Dennis E. Hamilton wrote: > Dave, I think that having a structure for contributors finding work and also > finding any guidance they need is a great idea. Finding some experienced > hands to contribute that sort of guidance and help organize effort to some > degree would be valuable. > > We need a way for that to be self-organizing without any kind of hierarchy or > leadership roles. For ASF projects, we seek a way for leadership to emerge > where needed but not that there are positions or titles. > > It looks like there are structures on the Wiki itself that can be used to > help folks channel contributions and have it be coordinated among them. That > needs to be used in an organic way, with everything operating by consensus to > the max. > > It may be that there is a bit more-than-usual process structure here for > producing documentation on the Wiki and elsewhere. I think some of this is > historical, preceding the migration to Apache OpenOffice. Some parts are > important aids for coordination and also providing an account for effort, > changes, etc. > > - Dennis > > A little background: > > ASF Projects have flat organization and depend on volunteer contribution. > The idea is to build communities that are consensus-focused in their > operation. Voting is considered a last resort although it is required for > certain activities (such as approving a release). Formal deliberations must > be on the dev@ list, not here on doc@, and the binding votes are from the > Project Management Committee members, although all votes are considered. > There's not supposed to be any other formal process than that. There are > legal and ASF Charter reasons that there is even that much structure, such as > every project having a Chair that is an Officer of the Foundation. > > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Dave [mailto:davepo...@gmail.com] >> Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2016 14:21 >> To: doc@openoffice.apache.org >> Subject: Re: Rebooting the Documentation Effort >> >> Hi all, >> >> I think we do need a group of half a dozen people with a lot of >> experience >> of the project to distribute the work amongst the others. This group >> would >> need to decide collectively what needs to be done and in what order of >> priority. They would have to be democratically elected by the rest of >> us... >> >> Regards, Dave >> >> 2016-01-20 21:57 GMT+01:00 Keith N. McKenna <keith.mcke...@comcast.net>: >> >>> Dennis E. Hamilton wrote: >>>> [bcc: dev@] >>>> >>>> Hi Keith, >>>> >>>> I have belatedly noticed your efforts to reboot the documentation >>>> effort, first in April and again in December, 2015. >>>> >>>> I commend you on this. >>> >>> Thank You Dennis, I appreciate it. >>>> >>>> While people raise their hands, we don't seem to achieve traction. >>>> >>>> I would like to know from those who did not persevere, >>>> >>>> What got in the way? >>>> >>>> Is it all a matter of life intervening? >>>> >>>> Are there technical and communication matters that can be addressed >>>> to remove any barriers that were encountered? >>>> >>>> Is there missing information? >>>> >>>> - Dennis >>>> >>> I cannot speak for others, but I will add my own observations for >>> whatever use they may be. >>> >>> I think a lot of people raise their hand to volunteer with the >>> expectation that there will be a lot of mentoring, task assignments >> and >>> that sort of thing. We do not have experienced people to do mentoring >> to >>> that level. I am not a tech writer. I am a Manufacturing Engineer that >>> has written some technical documentation as a part of my job. As far >> as >>> task assignments I believe that each contributor knows best there >>> strengths and are better able to know what they might be best at. If >>> someone wants to take on the task of handing out assignments for new >>> volunteers I think that could be a help. >>> >>> Given the recent level of activity, I am cautiously optimistic that we >>> may see some more forward momentum. >>> >>> Regards >>> Keith >>> >>> >>> >>> Gentleman;
It is all well and good to talk about having the more experienced project people take a role in assigning tasks et. al. However we are in the position we are in because we do not have the experienced people. We were told on the dev list to go ahead and create a doc mailing list and make the decisions on how the documentation should be structured and all that. Now we are being told that we should be making those decisions on the dev list. Personally I had enough political and turf battles when I worked in the corporate world; I certainly do not need them now that I am retired and doing this on a volunteer basis. I have done what I am able to do and I will step back and others more qualified battle it out. I hope that you can find a solution but I am not sanguine on that score. As is often the case on large and small projects alike, Documentation is the bastard child that nobody likes admit exists. Regards Keith
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