Re: Why? -- "A Modest Proposal"
On Thursday 17 November 2016 14:41:23 Richard Owlett wrote:
> On 11/16/2016 8:52 AM, Lisi Reisz wrote:
> > On Wednesday 16 November 2016 14:13:49 Richard Owlett wrote:
> >> There exist SOC <Summer of Code> projects to encourage/mentor
> >> fledgling programmers.
> >> Considering the state of documentation, esp man pages, why no SOD
> >> <Summer of Documentation> projects for potential tech writers.
> >
> > There is no obvious pay-off for Google - or anyone else with money. And
> > it isn't fun.
>
> I don't know how Google internally justifies sponsoring SOC projects.
> I can see their PR department seeing benefits to their corporate
> image.
> Their personnel department may see it as a pool of potential
I would think that both these are valid.
> recruits.
> I know nothing of the quality of code produced by these projects,
> nor of its monetary value. None of the SOC projects I've seen
> mentioned in various fora have been of more than passing interest.
Debian and LibreOffice both find Google's SOC useful. I don't specifically
know about other projects.
> As to "fun", one man's purgatory may be another's nirvana {or
> points between}.
No. The problem here is that the overlap between highly competent technical
people (who find tech fun) and people who love writing, and find writing fun,
is so small. I personally know one, and he is not a developer. Developers
love developing. Writers love writing. Neither regards the other as
occupation as fun.
> The intended point of my second paragraph [which obviously wasn't
> made as nobody commented on it ;] was a sketch of how to attract
> technically oriented high school students to tech writing.
See my paragraph above. And then there is the educational system which here
anyway tends to separate the techy from the arty very young.
>
> > You could always make a start. Have you? This is, after all, open
> > source. And the Wiki is, well, a Wiki. ;-)
The point I was trying to make, and frequently try to make, is that in Open
Source you have to say "This needs doing, I must do it." It is no good
saying "Someone else must do it." Someone else invariably won't.
>
> I don't see myself as having the technical competence to create
> wiki content that would do more harm than good.
>
> I do try to contribute by asking focused questions and when
> relevant draw on 50+ years of troubleshooting to document how I
> came to ask a question. Several here question whether I've
> achieved either.
You could - some people do - gather all that together and put it in the Wiki.
That in itself doesn't contribute to the pool of documentation, at least not
directly. The pool of knowledge, yes, but the pool of "documentation", no.
I try to answer and help here, but could never actually write something
technical. But you (and others) are missing my point. In all voluntary
activities, you only get done what someone wants to do and enjoys doing.
Besides, many of those doing jobs are totally incompetent. The publicity
department (which I think is PAID) of the FSF thinks that Africa is a country
in Europe-Asia and that it is an evening's outing away from the ISLAND of
Great Britain. (She didn't suggest which mode(s) of transport she was
suggesting I should use. I don't think she knew that GB is an island. She
didn't know that Africa is a separate continent, after all.)
We need education first, Richard. Then - what - money? Is the Closed Source
documentation so good? I would have said that using ALL available material
Open Source is better.
Lisi
> > Lisi
> >
> >> In many areas, nerds are considered illiterate. I can see SOD
> >> projects as a vehicle to encourage technically oriented teens to
> >> hone their composition skills. Attempting to edit existing man
> >> pages might be a good starting point. It would obviously require
> >> mentors with an atypical mixture of skill sets.
> >>
> >> P.S. Apologies to J. Swift ;)
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