[proposal] Split User Guide (was: The "It's Just a Desktop Distro" Problem)

[Robert Brimhall]

I think splitting the docs into two categories is a great idea,
however, what about tasks that may fall under both groups (like
software updates, explanation of sudo, etc.)... should there be a
Ubuntu primer that preceeds the user and admin guides?


On Wed, 5 Jan 2005 23:57:00 +0200, Sean Wheller <sean at inwords.co.za> wrote:
> On Wednesday 05 January 2005 19:50, Matt Zimmerman wrote:
> > We discussed exactly this issue during the Marketing BOF at December's
> > Ubuntu conference.  The notes are sparse on this particular subject, but
> > they can be found here: http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/UbuntuMarketing
> > We identified a couple of concrete things that we could do to try to
> > address this misconception:
> >
> > 1. Rename the 'custom' install to 'server' (Colin has already done this)
> >
> > 2. Create an Ubuntu "server edition" for Hoary, which (as I recall) would
> > essentially default to the server installation, rather than the desktop
> 
> In light of the original message posted by Matt (in its full length), I would
> like to resubmit my proposal to split the User Guide into User Guide and
> Admin Guide.
> 
> My reasoning:
> -----------------
> 1. Audience
>  There are two audiences:
>  a.) User = Desktop
>  b.) Admin = Server
> 
>  These audiences have different information requirements.
> 
> 2. Alignment with marketing
>  I quote from Matt's message:
> 
>     "This sounds like an area where the documentation team could get involved;
> this kind of "marketing", I think, boils down to documentation (howtos and
> the like) which happen to be targeted at server configuration and operation."
> 
> Problems I foresee:
> ----------------------
> 1. At present we have one book we need to decide what to split and redress the
> outlines of both books.
> 
> 2. People have had many changes in the past two weeks. My fault but I think it
> was for the better.
> 
> Way forward:
> ---------------
> 1. If people agree then I suggest people finish of any User Guide work they
> are currently doing and commit.
> 
> 2. In the interim I and anyone who wants to help should hammer out proposed
> outlines for User Guide and Admin Guide taking into consideration the current
> User Guide.
> 
> 3. We should then invite comment from marketing and devel. This will help us
> better define the outline and hence create better targets for us.
> 
> 4. We should agree on these outlines and prepare the Admin outline for when
> people have finished their current work.
> 
> 5. When everyone has finished their current work and done their last commit,
> we will split the content in User Guide that should be in Admin Guide into
> the relevant sections.
> 
> 6. We should then realign ourselves so that we each know who is going to take
> what. I envision a list of the docs and their outlines with peoples names
> next to those sections people are or will do. Any sections without an owner
> can then be seen as places for new contributors, or current contributors who
> want to take on more or another section, to take ownership.
> 
> What do people think?
> 
> --
> Sean Wheller
> Technical Author
> sean at inwords.co.za
> http://www.inwords.co.za
> Registered Linux User #375355
> 
> 
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> 
> 
> 
> 


-- 
Robert