On Jan 19, 2008 7:32 PM, Seth Woodworth <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > We need a system to categorize our data like in your links Carol, and I > agree that the current state of the wiki is pretty bad. But if you look at > projects like Wiki-Commons, or free-reading, a wiki *can* be a lot better > organized. We just don't have enough dedicated and informed people to fix > the wiki. Information doesn't spread well yet.
One of the problems I see is that OLPC has not hired the staff of technical writers proposed in the autumn. Tradition holds that this is because geeks don't believe in documentation, ;-> as witness man pages, %-[ but it is clear that there are other reasons for the disarray at OLPC more generally. (I also hear, indirectly, that there are people at MIT's Sloan School of Management who would like to help, but somehow feel that they must be asked first. I don't know how true that is, but asking couldn't hurt.) The position of Documentation Lead has been on the Job page for months, but nobody has been hired, and in fact Kim Quirk told me that a decision had been made not to hire any tech writers at that time. More volunteers would help. A way for the volunteers to get organized would help. Is there an official Volunteer Coordinator (aka Cat-Herder-in-Chief)? I assume not. It wouldn't have to be a paid position, to start, although I think that OLPC has been foolish in not hiring more organizers, and people for a number of other functions. Even a place to sign up, with some indication of the greatest felt needs, would help. The first step would be to restructure the Volunteering page, and having somebody volunteer to keep it current. We need to discuss what else exists and what information sources there are before we can have a proper idea of how this page should be organized. We have volunteers for * Development, with repository and bug tracking * Localization, with Pootle * Documentation ?? * Wiki reorganization ?? * Content librarianship ?? Needs matrix organization by document and language, at least, with license management. I don't know whether anybody is doing * Legal ?? There are innumerable restrictions on what can be published in various countries, with religion and politics being two of the top restricted categories. Somebody has to go over these requirements with experts from the ministries concerned. Also we need a country-by-country analysis of import laws that would affect the laptop and its contents and accessories, and government contracting and purchasing laws and regulations. (My father used to do this sort of thing for getting insurance policies approved in 50 states by 50 different Insurance Commissioners.) What are the differences between Common Law countries and Napoleonic Code countries? What other systems are used in multiple countries? What treaties and treaty organizations affect these issues? * Recruiting ?? There is no shortage of people with the skills we need, and many of them have the available time and inclination. We need to reach out to them. * Country tracking ??? None of this is on the Wiki, except in a conjectural state. Somebody needs to monitor the state of negotiations with each prospect country, and provide guidance to the volunteers on languages to target for localization and a number of other matters. Some kinds of information need to be in a repository or database, not just a Wiki, where organization has to be created and maintained manually. What else? Well, Earth Treasury is separately recruiting artists, musicians, sound engineers, filmmakers, linguists, and others to aid the children in recording their heritages and publishing them to the world. Also people in business, and every adjunct profession, to help the children go into business together. And other things. None of that is within the OLPC mission. Should it be? Oh, and the children need to have a place to connect around the world. > On Jan 19, 2008 6:04 PM, Carol Lerche <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > > > Seth, sorry for sending this once to you and then to the list. On > reflection I felt it should go to the list as well. > > > > > > Truly the wiki is NOT the best way to organize content such as the > activities page. > > > > Yes, the countries will be the arbiters of taste as to what is shipped on > each of their xo's but what about the next step? > > > > Here are examples of completely different way to organize this type of > content (not very beautiful but quite a lot more functional than just a > list): > > > > > > http://www.cmsmatrix.org/matrix/cms-matrix?func=search > > > > or > > > > http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/search > > > > I think we need a search by age/grade level, subject matter, localization, > countries using, minimum build requirement, maturity/bugginess, tag (where > an app could have multiple tags that were optional and possibly pejorative!) > > > > > > > > > > The current activity page is pretty hard to use -- in the computer > science/database world I think we could term it a "heap". > > > > Regards, > > > > Carol > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Library mailing list > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/library > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Library mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/library > > -- Edward Cherlin End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business http://www.EarthTreasury.org/ "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay _______________________________________________ Olpc-open mailing list [email protected] http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-open
