Hi -
I would like to throw out a suggestion. I think that the documentation
on the site is already becoming scattered in a way that is going to make
it less user friendly for people to find what they are looking for. I
did a page-by-page look for all documentation on the OpenSolaris site,
and I found documentation on about 4 different pages. Although that
doesn't seem like much, if someone is looking for something and can't
remember where they saw it, it will be frustrating. If this is
perpetuated, it's going to be even more difficult to consoldate down the
road.
I think it is worth considering consolidating the documentation onto the
community documentation site and providing pointers to them from the
places where they are now located. Additionally, move the articles on
the articles web page to the community documentation site instead of
having a separate web page for it. I think if we create a centralized
archive from the start, it will keep the documentation well-organized
and easy to find and use.
I'm happy to help work on this if it sounds like a good idea to others.
Ginnie
Jim Grisanzio wrote:
Ben Rockwood wrote:
Jim Grisanzio wrote:
Ben Rockwood wrote:
Jim Grisanzio wrote:
I did a little blog pointing to the articles on opensolaris.org:
http://blogs.sun.com/jimgris?entry=some_articles_on_opensolaris
We'll eventually have to link to these from the front page. There
are few more articles written and in review (Solaris on laptops, a
3rd driver article, a kernel comparison, and a piece on
portability. We'll release those as soon as they are done.
For those of you who are new to the community: we had some articles
written (some light technical, some community profiles, etc) during
the pilot program, and we'd like to continue that function if you
are interested. Are you? If so, what publishing model is best for
this community? Who are the writers out there? When I say that I
mean are you interested in contributing articles, and how would you
like to be recognized for that contribution? And if so, would you
like to help work on an editorial plan to get us going past what we
already have? I think we need to figure out a way to incent people
to contribute (to write/edit/review) things like how-tos, profiles,
case studies, opinion pieces, feature articles, news, etc. In terms
of style, I'm thinking that the more magazine-like the better to
distinguish this editorial from documentation.
We are working on a website editorial policy to sort of outline who
does what and where on the site generally. This "articles" section
I'm talking about is just one part of that, but we really began it
back in the pilot program. It'll all come together over time.
Opinions?
Question... did Sun pay for those profiles?
Yes.
If so, why?
We contracted with O'Reilly (two editors, in fact) during the pilot
program for the articles based on their work with other Sun open
source projects, most notably java.net. That contract has come to
fruition, so I'm looking for a new way to generate some content.
"Why" specifically is more difficult. The thinking back last year was
to make the site more of a magazine-style feel based on java.net but
customized for Solaris and the OpenSolaris community. Offering that
is one of Oreilly's services. The original vision never really
materialized, so what we have is a series of articles to build from.
This is just the opinion of one, and take it with as much salt as you
like, but... I strongly feel opposed to OpenSolaris having ties like
this.
I think we'll have to develop many ties to various communities for the
purposes of collaboration. Including O'Reilly. Love 'em or hate 'em they
are part of the open source community, just as are we. Their style may
not be right for OpenSolaris at this early time, but that's ok. Perhaps
we'll meet up in the future. No big deal. They have helped us a great
deal in some areas, especially early on by providing access to key open
source people for the purposes of feedback sessions (way before the
pilot began). They also helped provide speakers for Sun's Open Source
Conference in Santa Clara last summer. They've helped out in other ways,
too. They article thing wasn't as successful, but it doesn't mean we can
try again with a new model ourselves or even re-engage O'Reilly in the
future.
Its obvious from the profiles that the authors researched the
persons they profiles instead of knowing them. They read very
professionally, sure, but flat and contribed.
An editorial relationship takes time. Editors need time to build a
writer base and get to know sources, etc. That never really happened
here, but it could happen and should happen and it's what I had hoped
would happen.
OpenSolaris isn't a
product to be marketed the same as Java with sponsoring ties, farm
outs, etc, but something entirely diffrent that must be maintained as
pure. Cutting a deal with O'Reilly or any other company for that
matter just seems to cheapen the whole project. It seems shallow,
like we have to buy friends or something.
I don't think we were buying friends as much as we were simply looking
to engage with a friend and try something to help the project. Sun has
extensive business and developer relationships with O'Reilly, and so it
made sense to engage -- albeit at a very, very low level. Why wouldn't
we want to talk to O'Reilly's network of developers? It's pretty
substantial. Hey, I tried. Take it as that. Nothing more. I argued early
on this project that the entire web site needed an editor to manage all
the content (for consistency, style, flow, graphics, etc). I'm even more
convinced of that position today, although very few share that view so
I've decided to not argue the point actively any more. Maybe we'll get
there in the future. Maybe I'm wrong.
Take those bucks and buy back some shares or
give out some more tshirts, that'd help us all much more I think.
Like I said, plenty of salt on that please.
Understood. :)
I'm not sure if anyone else
feels the same.
I would, too, actually. :) If the community is not interested, I'll drop
it and move on. There's plenty to do around here. :) I just wanted to
bring it up one last time now that we are open and out of the pilot phase.
Reguarding the rest, I can write when time permits. Plenty of us
are producing useful information, but "articles" in the traditional
sense conflict directly with technical blogging. Many of our blog
entries could be slightly reformed and presto-change you've got an
article.
I agree. But we need to lay out a 6 month or year long editorial plan
to pro-actively generate the content. We can also just re-work
previous blogs (the substantive ones) for articles, too. Good
suggestion.
Is there any chance we could see a draft of this editorial plan?
I circulated drafts of the plan (which I wrote, not O'Reilly) back in
the early pilot days. Very little response so I didn't press it. It was
basically a list of article suggestions. I just worked with O'Reilly to
implement what we had, and so we got 11 articles (8 of which are posted
now with 3 to go). There is no plan right now, though.
Perhaps if we could all take a look we could all see what parts of it
we could contribute to and all pull together to provide real community
content. It might not be as professional as if it were done by
professionals, but it'll be ours.
Yes. I'd like to create a *new* editorial plan -- if the community wants
this. Although I'm convinced we need this function, I'm not convinced
the community wants it. So, perhaps if we kick around a plan to produce
a series of articles in various categories we can all own it and
implement it.
The Driver Programming articles by Max are awesome, I'd love to see
more of those.
He has two more in the works.
Didn't Rich have some articles in the pipe too?
Rich did a dev piece for the Studio tools guys separate from what
I've been trying to do.
Anyone have a url? (or if its unreleased a timeframe?)
http://opensolaris.org/os/community/tools/building_opensolaris/
benr.
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Ginnie Wray
Technical Publications
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