Re: [seul-edu] School Networking Guide (was: need detailed networkadvice)

[Jeff Waddell <jeff@smluc.org>]

Hello Ray,

On Sat, 2 Sep 2000, Ray Olszewski wrote:

-->Date: Sat, 02 Sep 2000 10:22:09 -0700
-->From: Ray Olszewski <ray@comarre.com>
-->Reply-To: seul-edu@seul.org
-->To: seul-edu@seul.org
-->Subject: Re: [seul-edu] School Networking Guide (was: need detailed  network
    advice)
-->
-->Response at end. 
-->
-->Doug - the response mentions waiting a week. There is nothing magic about
-->that length of time, but it seemed like a reasonable compromise between
-->making sure everybody saw the message and not letting this sit around
-->forever (especially since this is a holiday weekend in the USA). Do you
-->think a different "waiting period" would be better?
-->
-->At 07:51 AM 9/2/00 EDT, Douglas Loss wrote:
-->>On Fri, 01 Sep 2000, Ray Olszewski wrote:
-->>> I don't know of one book (or any other one source) that covers
-->>> this range of
-->>> stuff. At least not that covers it all *well* ... ...
-->>You know, this is what the SEUL/edu documentation project (the
-->>Educational HOWTOs) was started for.  Something dealing with
-->>this question (a School Networking Guide) would be a welcome
-->>addition, just like L Prevett's Math Teacher's Guide.  Let's see
-->>if we can create the central document you're all saying doesn't
-->>currently exist.
-->>
-->>Ray, this may be presumptuous, but would you be willing to
-->>oversee the creation of such a document?  We'd need an outline
-->>of what needs to be covered and they volunteers to write the
-->>various sections, with an overall manager (that'd be you) to
-->>make sure all the bits fit together well.  What do yousay?
-->
-->This is an idea that interests me, enough so to explore it some more but not
-->*yet* enough for me to commit to it. It is easy to say an idea is "good" and
-->start in on it, but a lot harder to carry it through to completion. To help
-->figure out not whether the idea is "good" but whether it is "good enough",
-->let me pose three requests.
-->
-->1. Do others on the list see this as a valuable project?

There is a discussion going on another list I'm on, that being able to
point to this resource would be very nice for.

--> If you have an
-->opinion on this, please respond, either on the list or privately to me (as
-->you prefer). I'll summarize the responses after a week. I will respect the
-->privacy of messsages sent to me privately, but I will include their essence
-->in my summary.
-->
-->2. Are their enough volunteers interested in this project? My initial
-->estimate is that it would take about a dozen people, aside from myself, to
-->do this right, without overly burdening any one of us. So, if you are
-->willing to volunteer, please post a message saying so, along with two details:
-->
-->        1. your suggestions as to what the scope of the document
-->                should be (ideally, a proposed list of chapters)
-->

This should be done by somebody who is either currently going through
the process or has done so.  I personally have not set up for a school
setting and therefore am not aware of all the idioscracies involved (it's
not quite the same as a corporate network (and I've set very few of
those up).

-->        2. an indication of that pieces of #1 you would be willing to 
-->                take on writing the initial draft of.
-->

After I see what is needed above I could probably pick something to rough
draft.

-->Again, feel free to respond privately or on the list. In a week, I will
-->report back the results, including the actual list (names and e-mail
-->addresses) of everyone who volunteered. ("Volunteers" who say they do not
-->want their identities revealed do not count toward the total.)
-->

My time is limited and my hardware is flaky, however I think I can get a
text editor to still work.....I hope!

-->3. This one is a bit more personal -- while I will consider taking on the
-->role of onverseeing, editing, and contributing to the CONTENT of this
-->prospective document, I do not want to take on the "desktop publishing"
-->aspects of the project. I personally find applications like Xemacs and LyX
-->hard to use, and creating source documents that conform to the LinuxDoc or
-->DocBook standards is difficult for me.(Or as I've put it elsewhere -- I want
-->to *write* documentation, not *program* documentation.)
-->

I'm not interested in this at this time either as I don't know these
formats and they would slow me down considerable.  vim or pico should be
all I need for content.

-->I know others find the step of going from a text "manuscript" to a LinuxDoc
-->or DocBook source file easy or interesting or fun. (I know this because the
-->preceding comments always elicit responses that if I just "gave it a try",
-->I'd come to like it. I did "give it a try" and I didn't come to like it, so
-->that's not the solution.) I need at least one person to volunteer to handle
-->this step without any help from me (beyond producing the source document in
-->text format). 
-->

Who are these other's and do they volunteer for this aspect?

-->Here too, reply privately or on the list, as you prefer. In either case,
-->once again, I will report back in a week on the results of this request,
-->including the name and e-mail address of anyone who does volunteer. And here
-->too, "secret" volunteering doesn't count.
-->
-->I welcome any other responses as well, either on the list of privately. I
-->will consider them to the appropriate degree ... but the responses to the
-->three requests I posed above will primarily guide whether I elect to take
-->this project on. If I do take it on, I see my role as
-->        
-->        finalizing the outline and doling out writing assignments
-->
-->        writing one or two chapters myself
-->

I see myself potentially writing a few chapters or sprucing up some
already written one's.  Spanish translation is possible by unlikely
(technical Spanish isn't quite the same as what I learned in college) and
besides we have a few native writers/speakers for the task, no?! ;)

--> serving as general editor -->
-->        managing the process of getting user feedback and coordinating
-->                updates (which will require an ongoing commitment
-->                from the volunteer writers and volunteer "publisher")
-->
-->Finally, some members of this list might find the style of this message
-->pushy or offensive (or something worse, I suppose).

hnnh?

--> While that is not my
-->intention in posting it, my intention IS to try to be realistic about what
-->this project would take to succeed, and to convey something of my personal
-->style to those of you who might be working with me over the next few months. 
-->

Is it wise to keep this type document in the seul.edu arena ONLY.  Or
should it be coordinated with projects such as the LDP?

<snip>

Jeff Waddell
jeff@smluc.org