Re: [oswg] Linux Knowledge Base project (fwd)

[Roger Dingledine <arma@mit.edu>]

You guys should really get a presence going on the oswg, at
least to quell the new start-ups. And you could get some
good press/volunteers if you do it right.

Forwarded message:
Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1999 04:54:26 +0100 (BST)
From: Andrew Wood <ivarch@cus.umist.ac.uk>
To: techwriters@linuxchix.org
Subject: Re: [oswg] Linux Knowledge Base project
Reply-To: techwriters@linuxchix.org

On Tue, 24 Aug 1999, Nik Clayton wrote:

> A couple of comments about technical issues that you (and anyone else
> considering implementing something like this) might want to consider.
>
>  1.  Revision control.  How are you going to track changes to the questions
>      (and the answers) so that you can properly attribute changes to 
>      individuals.

This is something I hadn't thought of.  Perhaps either a set of changelog
files, one per question/answer pair, or something more complex like CVS.

I don't really know what the pros and cons of either approach would be.

>  2.  Mirroring.  Resources like this are much more useful if they can be
>      mirrored.  Both in the large sense of having multiple servers around
>      the globe, so that people can be directed to the closest server to them
>      as necessary, and in the smaller sense of people maintaining local 
>      mirrors of the information on their computers.

My thought was that the data could be held on users' computers, and that
when they wished they would click an "update" button to check the web site -
or the nearest mirror, as you suggest - for updates.  A web-only version
would also be available so one-off users wouldn't have to download it.

Being on a slow dialup connection myself, I agree that keeping a local copy
can be much cheaper (and more convenient) than having to connect to the
Internet all the time, which is why I wanted to design it this way.

>  3.  Multiple language support.  If there's one thing working on the FreeBSD
>      Documentation Project has taught me is that there are huge numbers of
>      people in non-English speaking countries who are willing to put in 
>      immense amount of effort to translate documentation from English to 
>      their native language.

Internationalisation has been sitting at the back of my mind, though mainly
as a programming issue: I don't really know how to go about writing a search
engine that is completely nonspecific as regards language yet accurate
enough to be useful.  It's a difficult problem and not one I feel able to
solve at the moment, so I'm currently in discussion with someone about it.

> I hope the three points above show why this isn't quite that easy, and
> that spending some time designing this now will save a lot of pain later.

Yes, I had realised that this sort of project can be pretty difficult. 
Responding to your message has forced me to collect some thoughts together
about it, since it's all been pretty abstract so far.

What it has done is to bring these points into focus:

  1.  The scope and aims of the project need to be defined.  Who is the
      target?  What questions are to be answered?  (Perhaps someone more
      familiar with big projects can suggest a better framework)

      This is the first thing that needs doing, since for a start I myself
      could do with being convinced that this project is a good idea and
      that people will find it useful.

  2.  There are organisational aspects which need thinking about, such as
      revision control, developmental structure (centralised, i.e. one
      person merges changes; hierarchical, i.e. many people can do so; etc -
      I can't think of more just now), and maybe more.

  3.  A forum in which discussion and work can take place needs to be
      created.  This means a web site, a mailing list, both, or something
      else.  This I can do (though a web site would have to wait a bit). 
      Also perhaps registration of a name like "www.oskb.org" when money
      permits.

  4.  There must be some publicity at some point to attract volunteers, or
      this project will be dead before it has begun.

Again I find myself shouting "Help!" - but I don't know where to shout.
Where would be a good place to ask for help starting this thing up, bearing
in mind that I'd rather get a small core of idea developers first and then
publicise it "properly" to bring in more volunteers once there is something
to actually work on?

Basically at the moment I need people more familiar with project management
than I am, since my background is not software engineering or business or
anything like that but physics, and so I feel somewhat out of my depth in
planning how to get the ball rolling.

Thanks for the comments so far.

- Andrew