Re: [oswg] Linux Knowledge Base project

[Aaron Turner <aturner@linuxkb.org>]

I'll take a quick stab at answering your questions.

On Tue, 17 Aug 1999, Roger Dingledine wrote:
>  
> > On Tue, 17 Aug 1999, Roger Dingledine wrote:
> > 
> > > We've already started a Linux Knowledge Base Project, at
> > > http://www.linuxkb.org/
> > 
> > !!!  Roger -- this looks an awful lot like the Open Source Documentation
> > Index idea I was talking about here.  
> > 
> > I have some questions, however:
> > 
> > 1) Will the LinuxKBP have human "guides" akin to those at
> > theminingco.com?  People who are able to volunteer as librarians to
> > filter thought things and rate/annotate/organize things with a human
> > touch?  

We were planning on calling them "category managers" (CM), but basically
its the same thing.  Category managers will look for existing content that
applies to their category and index it manually.  They will also be the
quality check for people who write content for us.

> > I see that there's the intent that all docs will be hand-catagorized,
> > but will this catagorization include creating an abstract for that
> > document so people can get an idea if it's what they're looking for
> > without having to actually go read it?  

That is something that is planned.  How it will be implimented I'm not
sure at this point.  We're expecting most people to utilize the search
engine interface to actually locate content rather than drilling down the
article tree.  The abstracts that the search engine provides for each
article can be placed in a META tag- this will override the default of
using the top 1000 bytes as the abstract.  

> > Will the catagorization include
> > a rating system, so the guides (and even users) can rate the quality and
> > usefulness of the document?  Will the catagorization include a "prereq
> > skill level" rating, telling people whether the document is written
> > assuming the reader is a "new user", a "casual user", an "advanced
> > user", or a "guru"?  Etc.

People will be able to rate content based on how it helped them.  I'm not
aware of any plans to index based on that rating.  We haven't discussed a
skill level rating.

> > 2) Is the LinuxKBP limited to Linux-specific documentation/information?
> > For example, if Jane happens need information about FreeBSD, will the
> > LKBP be of any use to her whatsoever?  (From the name, I would have to
> > assume that it is Linux-specific).

We don't plan on hosting other OS specific content.  Articles related to
getting NFS/Samba/Mail/ftp/etc working with other OS's would be accepted
though.

> > 3) Are you serious about mirroring all existing content?  Perhaps I've
> > misread this, but it seems like the LKBP is looking to actually keep a
> > copy of all Linux-related open source documentation on your machines.

Yes.  Our sponsors provided us with really nice hardware.  Our web/search
server is a dual Xeon 500 w/ 1GB RAM, and 45GB hardware RAID 5.  We have
another server dedicated to hosting our MySQL DB backend which is a P2
450Mhz, 256MB RAM, and 9GB RAID1.

Of course copywrites that the original authors have may prevent us
mirroring certain content, but that seems to be a rare issue.

> > 4) Is there a mailing list or other public forum for discussing the
> > KLBP?  (I'm very interested in knowing how the project is progressing,
> > and if there's a mailing list, I will subscribe).

We have two public lists and a developers only list.  The public lists are
pretty un-active though (mostly because we're working rather than talking
to the public).

To subscribe, send an email to:
majordomo@seul.org

and in the body put:
subscribe linuxkb-discuss
-or-
subscribe linuxkb-announce


> > 5) Have you made any decisions about the format in which new
> > documentation should be submitted?  (and all that that entails)

We're working on two methods.  One will be a web based interface/form.
Pretty standard.  The other will be a mail gateway.  Basically, people can
send in either formatted or un-formatted emails that will get archived in
the DB.  Either the sender or one of our minions will then take the email
and format it into a useful form for inclusion into the article tree.  The
basic goal is that when someone on the redhat-list or whatever replies to
Joe Newbie, he cc's submit@linuxkb.org and we get additional content.  I
expect this to account for 90% of our user contributed content.

> > If you would like, I could add the LinuxKBP as a "project" on the OSWG
> > site with a description, contact information, and a related discussion
> > group (on the fancy new OSWG Discussion Board :).  Let me know.

We're always looking for more press, so that would be great.

If you have any more questions, you know where to fine me. ;-)

--
Aaron Turner, Core Developer       http://vodka.linuxkb.org/~aturner/
Linux Knowledge Base Organization  http://linuxkb.org/
Because world domination requires quality open documentation.