Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 00:02:49 -0700 From: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> To: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> Cc: Doug Young <dougy@gargoyle.apana.org.au>, Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in>, Kathy Quinlan <katinka@magestower.com>, N6REJ <n6rej@tcsn.net>, freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: I'm leaving Message-ID: <3B00D499.C542E155@mindspring.com> References: <002b01c0db54$e0febaa0$5599ca3f@disappointment> <20010513171444.E26123@welearn.com.au> <00f401c0db7e$ff3ca2a0$fe00a8c0@kat.lan> <20010513122623.I97034@lpt.ens.fr> <20010514084709.A68348@welearn.com.au> <024b01c0dc05$b1314fc0$0300a8c0@oracle> <20010514103623.B68348@welearn.com.au>
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Sue Blake wrote: > The problem we have is that the people with the skills to execute > these good ideas, either don't contribute them to our docs (and > we're left with a volunteer staff of hard working Klingons trying > their very best), OR, they go off and do their own thing somewhere > else, which is great to have but fails to enrich the FreeBSD docs > in any way. > > Like so many things round here, we have lots of people ready > to jump up with good ideas, even more people weeing themselves > with excitement at the chance to code the infrastructure, but hardly > a soul to do the actual work. This applies to FreeBSD doc ideas > as much as it does to support ideas. "If you build it they will come" > is a naive view does not work for support/docs, but it has been a > popular pipe dream for the several years that I've been watching. > Better docs/support requires supply of prose, not code. There is an organization whose intent is to provide writers for things like this. They contribute documentation to a number of places, including linuxdoc and the Apache project. Basically, they are a group of writers who volunteer to document Open Source projects; they have a list of some 20 or so projects to which they currently contribute. I have, in the past, frequently suggested that FreeBSD hook up with a Large University with a respected English department with a technical writing program, where the FreeBSD documentation that needs to be written will get handed out as homework assignments, term projects, the common self-directed work, etc.. I think I have the link to their page on my other system; I will look for it (before anyone asks why I didn't include a link). A well-worded search request would probably find the thing, but it's too late for me to be pithy enough to get Altavista to spit it out tonight...). -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message
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