Hello Wikibooks,
I went to Wikimania recently and met Adam Hyde from FLOSS Manuals. http://flossmanuals.net/ FLOSS Manuals is run by a not-for-profit org based in the Netherlands. Their motto is "free manuals for free software" and they write documentation for free/libre open source software packages using TWiki. Some differences in their approach compared to Wikibooks: * Twiki has a 'publish' mechanism - so the 'read' version of a manual is probably not the latest revision. When they feel a chapter has become reasonably stable, that 'publish' that version so it goes live. * They aim their manuals at absolute newbies (check out how detailed their 'install' instructions are to see what I mean). * they more or less write for print - that means no links.
So I think they have different enough goals that there is enough space for both projects to coexist peacefully. :)
They are a very new group, but have got one manual into working condition - for Audacity, the audio editing software. http://en.flossmanuals.net/audacity/ Adam brought a print copy along to Wikimania and I was really impressed by it. There is just something cool about having something *tangible* in your hands. Especially for people who do not take to technology like fish to water -- so probably unlike a good many Wikimedians.
I was also impressed because I know a lot of Wikimedians use Audacity to create speech files for Wiktionary, or spoken articles for Wikipedia. (I don't know if there are any spoken books, but it could happen. :)) So it strikes me that there is good potential for collaboration here.
I hope to do some work to try and develop a book that would be useful for images on Commons, ie GIMP+Inkscape.
BTW at the moment their license is GPL, but they are discussing what license to use on the mailing list. Also, as they have relatively few contributors for each book, I believe it would be quite easy to get relicensing permission for GFDL if one so desired.
Anyway I just thought I would let you guys know about this group, if you didn't already, and maybe think about some interesting ways we could collaborate with them. I would be interested to hear what people think.
cheers, Brianna user:pfctdayelise
hello Wikibooks,
Many thanks to Brianna for the unexpected and very welcome introduction :)
I have since subscribed to the list, and I'm going to get a coffee and read through the archives.
So I think they have different enough goals that there is enough space for both projects to coexist peacefully. :)
I hope we can do more than coexist :) It would be great if we could see how synergies and discourse might be formed to help each other. Our aim is to turn the world of free software into a well documented multiverse. The more docs the better and the more approaches to documentation writing and presentation the better.
It would be an interesting discussion to articulate the differing methodologies and work out what sort of docs fit better where. FLOSS Manuals is a very structured book-like model using a structured wiki (TWiki). This means we write as if for a book, with chapters, sections, etc all as discrete documents. The 'chapters' (essentially a chapter is 1 html page) are also self contained (no internal linking) to enable remixing of content (see http://www.flossmanuals.net/remix). We have various tools and plugins we have developed to assist this methodology including plugins to support drag and drop index generation (each manual has an index on the left - see http://www.flossmanuals.net/audacity)., and plugins for indexed pdf export, publishing manuals to static html and etc
I would be very interested to hear from Wikimedians how they see this kind of approach, how it differs from Wikibooks, and how these two jigsaw puzzle pieces might fit together.
They are a very new group, but have got one manual into working condition - for Audacity, the audio editing software. http://en.flossmanuals.net/audacity/ Adam brought a print copy along to Wikimania and I was really impressed by it. There is just something cool about having something *tangible* in your hands. Especially for people who do not take to technology like fish to water -- so probably unlike a good many Wikimedians.
I write electronic documentation but I prefer reading from a book anyday. Its easier to read and it gets me away from the screen (and I can't remember the last time the battery ran out on a book while reading it on a train ;). The FLOSS Manuals printed books (eg http://www.flossmanuals.net#audacity) are aimed not only at those who prefer a book, but those that do not have good (or any) online access and wish to learn about free software. They are also intended to assist teaching, as I think workshops (etc) fare better when supported by print material.
I was also impressed because I know a lot of Wikimedians use Audacity to create speech files for Wiktionary, or spoken articles for Wikipedia. (I don't know if there are any spoken books, but it could happen. :)) So it strikes me that there is good potential for collaboration here.
We are happy to support any endeavour to document free software to assist Wikipedians.
BTW at the moment their license is GPL, but they are discussing what license to use on the mailing list. Also, as they have relatively few contributors for each book, I believe it would be quite easy to get relicensing permission for GFDL if one so desired.
I think relicensing will not be a problem, I can ask individual authors for this and I am sure they will agree to it. We are discussing a process to make this easier, such as keeping the content in GPL but making a site-wide provision stating material can be redistributed in GFDL and some CC licenses. Its in discussion at the moment on the list (http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net).
Anyway I just thought I would let you guys know about this group, if you didn't already, and maybe think about some interesting ways we could collaborate with them. I would be interested to hear what people think.
I'm also interested to hear any comments about how we might be able to work together.
:)
adam
cheers, Brianna user:pfctdayelise
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