Hi Gabriel,
My name is Gabriel Gurley and I have been a higher education instructor
and administrator for nearly 8 years. I wanted to contact the group
regarding a project idea I have in mind that may be of assistance to the
Documentation project. Before I mention my idea, I would like to give
you a brief history of prior work I have created related to OpenOffice.org.
A couple of years ago, my OpenOffice.org 2 training guide specifically
for use in an educational and corporate training environment was
published. The book, titled "A Conceptual Guide to OpenOffice.org 2 for
Windows and Linux", has been released under the Creative
Commons-ShareAlike 3.0 and GNU Free Documentation licenses. It is a
280-page book to help users and educators learn to use the office
productivity suite. All of the documentation was written by myself, and
the lessons found in the book were written with end-users, students and
teachers in mind. In accordance with the CC and GNU licenses, I have
made the book's text available as a free download at my website
(www.gabrielgurley.com) and paperback copies are available for schools
or individuals who desire having printed documentation.
Moreover, a couple of months ago I released an online distance learning
package based upon the book for use with Moodle. Upon release of the
package, I gave a copy to Ian Lynch, an OpenOffice.org contributor and
project lead for INGOTs (www.theingots.org), to make freely available
for use on the INGOTs Moodle site
(http://theingots.org/moodle/course/category.php?id=3). Ian and I are
encouraging INGOTs students, as well as the community in general, to
freely make adaptations of the module and make language translations of
the package if there is an interest to do so.
It looks like we need to link to thise resources from the docs website.
We still seem to miss a lot that's out there...
For the past two years, my goal has been to develop a comprehensive,
quality training package for OpenOffice.org that educators and corporate
trainers can utilize for end-user instructional purposes. I have
distributed the printed editions of the book through Lulu and various
book distributors, and have utilized the proceeds from the sale of the
book to provide evaluation copies to educators who inquire about the
book, as well as to purchase requisite hardware/software for creating
the press-ready files necessary for making printed copies available.
My desire is to not only make the training materials free (as in cost
and in terms of licensing), but also to take the feedback I have
received to improve the guide. Moreover, I would like to make another
idea I have had for some time become a reality (if you all feel that
there is a great need for such); creating a series of podcasts / videos
that coincide with the training guide and distance learning package to
create a complete training package. The project idea I have is as follows:
- utilizing the documentation I have created for OpenOffice.org 2, make
updates / improvements and release a second, press-ready edition based
upon the upcoming release of OpenOffice.org 3. The training guide would
be made available in a high-resolution, press-ready, bookmarked PDF file
where users could utilize it as either an eBook or upload it to Lulu and
other print-on-demand publishing services to make low-cost printed copies.
So that is the training guide accompanying the Moodle package (pardon
my ignorance, I am not familiar with Moodle)?
- utilizing the documentation and feedback I have received from the
release of the OpenOffice.org 2 Moodle training package, make updates /
improvements and release a second edition of the package based upon the
release of OpenOffice.org 3. The package would be made available as a
Moodle ZIP compressed file for easy installation onto a Moodle server.
- to coincide with the printed documentation and Moodle course package,
develop a series of video podcasts (approximately 5-8 minutes in length
for each segment) that coincide with the hands-on lessons presented in
the press-ready documentation and Moodle course package. The individual
podcasts / video segments will be made available in the .mp4 format for
either download via the OpenOffice.org website or, if desired, make
available via iTunes U. The individual video segments would also be
combined into a single, unencrypted ISO-9660 file for download, where
educators and trainers anywhere in the world can burn a copy onto a
blank DVD for use with a conventional DVD player.
So that would be a closed series of v-podcasts to accompany the
training?
- release all documentation under the appropriate licenses and make
available on the OpenOffice.org Documentation site.
I wanted to get your feedback regarding this project idea and see if it
would be of benefit to the OpenOffice.org Documentation project.
I want to thank everyone for all of the work you are putting into the
Documentation project. I look forward to hearing from you regarding
whether this project idea is needed and of interest to the Documentation
project.
This is an awesome idea. It looks like a very consistent training
story that would complement the existing documentation very well.
I would wish to host it on the documentation.oo.o website to
allow centralized access to anyone.
If we really could get a series of video podcasts or screencasts
going, even outside of your training project we may use
multiple distribution channels: doc.oo.o website,
a channel on youtube, and maybe a channel for miro? I am not too
familiar with podcast distribution, but a subscribable channel would
be good.
What would you need from the rest of us (provided we find some
volunteers to help you out, twinkle twinkle)?
Frank
--
Frank Peters, Documentation Project Co-Lead
The OOo Documentation Project:
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http://documentation.openoffice.org
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation
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