Re: List contains more SPAM than content
On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 05:26:28AM -0300, Barbara Figueirido wrote:
> On the other hand it is also true that we non-technical
> users/would-be producers do need technical support, and technical
> people don't seem quite interested on making lawyer's lives better or
> funnier (maybe people don't like lawyers as much as doctors ;) ).
Well, that's the point of all this Debian Pure Blend stuff: Bringing
together techies and non-techies - at least this is my understanding of
the Debian Med project and there it works to some degree. Non-techies
try to pronounce their ideas and needs and techies try to implement it
into solid Debian packages to make sure the non-techies just have an
option of "one-click-installation" instead of fiddling around with
strange installation instructions etc. In several talks I have a slide
about the role of Debian developers: We are the missing link between
upstream developers and users and in a Blend we just focus an a specific
user group. But we actually need the input of users which is obviosely
not happening here on this list. (And to make sure that you understand
me correctly: While I'm interested that Debian Lex will be successful my
part in this can and will be *very* limited because I will spend my few
spare time fully into Debian Med and the general Blends stuff. So my
part in the Debian Lex project can only be a very small one consiting of
advises from my experience.)
> I feel that we could point out such developments as the one you sent,
> Andreas, in the wiki, not only as possible packages, but as real
> news,
If you want to use the Wiki make sure you will not duplicate content.
So rather use the tasks file and let the tool automatically generate the
content. Than just *link* to the according paragraph on the tasks page.
This has two advantages: 1. The tasks page remains your central place of
gathering information. 2. You advertise this place via the Wiki and thus
attract people to this.
> so that the targeted audience could see some practical
> benefits; maybe, add also only indirectly related news (or links
> thereto), like projects aiming to get paperless in courts, that might
> involve digital signatures via openoffice (there is such a project
> coming to life here in Bariloche), I believe that people might get
> more involved if they see the project addresses real needs with
> already available solutions.
This is actually a cruxial point.
> (I think it's worth mentioning here that
> only very few of the packages or meta-packages proposed are fully
> functional, most of the once promising developments require much
> technical re-working).
Sure. Just start pointing out the problems you knonow here on this list
or by filing bug reports against these packages using the reportbug
tool.
> Another issue that makes this project a bit hard to get going, I
> think, is the great variety of needs to be addressed, which differ
> from country to country, and even within the same country.
Yes. You are perfectly in the same boat as the medical practice
management developers. But you *have to* find a way to find an
international abstraction layer at some point to make Free Software a
success. The fact that very few people are developing such applications
means you need to unite worldwide (including localising the
applications). Free Software lives because a community cares about it
and if there is no real community you will not be able to compete with
proprietary software. Typically the community in only one country is
to small for very specific applications.
> Maybe we
> should try to get a gist of what is common to all of them, at least
> as a begin (for example, it seems that we can tell that -even if
> there are differences in implementation- almost everybody needs to
> have access to court proceedings; that everybody needs some sort of
> case-tracking system; that everybody needs to write documents, and so
> on). If we could point out these common needs and then get to the
> different variations, we would have some ground to go off...
Exactly.
> I will send a summary translation of your messages and this mail to
> the spanish-speaking people that have shown interest on the project,
> in the hope that they also get involved as part of the community.
Good luck.
> Thank you again for your input, we stay in touch, I hope
;-)
Kind regards
Andreas.
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