if this question is too tangential / academic.
>
> ps. i do like the manifesto.  i think it would be useful to stick up on
> the wall at the start of a book sprint - get a shared understanding, frame
> the sprint, etc.
>
> michael
>
>
>
> On 29 June 2012 13:09, Anne Gentle <annegentle at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> You know, I do find a manifesto a way to ask and answer, "Are these
>> people my people?"
>>
>> I think this is a great start, and it's thought-provoking too.
>>
>> James, you did freak us out a little bit with your need for attributed
>> authorship on each chapter, so it's not that you should feel guilty,
>> but just recognize there was a bit of an oddity to some of your needs
>> and requests compared to most who come to FLOSS Manuals. :)
>>
>> I like the edits and don't really have much to add. It certainly
>> displays the shift we're seeing in tech comm overall, where
>> collaboration is practically the only way to get enough information,
>> complete chunks are highly valuable over volumes, and so on.
>>
>> Anne
>>
>> On Thu, Jun 28, 2012 at 9:51 AM, adam <adam at flossmanuals.net> wrote:
>> > as i have said before, i dont think we need mission statements etc
>> >
>> > we work fine, lets not formulate who we are. its like a good party - if
>> you
>> > are having fun and things are working then just let it roll...making
>> rules
>> > for it kills the dynamic and the fun.
>> >
>> > we know what we are, thats good enough
>> >
>> >
>> > adam
>> >
>> >
>> > On 06/28/2012 04:40 PM, Tomi Toivio wrote:
>> >>
>> >> 2012/6/27 Andy Oram<andyo at oreilly.com>
>> >>
>> >>> I'm a bit late to this discussion, but I want to point out that most
>> >>> organizations have mission statements, and some also have value
>> >>> statements
>> >>> that work like the manifesto Adam is talking about.
>> >>>
>> >>
>> >> Yes, and to explain what FM is doing in terms that are commonly
>> understood
>> >> is actually very difficult, if you think about people who are not into
>> >> open
>> >> source yet, and who are actually the ones who need the manuals the
>> most.
>> >>
>> >> You could start by explaining that FM is like a wiki, but actually it
>> is
>> >> quite different from a normal wiki. Then you notice that many people
>> >> actually don't know how a wiki works.
>> >>
>> >> Then you can add the confusion about freeware vs. open source. The
>> concept
>> >> of open source is actually hard to understand unless you know something
>> >> about computer programming. So many people just think about freeware.
>> >>
>> >> I have also noticed that many people tend to get scared of the manuals
>> >> since they expect they have to learn something extremely complicated.
>> >>
>> >> There is a need for something like a video introduction into FM that
>> can
>> >> be
>> >> easily translated into various languages.
>> >>
>> >> Regards
>> >> Tomi
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> Discuss mailing list
>> >> Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
>> >> http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> >
>> > --
>> > Adam Hyde
>> > Founder, FLOSS Manuals
>> > Project Manager, Booki
>> > Book Sprint Facilitator
>> > mobile :+ 49 177 4935122
>> > identi.ca : @eset
>> > booki.flossmanuals.net : @adam
>> >
>> > http://www.flossmanuals.net
>> > http://www.booki.cc
>> > http://www.booksprints.net
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Discuss mailing list
>> > Discuss at lists.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
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Michael McAndrew
>
> tel: 020 7183 5828
> mob: 07817 802299
>
> Third Sector Design Ltd.
> http://thirdsectordesign.org
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
> http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.flossmanuals.net/pipermail/discuss-flossmanuals.net/attachments/20120629/4ea1ae28/attachment.htm>