Dan,
Thank you for joining this discussion with this worth while proposal.
Having read the list of desired features on this thread, which
features do you think would have to be compromised with the solution
you are proposing?
Dennis
On Oct 27, 2005, at 8:53 PM, Dan Shafer wrote:
Several years ago, I headed up a project which involved an
extensive documentation effort and this same issue was raised. I
like the way we solved it. Furthermore, I happen to have access to
the tool and a server where it could be deployed and would make
both freely available if: (a) at least one or two others would be
willing to share site management and editing chores; and (b) the
community thinks it's a good idea. The approach we used was akin to
a discussion board. Each section of the docs was a topic on the
board. Everyone who was a member (and that term could be loosely
defined, of course) could add their comments to a section of the
docs. There was also a general topic area where people could post
questions and suggestions about the docs in their totality.
Periodically, an editor assigned to a given section would go
through the comments, incorporate the suggestions that made sense,
edit the topic, create a new topic on that section, hibernate the
old, and move comments that remained relevant to the new topic area.
At the same time there was a way for any interested party to: (a)
see the docs without the comments; (b) navigate using only the
"official" docs; and (c) view and print (and save as PDF) all or
some of the currently official documentation. This model is called
"managed open collaboration" and I think it presents the best of
all possible worlds in terms of encouraging and incorporating
useful input without disrupting the accuracy or utility of the
original and modified documentation.
FWIW.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dan Shafer, Information Product Consultant and Author
http://www.shafermedia.com
Get my book, "Revolution: Software at the Speed of Thought"
From http://www.shafermediastore.com/tech_main.html
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