[oswg] Linux Knowledge Base project (fwd)

[Roger Dingledine <arma@mit.edu>]

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From owner-techwriters@linuxchix.org  Mon Aug 16 20:57:39 1999
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 22:48:13 +0100 (BST)
From: Andrew Wood <ivarch@cus.umist.ac.uk>
To: techwriters@linuxchix.org
Subject: [oswg] Linux Knowledge Base project
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Hello

Sorry my first post here is such a big one, but with the current talk of LDP
indexing and the idea of writing "mini guides" I thought that this would be a
good time to ask for comments about a project I've started in association
with the Independence Linux distribution: the Linux Knowledge Base.

Independence Linux (http://independence.seul.org/) is a distribution aimed at
non-technical users, based on Red Hat.  Now, as some people have mentioned,
HOWTOs and the like are fine as far as they go but aren't very good as
standalone documentation.  Non-technical users need good documentation.

The Linux Knowledge Base project aims to answer all common user questions by
means of a searchable question-and-answer database accessed through a simple
GUI, like MS Office Assistant or the like.  Questions will be of two types:

  * How do I...?
  * What does <x> mean...?

Some questions that have been suggested so far:

  * How do I copy, move, rename, delete..?
  * How do I connect to the Internet?
  * How do I compress or decompress a file?

The answers to these would be, where possible, step-by-step guides assuming
no previous knowledge (any technical terms used must be explained elsewhere
in the Knowledge Base).

I would envision the steps of this project as:

  1. Write an example GUI to give an idea of what is being aimed at.

     (done - see http://www.cus.umist.ac.uk/~ivarch/eg.gif and for a minimal
      development page see http://www.cus.umist.ac.uk/~ivarch/linux/lkb/)

  2. Draw up a list of common questions relevant to everyday computing tasks.

  3. Write answers to these questions in a simple step-by-step manner.

  4. Implement the search engine.

     (this comes last so that question categorisation can be done -after- we
      have an idea of what questions will be asked)

Steps 2 and 3 would be ongoing, ideally with direct feedback from users, and
these are the steps which I hope the OSWG can help with.

As well as suggestions of common questions and offers to write answers to
them, I am looking for advice:

  * What form should the documentation take?
    (HTML?  SGML?  LaTeX?  Texinfo?  Something else?)

  * How should this project be managed?
    (Keep a list of unanswered questions and assign them to people?)

  * What existing sources of information can we reformat and include?
    (LDP?)

  * What about internationalisation?

  * What other things do I need to think about?

This could potentially be a useful, but big, project.  I would very much
appreciate any advice or help that any of you have to offer.

- Andrew