On Tue, Jun 10, 2014 at 4:51 PM, Keith N. McKenna <[email protected] > wrote:
> Regina Henschel wrote: > > Hi Keith, > > > > Keith N. McKenna schrieb: > >> It has become painfully obvious over the last 6 months or more that I am > >> not the person to push this effort forward. I am tired of answering > >> queries about how to help and then never having people come back to the > >> list. I will continue to work on the introductory material as I have > >> time, but I no longer have the energy to continue to try and drive it > >> forward. > > > > You are frustrated. But you can be sure, it is not your fault. The > > situation had been the same in times of OOo. A very large number of > > subscribers of the list, but only about 1% active writers. And some of > > them are now working for LibreOffice. > > > You are right Regina I am very frustrated. Thank you for the part about > it not being my fault. Sad but true it is the same in any large group; > 20% of the people do 80% of the work. > >> > >> What we need is people with experience in technical writing to drive > >> this and to mentor new comers. > > > > I have attended a meeting of the German LO community last weekend, with > > very similar topic. There was the idea of "mentors" too. On the meeting > > there were consensus, that pointing a newcomer to some sites to read is > > bad. The idea on the meeting has been, to have a set of starting tasks. > > The mentor explores the skills of the newcomer. Then he suggest three > > tasks to the newcomer, who chooses one. After some time the mentor > > contacts the newcomer and ask about the progress. > > > I think that use of the Orientation Pages as a first point of contact is > not a bad thing. It gives people a point of reference to see the very > wide range of skills that can be used as part of the documentation team. > That said those pages alone cannot be all there is; there has to be > people who are willing to actively work with newcomers and guide them > through the process. > > > Such mentor does not need to have writing skills or be an expert in an > > area himself, but he need to be a personal contact for novices. > > > > The current situation of working on documentation needs improvement. I > > see e.g. the problem, that the process is currently not visible to the > > community, and writers get no merit. > > > You are being charitable. Realistically there is no process today. The > basic idea was to write relatively short structured and linked pieces > that would build from general information applicable to all parts of the > software to more detailed but still heavily linked sections for each > component of the suite, using on status page to track the progress. > I believe that there is the ability to get merit as part of the > documentation process. This is the major area that I have worked in and > my invitation to become a committer most likely came from that. > > > I will continue to monitor the list and > >> set up accounts on the mwiki as needed. > > > > It is good, that you will continue doing the administrative part. > > > I believe that documentation is a vital part of any software project. > There needs to be people that can do those administrative tasks since in > today's world self registration for things like the mwiki are just not > possible. > > > I think I may take a closer look > >> at trying to learn the process of writing the help files as I am seeing > >> more bugs posted concerning problems with them. > > > > I have already written some help texts, so I might be able to help in > > technical problems if needed. > > > I appreciate the offer. Is there any documentation of the process beside > the original PDF from Sun? That is pretty old in that it describes the > need for OOo 1.5 minimum and describes the use of the old cvs system. > Any pointers on the best way to set up an environment to do the work > would be appreciated. > > Regards > Keith > I couldn't find any when I started looking into the inline help system. I did more or less convert the PDF to HTML (not the greatest conversion I assure you) to make things a bit easier to find -- http://www.openoffice.org/documentation/online_help/ but the process is basically the same in svn or cvs. Lots to learn and process about this. More coming soon on the planning wiki... > > Kind regards > > Regina > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] > For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] > > -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MzK "In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer." -- Albert Camus
