A few things

[John Levin]

On 24 Oct 2004, at 14:11, John Hornbeck wrote:

> So it seems most of the discussions have been happening on irc, between
> doc writers and alot of questions are coming up.  Here is a list lets
> see if we can answer some.

I don't use irc much - tho ubuntu is making me change my habits - so 
missed these discussions.

>
> 1.  What are we doing?  This has been asked alot out of me, yet I have
> no clue. :-)

Yeah, what are we doing?

>
> 2. Who is the doc team?  This again I don't really know, I know of
> myself, plovs, sivang, asw.  Those are the ones I know, I think enrico
> is in there somewhere, but he said he does not really write docs.

I'm on the doc team, inasmuch as I put my name down on the wiki.


> 4.  Should we be talking through mail instead of irc? Yes, we need to
> convay ideas through mail and chat while we work in irc.  If major
> discussions happen in irc, we need to log them here.  Not everyone can
> be in irc all the time.

Email is much more useful for:
a: being able to take time to consider a suggestion / reply
b: being a convenient record of what has been suggested
c: isn't stuck in time-zones.

>
> 5. Who is our leader?  I have been told one has not been apointed yet.
> This I think is something that needs to be made or at least a group who
> can semi make decisions.

Yup - the organization has been haphazard so far. The wiki is a good 
idea, but it's really not scaling - there's a mass of information about 
everything in there, and it's becoming more and more difficult to 
navigate.
A bit of structure is really necessary - especially now that Warty is 
out, we can start planning for the next six months, and make sure Hoary 
has decent documentation

>
> 6. Hornbeck, way are you so sexy?  Well I cannot help that.

But you could give the rest of us a few tips :)

>
> 7. Do we start adding things to the new wiki?  I personally am holding
> off that way if something happens in this merge, I don't want my work
> messed up.  I have also slowed on the old wiki due to the merge coming
> and I don't want to keep adding and end up losing something.

I'm not sure the wiki is the best way of writing documentation. Aside 
from problems of scaling, at the moment, it's doing something different 
- being ad-hoc tips and troubleshooting. I don't think it's really the 
way to compose "The Ubuntu Handbook."

>
> These I think are most the questions I get.  I seem to get the question
> asked also am *I*(hornbeck) the doc leader, no I am not.  I think more
> discussion really needs to happen about what we are doing and who is
> doing what.  Please respond and start talking.
>

Anyone going to volunteer? Is Canonical going to appoint someone?

John