The FLOSS Manuals Story
...its just beginning!
Adam Hyde
Founder FM
You might know me from...
http://www.interpolar.org
Polar Radio – Antarctica 2007
http://www.radio-astronomy.net
Radio Astronomy
Online Radio Station Broadcasting Sounds of Space
http://www.papercuptelephone.org
Paper Cup Telephone Network
Global Network of Papercup Telephones
http://www.flossmanuals.net
1. Not-for-profit foundation (based in Amsterdam)
2. All volunteers
3. 3 'core' volunteers – co-ordinator, designer, programmer
4. Additional champions – Book Sprints / PR
5. 350 subscribed contributors
6. 100% open source
WHO WE ARE
1. TWiki
2. Most material written by me
3. Twisted TWiki to not think like a wiki
4. Custom plugins
5. Added beautiful design
6. Commissioned small number of artists to write some docs
7. Oct 2007 Launched
HOW WE STARTED
Its bad...often...
1. closed – platform (eg. CVS)
2. closed – format (eg. docbook)
3. closed – license (eg. standard copyright or FDL)
4. closed – org (publishers using open license / developers)
5. written by developers from memory
6. not maintained (out of date)
7. limited audience (eg. technical threshold of writing high)
8. hard to find
9. $ cost (pay to learn free software)
THE STATE OF FREE DOCUMENTATION
Its good!
1. open – platform (wiki)
2. open – format (xhtml)
3. open – license (GPL)
4. open – org (FLOSS MANUALS!!!)
5. written while using the software
6. maintained by community
7. wider audience
8. easy to find
9. free! (libre and gratis)
THE FUTURE OF FREE DOCUMENTATION
“BE THE BEST SOURCE FOR
QUALITY INFORMATION
ABOUT FREE SOFTWARE”
OUR AIM
1. Platform
2. Community
3. Content
4. Free Documentation Sector
WE NEED TO CREATE...
1. Needs internal recognition
2. Needs external recognition
3. Needs income models
4. Needs successful examples
5. Needs an ecology of skill sets
6. Needs to be fun, social, and have an impact
FREE DOCUMENTATION SECTOR
1. Easy to write (WYSIWYG)
2. Drag and drop index generation
3. One step publishing
4. CSS controlled book formatting
5. Remixing manuals
6. Copyright attribution
7. Translation tools
8. Localisation tools
9. Embeddable book store
10. Live manuals
11. Book sprint social models
FLOSS MANUALS FEATURES
1. Remix & Live Manuals
2. Embeddable Book Store
3. Book Sprints
3 KEY FEATURES
THE FLOW – READ, WRITE, REMIX
1. Write manuals in FLOSS Manuals
2. Remix
3. Cut and paste few lines of HTML
4. Host the manual under your own domain
5. Community maintains material
LIVE MANUALS
1. Host a book store
2. Supports & promotes the software
3. Income goes to development of documentation
4. Cut and paste a few lines into your site
5. User configurable :
1. Slide show
2. Random order
3. Paging
4. Number of displayed books
5. Which books to be displayed
EMBEDDED BOOK STORE
1. Develop communities around books
2. 5-6 writers onsite
3. Take care of food, accommodation, travel
4. Pre-production scoping of manuals
5. Build Index on first day
6. 4 days writing
7. 1 day editing / clean up
BOOK SPRINTS
1. FLOSS Manuals : http://www.flossmanuals.net
2. FLOSS Manuals Farsi : http://fa.flossmanuals.net
3. Remix : http://www.flossmanuals.net/remix
4. Book Store : http://www.flossmanuals.net/bookstore
5. Blog : http://www.flossmanuals.net/about
LINKS
http://en.flossmanuals.net/register
REGISTER NOW!