[IAEP] Thanks and Congrats to the good folks at FLOSS Manuals

[David Farning]

For those of you not tracking the Floss Manuals book sprint, It is time
for a update.

The physical sprint in Austin was a humbling experience.  The quality of
the writing was amazing.

I realized this was not just a couple of programmers trying to throw
together a wiki as I watched Janet Swisher intensely studying the XO's
battery.  Turns out she trying to determine if the installing the
battery section could be misread.  From my experience, a programmer
would have said, "If they can't figure out how to put the battery in,
what's the point of a fine manual."

David Cramer, a tech writer at Motive, the company that hosted the
event, provided a excellent takeaway on tech writing.  'When I write, I
write for one person.  Usually, one person reads what I write. The rest
of the department just asks him....'  Very on point for SL and OLPC.
With our limited resources, we can't afford to target a broad audience.
But, can afford to target 'that one guy' who can spread our message.

Walter is a machine.  Hour after hour he churned out content for the
Sugar Manual.  After going through the manual I finally have a good
grasp of the 'explore, reflect, and share' paradigm.  I am not an
educator so all the -ism discussions on this list just leave me feeling
'icky'.

Mikus Grinbergs has all the character that you expect to find in a
retire IBMer;)  His depth of knowledge was astounding.  I hope we can
look forward to more of his work on the mailing lists.

Adam Holt, Brian Jordan, and I tried to help out where we could.
Mostly, we just tried to stay out of the way;)

Adam Hyde is doing a great job tackling the problem of documentation in
free and open source projects.  He has a laid back yet confident style
that helps him keep the book sprints on track.  His tools kit, through
the editing process, help mitigate many of the 'cult of the commons'
issues that are raised when dealing with user developed documentation.

Anne 'I can spend a couple of hours per week on this' gentle tied the
whole thing together.  The logistics were excellent.  The living and
working accommodations were excellent.  The group of people she pulled
together was first rate.   
 
Yes, this an update.  Not a summary or a wrap-up.  It seems that the
fine folks at FLOSS Manuals have extended the sprint by a week;)  Things
are still going fast and furious at library at lists.laptop.org .

So, if you are interested in doing some writing check out the list to
see what is going on.

thanks
dfarning