I hope people don't mind my posting to this list. I'm not actually subscribed, but I have an idea that I thought might be worth posting and this list seems the most appropriate for it. Perhaps you guys have already thought of it, but I thought I'd mention it in case nobody had.
It is an idea for an effective dispersal of Debian-related information. Basically it is that Debian should implement something similar to http://everything2.com/. Between us, the Debian community has a wealth of Debian-related knowledge. Unfortunately this knowledge is often not easily accessible or as well organized as it might be. We can search mailing list archives or ask questions directly to a list. We can read the often scant information included in a package description. We can read HOWTOs and FAQs. Although each of these information forms has its place --- and indeed, are often very useful --- they also have their downsides. Finding the right place for information is sometimes difficult. Switching between different information sources is not always that easy. Often there is duplication of effort, for example questions on the mailing list answered countless times. There is an alternative way which overcomes many of these disadvantages. http://everything2.com/ is a community written encyclopaedia about "everything". It connects different "nodes" of information in a graph like structure. Members of the community are free to contribute information to this structure, but there is editorial control over content so that, hopefully, the encyclopaedia contains only worthwhile information. There are many advantages of this type of system. * A graph based architecture is a very natural and flexible one for information storage. It allows very easy specification of relationships between information pieces and allows ease of movement between these pieces. * The ability of users to easily add nodes of information to this structure means that the work of providing content is done by the community as a whole. Instead of writing an email on a mailing list, someone can contribute to the knowledge base by writing an information node and linking it to other related nodes. Because this structure is much better suited to the storage of knowledge than a mailing list, and because of the more permanent nature of this storage, the contributer can provide much more value for the time he puts in. * Having editorial control (an alternative is a community generated value ranking system) should ensure that only useful information survives (or alternatively, is highly ranked). The obvious thought then is: why not simply encourage people to add entries to the everything2.com web site? The only problem is that the information would then become the property of the everything2 company. In the spirit of Debian, this information really should become public property rather than being owned by a company. My thought is that we should create a "free" alternative to everything2. The http://www.debianhelp.org/ seems to come part way towards this approach. My suggestion is that this site (or another related site) be developed a step further in this direction. Perhaps there are already plans? Or perhaps it would be too much work? Anyway, that's my two cents worth. Mark. -- _/~~~~~~~~\___/~~~~~~\____________________________________________________ ____/~~\_____/~~\__/~~\__________________________Mark_Phillips____________ ____/~~\_____/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ____/~~\HE___/~~\__/~~\APTAIN_____________________________________________ ____/~~\______/~~~~~~\____________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ "They told me I was gullible ... and I believed them!"
