Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1998 16:03:02 -0500 (EST) From: Ryan Ziegler <ziggy@wopr.inetu.net> To: Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com> Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG, advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Documentation upgrade: where are the other humans? Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.95q.981105152639.5270B-100000@wopr.inetu.net> In-Reply-To: <199811041850.LAA10454@usr07.primenet.com>
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lets move this to advocacy, On Wed, 4 Nov 1998, Terry Lambert wrote: > > When not getting paid, programmers tend to code what they find > > interesting. We can say the same thing for writers when writing. I would > > say technical documentation is not the most exciting literary form, nor > > are the arguments for kmem_free() the most exciting subject matter. > > > > What we need are technical writers who feel a severe allegiance to > > FreeBSD. > > Or people who get off on techinical writing, or a professor with > an allegiance to FreeBSD in charge of a Technical Writing class. > > I have to say that there exist people who actually enjoy doing > things that the rest of us would find about as enjoyable as > home dentistry (those of you with capped teeth, imagine removing > your caps with an awl). > > I have a sister who happens to enjoy double-column bookkeeping. > It takes all kinds... > > > I also think that it's very likely that someone who had to take > a technical writing class for their CS/CIS/MIS/BIS degree would > have classmates who were English Majors or whatever, also looking > for writing projects, and that it would be a good idea to encourage > them suggesting FreeBSD documentation to their classmates as a > potential "project fodder gold mine". > > I know that if I were to adjunct teach a technical writing class, > I'd be please as punch if I could find a never-ending supply of > projects, all in the same general problem space; it'd make it a > hell of a lot easier to grade on a curve. Its more of a question of how many people who really enjoy home dentistry exist. Not many, simply isn't glamorous enough. What we need to do is to paint the technical writer as some sort of a hero or rogue. Give him a catchy name. "The dockers, a brand new breed of technical writers, infiltrating open source archives and documenting everything they see. They stop at nothing to see the cvs repositories of the world bloating up with inline documentation." Get an article on CNet and we're off. Approaching professors of technical writing classes doesn't seem like a bad idea, but those students have no allegiance to freebsd. We would easily wind up with inferior documentation (you can argue if thats better than no documentation at all). Maybe we could set up a synergy with the professor. The prof refers his students to us, they do what we want, and if we accept their work they get A's, otherwise, F's. > > > > > Maybe it's just that the majority of people are too busy sitting > > > on their butts hacking code in cave-like computer labs to talk > > > to people in other departments on campus? > > > > You're not suggesting that we're a tad clannish, are you? :) > > Well, this *is* a "free software" project, not a "free product" > project... it's kind of self-limiting in its involvement of > people not that interested in producing software. > > The Linux Documentation project has that whole "Young Communist" > thing going for it... I am still suprised to see that the microsoft vs good-software division hasn't erased the their-free-os vs our-free-os division. I also would think that with all the talk of OSS nowadays, people would be eager to latch onto the 'its not just linux and apache, its everyone' idea. Maybe they have, I don't know. Has freebsd tried to jump in the pool yet? Maybe, also, I make too many assumptions -Ryan > Terry Lambert > terry@lambert.org > --- > Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present > or previous employers. > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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