On Fri, Feb 18, 2005 at 02:32:01PM -0800, Jonathon Blake wrote: > The last time I looked OOoAuthors had over a 100 people subscribed. I > don't know how many of them have contributed material. A lot more have > reviewed material, than written original material. > > That is what I mean by "large team".
Yes, the OOoAuthors experience is instructive. It's a large group of people, but we are divided into tasks. Like writing vs reviewing. Also, each guide is a different task. We have a self-contained "database team" of about 6 people who focus exclusively on the database guide. But we take this even further: Authors has a "peer review" process. The concept is simple enough. Someone writes a chapter, and people make corrections and suggest changes. But think about this model for a second. We have effectively turned each chapter into a mini-project of its own. Where the lead is the original writer, and you have a cloud of reviewers working around it. Each chapter writer is a benevolet dictator who decides which edits go in and which ones don't. At the next level, chapters belong to a guide. Each guide has several writers and reviewers. Each guide also has a chief editor who provides overall direction. Janet directs the Writer Guide, and Jean directs the others. So, what you see here is a highly distributed project. OOoAuthors requires practically *zero* maintenance from me. It is truly self-sustaining. This in turn helps me focus my energy on other tasks, like recruiting new volunteers to make the project expand. :-) > Volunteers, That is going to be iffy. The rewards for volunteers are > _radically_ different for employees. +100 Realizing this alone is the single greatest cultural change that needs to occur at OOo. > That said, a good manager will run a team of employees as if they were > volunteers, for maximum productivity. And it's not as hard as it seems. You are providing rewards right? Rewards in the form of praise and recognition. It is only natural that you give more recognition to accomplishments that are more important, right? That alone constitutes a form of direction. Cheers, -- Daniel Carrera | I don't want it perfect, Join OOoAuthors today! | I want it Tuesday. http://oooauthors.org | --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
