Hi Jean!
I'm in favor of anything that gets the docs in front of more users. I
have one concern that is not an objection, but just something to think
about.
From your mention of converting files, I infer that the docs will be
converted to wiki format, rather than just attaching the PDF or ODT
files. Is that correct? If they are in wiki format, will users be able
to update them, or will they be write-protected? If users can update
them, then there will be two separate update paths -- through this
project and through the wiki. There would need to be either a process
for incorporating wiki changes back into the source documents, OR a big
disclaimer letting wiki users know that there changes will NOT be
incorporated in the source documents.
I'd love to know more about the software being used in this endeavor
(what wiki engine, what conversion tool), but that may not be of
interest to the rest of this list.
--Janet
Jean Hollis Weber wrote:
Those of you who read the [documentation-dev] mailing list at OOo
will have noticed that I have been asking questions about the
licensing of pages on the OOo wiki.
My suggestion was that the wiki contain a "user documentation"
section that users are encouraged to read, and that is linked to
and from the Documentation Project's first page. In other words,
have some of OOo's user docs available on the wiki itself, for
use by the public.
Everyone who has expressed an opinion on that list has supported this
idea, though there has been some concern about the licensing
arrangements. The licensing issue appears to be getting resolved in a
way that would allow OOoAuthors material to be placed on the wiki under
our current Creative Commons license.
In the past I was very sceptical of wikis as user documentation,
but now that I have used some very good ones (eg for Ubuntu
Linux), I think they are an important -- perhaps essential --
addition to books and other forms of documentation. Wiki
documentation can easily be linked to and from other information
in any form and various locations. Wiki documentation is
searchable, which assists people in finding what they need.
Of course what I have in mind to put on the wiki are the user
guides we are producing at OOoAuthors. Our guides are now
available in PDF and (for completed books) in printed form, but
many users would also like the information in them to be on the
Web, preferably in some searchable form.
My idea is that we continue to produce our user guides through
the OOoAuthors website, and make them available in ODT and PDF as
before, as well as putting them on the wiki... thus giving more users a
choice about how they access and use the information we are producing.
What do other members of the group think about this idea of
putting our docs on the wiki? Pros and cons that I haven't
mentioned? (Of course there is the separate but related issue of someone
having the time to convert and upload the files. I have not yet tried
out the available conversion tools.)
--Jean
--
Janet Swisher, Sr. Technical Writer
Enthought, Inc., http://www.enthought.com
