<html><body><span style="font-family:Verdana; color:#000000; font-size:10pt;"><div>Hi Adam,</div>
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<div>I'll be happy to take the lead, I haven't finalised a name for it yet and will get back to you as soon as I do.</div>
<div>Won't be able to do much for about a month as we are moving town in a few weeks, and will be fairly swamped doing all the moving stuff and then getting work set up in a new city.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Cheers,</div>
<div> </div>
<div>John</div>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
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<div >-------- Original Message --------<BR>Subject: Re: [FM Discuss] Beyond manuals<BR>From: adam hyde <adam@flossmanuals.net><BR>Date: Wed, April 08, 2009 1:53 pm<BR>To: discuss@lists.flossmanuals.net<BR><BR>ok,<BR><BR>you want to take the lead in this John? that means doing some writing,<BR>convincing others to contribute...<BR><BR>if so, give me a nod and tell me the name of the manual and I will set<BR>it up<BR><BR>adam<BR><BR><BR>On Thu, 2009-04-09 at 06:59 +1200, John & Melonie Curwood wrote:<BR>> Hi Adam,<BR>> <BR>> I think this is a great idea, an intro to what does what, how it is <BR>> useful and testimonials could be aligned with relavant chapters (e.g. I <BR>> use open office Calc because..., I use open office writer..., open <BR>> office impress..., you could even include I use evolution because... and <BR>> I use gnucash because... if it were to include the full range of <BR>> office/business admin tools)<BR>> <BR>> Cheers,<BR>> <BR>> John<BR>> <BR>> <BR>> adam hyde wrote:<BR>> > it wouldnt take us much to set up a manual to tackle this situation. we<BR>> > could outline what softwares do what with maybe a chapter a piece. we<BR>> > dont need to go into how to use the software, but maybe we could include<BR>> > some testimonials from business people saying 'I use open office<BR>> > because ...'<BR>> ><BR>> > what do u think john?<BR>> ><BR>> > adma<BR>> ><BR>> ><BR>> ><BR>> ><BR>> > On Tue, 2009-04-07 at 07:07 +1200, John & Melonie Curwood wrote:<BR>> > <BR>> >> Andy Oram wrote:<BR>> >> <BR>> >>> I've been silent for a couple days, but now I have an evening to answer FM-related mail and start working on the command-line manual again.<BR>> >>><BR>> >>> John's idea below sounds like a really nice project, although a big one. To give businesses enough information about all the tools for them to feel confident they can trust their businesses to free software, you'd have to say a lot about each tool.<BR>> >>> <BR>> >>> <BR>> >> With regards to businesses needing enough information to feel confident <BR>> >> I would say yes and no about needing to say alot for all the tools. For <BR>> >> the software that handles the accounts/inventory/invoicing I would <BR>> >> definitely say that something very thorough would be required, when <BR>> >> dealling with Money and accurately and securely keeping track of it <BR>> >> business owners want assurance that a product will do the job.<BR>> >> But for the rest, in my experience most business owners think very <BR>> >> little about what they use and most have a very small understanding of <BR>> >> what they are using. For example the majority of bosses and managers <BR>> >> that I have had would have used MS excel only for making tables, which a <BR>> >> spreadsheet is not very good at.compared to the table functions in most <BR>> >> word processors. That is what the see the spreadsheet is good for.<BR>> >> When talking about an office suite, I think something that would say <BR>> >> "Hey OpenSource Software can do everything MS Office can do and it's <BR>> >> easy to learn how" would be what is needed. I think the biggest barrier <BR>> >> to implementing a new system is the fact that people don't like change, <BR>> >> they don't want to have to learn a new system. When I first bought a <BR>> >> Mac I was so excited about it, I thought the way it worked was really <BR>> >> cool, and the fact that it never crashed was fantastic, so I went around <BR>> >> all my friends and family preaching the virtues of iMacs and OSX, but <BR>> >> whenever they tried using my computer, it always came back to 'it <BR>> >> doesn't work the same as windows', 'I can't use the same shortcuts as in <BR>> >> windows', etc. And in the end not one of them converted, they all <BR>> >> appreciated the fact that things ran smother on the Mac but were <BR>> >> prepared to keep putting up with random crashes and program freezes <BR>> >> rather than have to learn a new system. And I think this is one of the <BR>> >> major hurdles for getting business to adopt open sourced software, they <BR>> >> would rather put up with the same bugs in their current software than <BR>> >> have to learn something new.<BR>> >> Woops sorry about all the exposition, but I think when trying to promote <BR>> >> the use of Free Software in a business situation, the emphasis should be <BR>> >> on how smooth the transition can be and how easy it is to learn the new <BR>> >> software.<BR>> >><BR>> >> Cheers,<BR>> >><BR>> >> John<BR>> >> <BR>> >>> This reminds me that a few years ago I tried to pull together a book about the value of open source software and open formats (two different but related issues) for government. At first I thought I would propose it at O'Reilly, but we decided we couldn't sell enough copies to make money, so I tried to organize it as a collaborative project covering multiple continents (sound familiar?). That didn't work.<BR>> >>><BR>> >>> It was an advocacy book, not a how-to book, but the goal was similar: to persuade frightened office managers to make the migration.<BR>> >>><BR>> >>> Andy<BR>> >>><BR>> >>> ----- Original Message -----<BR>> >>> From: "John & Melonie Curwood" <marketing@lovinglearning.co.nz><BR>> >>> To: discuss@lists.flossmanuals.net<BR>> >>> Sent: Monday, March 30, 2009 9:36:18 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern<BR>> >>> Subject: Re: [FM Discuss] Beyond manuals<BR>> >>><BR>> >>> With regards to an OpenOffice manual, maybe create a doing stuff with <BR>> >>> free software manual about running a small business or something which <BR>> >>> would include Openoffice, something like mozilla thunderbird/sunbird or <BR>> >>> evolution for email/organising and something like gnucash or better (I'm <BR>> >>> not familiar with OpenSource Accounting packages) for doing the accounts.<BR>> >>><BR>> >>> I know it is not as exciting as say the digital foundations book, but it <BR>> >>> could have quite a wide audience.<BR>> >>><BR>> >>> As some one said earler it would take more that a sprint to put and <BR>> >>> Openoffice manual together, more like a marathon, or in this case maybe <BR>> >>> a triathlon. :)<BR>> >>><BR>> >>> Cheers,<BR>> >>><BR>> >>> John<BR>> >>> _______________________________________________<BR>> >>> Discuss mailing list<BR>> >>> Discuss@lists.flossmanuals.net<BR>> >>> <a href="http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net" target=_blank mce_href="http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net">http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net</a><BR>> >>><BR>> >>><BR>> >>> <BR>> >>> <BR>> >> _______________________________________________<BR>> >> Discuss mailing list<BR>> >> Discuss@lists.flossmanuals.net<BR>> >> <a href="http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net" target=_blank mce_href="http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net">http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net</a><BR>> >> <BR>> <BR>> _______________________________________________<BR>> Discuss mailing list<BR>> Discuss@lists.flossmanuals.net<BR>> <a href="http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net" target=_blank mce_href="http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net">http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net</a><BR>-- <BR>Adam Hyde<BR>Founder FLOSS Manuals<BR>German mobile : + 49 15 2230 54563<BR>Email : adam@flossmanuals.net<BR>irc: irc.freenode.net #flossmanuals<BR><BR>"Free manuals for free software"<BR><a href="http://www.flossmanuals.net/about" target=_blank mce_href="http://www.flossmanuals.net/about">http://www.flossmanuals.net/about</a><BR><BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>Discuss mailing list<BR>Discuss@lists.flossmanuals.net<BR><a href="http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net" target=_blank mce_href="http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net">http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net</a><BR></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></span></body></html>