Re: Potential volunteer offering technical writing
On 30 September 2011 19:51, Tabitha Roder wrote: > Hi > > If we had a volunteer (English Native language) professional technical > writer, what writing would be of most use to OLPC or Sugar that we can point > her in the direction of? She currently works with developers to write end > user documentation. > > Thanks > Tabitha - NZ volunteers I think the most important thing is to identify and focus on the target audience - is the documentation meant for technical users, end users, teachers, children...? We (OLPC Australia) would be happy to suggest ways in which the documentation can be improved, using our experience from working directly with teachers and communities. Our online course (http://laptop.moodle.com.au/ - you can log in as a guest) might provide some inspiration. Our Education Manager has some advice, based on her experiences with reading the publicly-available documentation: - Make sure the Sugar and XO Floss manuals are up-to-date, easily readable and have all the necessary information. - Externally available documentation: It’s imperative that minimal knowledge is assumed, which I think is the hardest part. Pages need to have less information rather than more, good user interfaces, lots of useful images, clear headings and language that is simple and precise. My concern with a lot of the external documentation is that it is sometimes overwhelming, difficult to navigate (both between pages and within them) and written for a technical audience rather than a basic user. Trying to target both a technical audience and a basic user in the same documentation means you are more likely to lose the basic user. Perhaps some of this documentation needs to be separate out. The main issue I see with the Wiki is that it’s difficult to navigate and find information from the menus. This isn’t, per say, the role of a technical writer, but tidying up navigation in the Wiki would make it more accessible. - Someone to simply document the activities available (purpose of the activity, how to use it, any tips that are not easily discoverable, and what you can DO with it- exemplars of use) - There are lesson ideas and examples of practice all over the place. It would be amazing to synthesise this as much as possible, so they are not so difficult and time consuming to find, and to put them in a uniform format. I’m not sure what the best way to approach this is, but from an educational perspective, knowing not just HOW to use the XOs but WHAT to do with them is far more important. Making these ideas easily accessible, in my mind, is quite important. Sridhar ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Potential volunteer offering technical writing
On 20 October 2011 11:21, Christoph Derndorfer < christoph.derndor...@gmail.com> wrote: > not sure what the exact time difference is between San Francisco and NZ but > maybe we could set up a Skype call between Rachel, you, and us in SF to > coordinate our documentation efforts? > > Cheers, > Christoph > We meet on Saturday mornings at 11am NZ time (that is Friday 3pm in San Francisco) for olpc/sugar testing and we are on IRC #sugar #olpc and a bunch of other related freenode channels. We can also be on skype (tabitharoder). If we are a little bit late, don't worry (probably the baby is requiring my attention) as we won't be long. We are at testing usually until around 2pm, or later depending how much testing we have to do (and how well the baby is coping). Tabitha ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Potential volunteer offering technical writing
Tabitha, not sure what the exact time difference is between San Francisco and NZ but maybe we could set up a Skype call between Rachel, you, and us in SF to coordinate our documentation efforts? Cheers, Christoph Am 19.10.2011 22:49 schrieb "Gonzalo Odiard" : > We need help writing, and translating in FLOSS. > I can help updating the activity. > > Gonzalo > > On Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 4:53 PM, Tabitha Roder wrote: > >> On 4 October 2011 16:18, Martin Langhoff wrote: >> >>> And the FLOSS Manuals feed into the Help Activity, so work there pays >>> of many times over... >>> >> >> So how do we feed the FLOSS manual into the Help activity? Rachel is keen >> to help, but keen to see her work on the XO. >> >> Is the FLOSS -> help activity process documented anywhere? I don't think >> we are able to help with improving the i10n process or the activity build >> process, but we can help with the (english) words themselves. >> >> ___ >> Devel mailing list >> Devel@lists.laptop.org >> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel >> >> > > ___ > Devel mailing list > Devel@lists.laptop.org > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel > > ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Potential volunteer offering technical writing
We need help writing, and translating in FLOSS. I can help updating the activity. Gonzalo On Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 4:53 PM, Tabitha Roder wrote: > On 4 October 2011 16:18, Martin Langhoff wrote: > >> And the FLOSS Manuals feed into the Help Activity, so work there pays >> of many times over... >> > > So how do we feed the FLOSS manual into the Help activity? Rachel is keen > to help, but keen to see her work on the XO. > > Is the FLOSS -> help activity process documented anywhere? I don't think we > are able to help with improving the i10n process or the activity build > process, but we can help with the (english) words themselves. > > ___ > Devel mailing list > Devel@lists.laptop.org > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel > > ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Potential volunteer offering technical writing
On 4 October 2011 16:18, Martin Langhoff wrote: > And the FLOSS Manuals feed into the Help Activity, so work there pays > of many times over... > So how do we feed the FLOSS manual into the Help activity? Rachel is keen to help, but keen to see her work on the XO. Is the FLOSS -> help activity process documented anywhere? I don't think we are able to help with improving the i10n process or the activity build process, but we can help with the (english) words themselves. ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Potential volunteer offering technical writing
On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 5:18 AM, Martin Langhoff wrote: > Hi Tabs! > > that's great! Here's an idea: I was looking at recently at the FLOSS > Manuals manuals for Sugar and activities... and they are a bit dated > -- they cover Sugar 0.86 or so. Screens have changed quite a bit :-) > and some procedures are much simpler (ad hoc networking for example). > > And the FLOSS Manuals feed into the Help Activity, so work there pays > of many times over... > > My 2 deflationary cents... +2 equally deflationary Eurocents;-) eKindling's Cherry (now in CC) suggested a similar Help Activity Refresh as one of the activities for the OLPC-SF Community Summit and some good ideas were thrown around as a result. So I think it makes sense to tie those two thread of conversation together. Cheers, Christoph > m > > On Fri, Sep 30, 2011 at 5:51 AM, Tabitha Roder > wrote: > > Hi > > > > If we had a volunteer (English Native language) professional technical > > writer, what writing would be of most use to OLPC or Sugar that we can > point > > her in the direction of? She currently works with developers to write end > > user documentation. > > > > Thanks > > Tabitha - NZ volunteers > > > > ___ > > Devel mailing list > > Devel@lists.laptop.org > > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel > > > > > > > > -- > martin.langh...@gmail.com > mar...@laptop.org -- Software Architect - OLPC > - ask interesting questions > - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first > - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff > ___ > Devel mailing list > Devel@lists.laptop.org > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel > -- Christoph Derndorfer editor, OLPC News [www.olpcnews.com] volunteer, OLPC (Austria) [www.olpc.at] e-mail: christ...@derndorfer.eu ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Potential volunteer offering technical writing
Hi Tabs! that's great! Here's an idea: I was looking at recently at the FLOSS Manuals manuals for Sugar and activities... and they are a bit dated -- they cover Sugar 0.86 or so. Screens have changed quite a bit :-) and some procedures are much simpler (ad hoc networking for example). And the FLOSS Manuals feed into the Help Activity, so work there pays of many times over... My 2 deflationary cents... m On Fri, Sep 30, 2011 at 5:51 AM, Tabitha Roder wrote: > Hi > > If we had a volunteer (English Native language) professional technical > writer, what writing would be of most use to OLPC or Sugar that we can point > her in the direction of? She currently works with developers to write end > user documentation. > > Thanks > Tabitha - NZ volunteers > > ___ > Devel mailing list > Devel@lists.laptop.org > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel > > -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- Software Architect - OLPC - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Potential volunteer offering technical writing
You might point her to the ClassActs book on implementing OLPC around the world from a couple of years ago. FlossManuals.net and on wiki.laptop.org She can learn some of the culture and see what gaps there are, updating and fixing/ editing along the way AFAICT, nobody did the Africa implementation... On Fri, Sep 30, 2011 at 5:51 AM, Tabitha Roder wrote: > Hi > > If we had a volunteer (English Native language) professional technical > writer, what writing would be of most use to OLPC or Sugar that we can point > her in the direction of? She currently works with developers to write end > user documentation. > > Thanks > Tabitha - NZ volunteers > > ___ > Devel mailing list > Devel@lists.laptop.org > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel > > -- DancesWithCars leave the wolves behind ;-) ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
