Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1998 10:14:38 +1000 From: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> To: Eivind Eklund <eivind@yes.no>, Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>, Ray Seals <rayseals@midwestis.com>, Freebsd-Advocacy <freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG> Cc: FreeBSD-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: On-line Help Message-ID: <19981004101438.39085@welearn.com.au> In-Reply-To: <19981002125251.54527@follo.net>; from Eivind Eklund on Fri, Oct 02, 1998 at 12:52:52PM %2B0200 References: <000d01bdec7e$b9fde2e0$1a1e10ac@rseals.midwestis.com> <19981001114527.E603@freebie.lemis.com> <19981002125251.54527@follo.net>
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On Fri, Oct 02, 1998 at 12:52:52PM +0200, Eivind Eklund wrote:
>
> Perhaps we technically should do the conversions as this - directly as
> FreeBSD ports, where people can just install them (and thus get them
> in /usr/local/share/doc/HOWTO/ or somesuch). That way, there is at
> least a structure in place for keeping them up to date - and there is
> precedence for pure documentation port (e.g, the Emacs Lisp manual).
Yes, structure is more important than many realise. The success of the Linux
HOWTO project seems to be due to three things that I can see:
1 Many users with a large amount of boypower
2 A tight, well known structure and image
3 Attitudes in the Linux community that motivate quality and quantity,
these attitudes being created by the structure.
We can't afford to look at the desired outcome and stab straight at it.
Put the right stuff underneath and it'll happen and continue to happen.
Take a look at their HOWTO web site to see how they come across. Talk to
Linux users about why they wrote a HOWTO. Look at what's required before
a HOWTO will be accepted. Writing these things is both an automatic duty
of Linuxhood and a high status privilege (if it is accepted), Some see
it as a contest to become the famous writer of something nobody else has
been able to cover. Compare that with the way we beg and cajole for
documents.
I don't claim to have all the answers for us, but I do know that it
needs a lot of planning and new attitudes to make it a success. Any
HOWTO project we set up will need to be worthy of respect itself, the
kind of respect that rubs off, before volunteers will flock to it.
Our support efforts are good and improving, and HOWTOs will help a lot
there, but training is another story. I'd like to see the same planning
and effort put into more tutorials. But people expect HOWTOs and they're
easier to write. Eventually we'll need both, so we might as well start
with the HOWTOs.
On my list of round tuits is a document to help technical heads write
FreeBSD tutorials, since it requires two mutually exclusive skill sets.
If it ever gets that far, I'll be looking for helpers well up on the
principles of adult education who don't necessarily know a lot about
FreeBSD. Then we might have something indispensable for the suits and
home users that no other OS has offered.
Later still, an extension of this could be a full online competency
based learning centre, employing the newfangled online learning toys
that people pay huge sums for to crash under NT, but doing it all with
FreeBSD freebies.
Training is now seen as the major business cost associated with change,
more important than the cost of software. Meanwhile home users run
around looking for a foothold. We haven't even begun to take a serious
look at the training needs. Twelve months from now its significance will
suddenly become more apparent, when we have more to offer the office
users. Whether it's all volunteer effort or I do something myself and
make a quick buck doesn't matter too much. Sew up the training angle in
any form and we'll make both NT and Linux look like intolerably
expensive alternatives.
--
Regards,
-*Sue*-
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