Alfresco - another contender for documentation/i18n work management

Hi Jean, :slight_smile:

Sure, I'll deal with it soon, and will mail you back about it. :wink:

David Nelson

I would like to have an account on the Alfresco site and give it a try. I
might even have time to do some admin work, depending on what's involved. If
you're happy to have a relative newcomer in the role, that is.

Hal

I also would be keen to have a user account to start exploring the
possibilities of implementing the custom workflow we are working
towards.

Hi, Hal, Jean, Michael, :slight_smile:

I have added you as users and members of the Documenters group at
https://documentation.traduction.biz.

Thanks for getting involved in this.

@Hal: I have also made you admin, with full powers to do any stuff on
the site. So if anyone needs assistance with something, you have all the
permissions to do the necessary. A big thanks for your help. :wink:

As soon as I finish my current work on the libreoffice.org website
(latest on Jan 10), I will be able to give all my attention to docs
again.

David Nelson

Hello David,

Op 27/12/2010 5:16, David Nelson schreef:

I will be doing some work on my Alfresco sandbox myself, but it won't
be much of an evaluation of its collaborative capabilities if no-one
else does some actual documentation work there. So I would encourage
other active docs team members to ask me for an account there and try
it out, even if your predispositions are leaning towards other
options. :wink:

Could you set up an account for me?

David Nelson

Many thanks
Best regards

Hi Leo, :slight_smile:

Done. :wink:

David Nelson

Hey if you want me to give it a try too make me a account

Rogerio Luz Coelho

@Ron, @Hal, *,

Can I please have a login setup? I prefer username vardomescro. thank
you in advance.

-- jdc

Done! This was my first try at creating a new user, so I hope it works.
Password sent to you privately.

Hal

Done! Password sent privately to you.
Hal

Much obliged. Worked great. First impression, Alfresco looks like a
great tool. Gonna take some reading to get up to speed.

-- jdc

Just for your knowledge

Afresco seems great, but for the BIG PROJECTS with loads of contributors, we
at the BrOffice Magazine use a synced Dropbox Folder to do our work (we are
currently 4-5 contributors actively translating BrOffice Magazine to
English) and I think if the group is not that big Afresco is kind of
overwhelming.

Just my 2 cents

PS: Seems there were 2 accounts created for me? rogeriocoelho and
rogerioluzcoelho, I am using only rogerioluzcoelho :slight_smile:

Hi Rogerio, :slight_smile:

Afresco seems great, but for the BIG PROJECTS with loads of contributors, we
at the BrOffice Magazine use a synced Dropbox Folder to do our work (we are
currently 4-5 contributors actively translating BrOffice Magazine to
English) and I think if the group is not that big Afresco is kind of
overwhelming.

Frankly, I'm hoping that we're going to became a *somewhat bigger*
team - certainly big enough to seriously envision developing and
maintaining a pretty comprehensive user docs and developer docs
library. Most of all, I want to see docs become a very *active* and
*collaborative* team.

I use Dropbox myself, and it's a great tool. I hadn't thought of it as
a possible tool for the LibreOffice docs team, but I will keep your
words in mind when I start getting properly into Alfresco in the early
days of the New Year. Although it doesn't have the workflow
development capabilities that could be useful... Like you say, Dropbox
is a very simple and practical tool for a small team with good
communication and cooperation habits.

Right now, I see Alfresco as something with much more potential, plus
it has the plugin for OOo/LibO that allows more-direct integration
into the suite. That could give us the ability to develop a
sophisticated workflow control while making the contributor's hands-on
experience quite simple and transparent.

In any case, I'm looking forward to taking a few chapters of the
Writer Guide or developing some chapters of a Calc or Impress guide,
so that we can properly see Alfresco in action.

PS: Seems there were 2 accounts created for me? rogeriocoelho and
rogerioluzcoelho, I am using only rogerioluzcoelho :slight_smile:

Yes, I hadn't seen that Hal already dealt with it. :wink: I deleted the
account I created.

David Nelson

If I could be so bold in suggesting something of a easier task, seems the
INSTALLATION GUIDE PAGE of LibreOffice is very complex and something
out-of-date, as I spoke to you on another thread, we could use this as a
pilot for Afresco ... how about it?

Rogerio

Hi Rogerio, :slight_smile:

If I could be so bold in suggesting something of a easier task, seems the
INSTALLATION GUIDE PAGE of LibreOffice is very complex and something
out-of-date, as I spoke to you on another thread, we could use this as a
pilot for Afresco ... how about it?

You mean the Linux installation guide? Well, we *could* do - it's a
"small" task, and that makes it a good choice in a way. But it's also
going to end up as libreoffice.org content (HTML), and I would need it
quickly for publication on the site. So that means I would have to
dilute my focus on the site for enough time to get my head into the
Alfresco collaborative process, so that we can work on it together.

I will look at your instructions on the wiki later, and compare it
with the ones on the libreoffice.org site, and then post back on the
other thread. :wink:

David Nelson

Hi Leo, Hal, all, :slight_smile:

@Leo: OK, we can add you as admin. I don't in any way want to be
"control freak"-ish, and I certainly want to give you the ability to
actively contribute to the development of a docs workflow. Maybe you
can also help evaluate the possible potential for integration of i18n
work, too.

Can I just take this chance to suggest some working rules for us, as
regards the Alfresco site?

First of all, let's think of this Alfresco site like this:

I originally had it set-up with the idea that it gives the LibO docs
team an opportunity to evaluate Alfresco.

*If* the team likes it and *if* there is serious uptake, there would
be two ways to go:

a) We get Florian and Christian to set up an Alfresco installation on
the Ooodev De server infrastructure, and we migrate the whole thing
over there, with all the developed workflows and all the accumulated
docs and data. This would be my preferred solution, but I'm not sure
if I will then have OS access via SSH to do any maintenance necessary.
That would depend on Florian's and Christian's ideas on the subject.

b) If those guys don't have much time for that, or if they decide they
don't want to take on the maintenance of an Alfresco installation, we
*could* keep using the current installation at
https://documentation.traduction.biz *if* the SC decides that they
prefer to assign a libreoffice.org sub-domain instead. In this case, I
would re-configure my Apache server accordingly, and we would stay
where we are; just the domain name would change:
documentation.libreoffice.org, or something like that.

If a) then the current Alfresco install is going to revert to me for
my own future professional usage.

If b) then the current Alfresco install is going to be our future working tool.

In either case, we should not think of this Alfresco as an expendable
sandbox in which we can do "quick-and-dirty" things. :wink: We should
*try* not to break anything (although if we do, I can get things fixed
very quickly via the paid technical support I have). :wink: And we all
need to *RTFM* before attempting things. :smiley:

This being said, a tool is no good unless you can do things with it,
so do go for it.

But let's talk about things on the list beforehand, so that everyone
is aware of what's going on, and we can be sure that we're not working
at cross-purposes with each other.

While we're developing workflows for the site, and re-configuring
things, it would be a really good idea to *document* what we develop,
for future reference.

I haven't discussed the idea with Hal yet, but I hope that he's going
to act as our "lead admin", especially during the next couple of weeks
- but even after that, too. He's investing time in learning Alfresco,
and his work for LibreOffice is entirely focussed on docs. Plus he's
an experienced technical writer. So, if he accepts the idea, he's our
anchorman for all Alfresco site admin. In that case, he should be
*kept informed* about how the site is developed.

I also suggest that we invite Michael Wheatland and Jean Weber to
become site admins.

Michael has ideas for developing possible docs and i18n workflows, and
it would be interesting to see how they could maybe work on an
Alfresco platform. At the very least, there can be an interesting
interaction of ideas.

Jean has said she is taken up with administering her Plone-based web.
But I think it would be interesting for her to be able to get a look
behind the scenes at Alfresco, for the development of her own project,
and maybe to feed back about differences of approach. I see her access
as purely "passive". The ability to look around, but without actually
"touching" anything.

By the way, if any Alfresco discussions look like developing into a
big conversation of their own, I suggest you just spin-off a new
thread, and include "ALFRESCO" in the subject line.

What do you think about all this, guys?

David Nelson

For starters, let's clear up one thing: I'm a "she", not a "he". :wink:
(Hal is short for Halcyon, a fine old name that's a bit old fashioned these
days.}

At this point, I am not prepared to act as "lead admin". I have too many
interests to invest a lot of time into LibreOffice, and I don't think it's
fair (to me, or to the group) to take on a role that IMO needs a lot of
commitment of time. It starts feeling too much like a job, and I'm out of
there!

I am interested in learning about what one can do with Alfresco, and I'll
certainly feed back to the group any ideas or opinions I have after doing
some homework and playing around with the site, but I may not do enough soon
enough to be a lot of help in the evaluation process. Especially since I'd
like to keep helping out with producing the docs themselves, though I'm not
doing a lot of that either at the moment.

Hal

Hi Hal, :slight_smile:

For starters, let's clear up one thing: I'm a "she", not a "he". :wink:
(Hal is short for Halcyon, a fine old name that's a bit old fashioned these
days.}

Oh! Wow! So sorry about that! I did not realize. :wink:

At this point, I am not prepared to act as "lead admin". I have too many
interests to invest a lot of time into LibreOffice, and I don't think it's
fair (to me, or to the group) to take on a role that IMO needs a lot of
commitment of time. It starts feeling too much like a job, and I'm out of
there!

OK, sure, I understand. No problem. Then it falls on me. :wink:

I am interested in learning about what one can do with Alfresco, and I'll
certainly feed back to the group any ideas or opinions I have after doing
some homework and playing around with the site, but I may not do enough soon
enough to be a lot of help in the evaluation process. Especially since I'd
like to keep helping out with producing the docs themselves, though I'm not
doing a lot of that either at the moment.

OK. If you feel like working on docs, you might *consider* doing it on
the Alfresco site?
But, obviously, that's entirely your decision. :wink:

David Nelson

Hi Hal, :slight_smile:

> For starters, let's clear up one thing: I'm a "she", not a "he". :wink:
> (Hal is short for Halcyon, a fine old name that's a bit old fashioned
these
> days.}

Oh! Wow! So sorry about that! I did not realize. :wink:

I'm sure I should not derive such delight from watching people make wrong
assumptions. :smiley:

> I am interested in learning about what one can do with Alfresco, and I'll
> certainly feed back to the group any ideas or opinions I have after doing
> some homework and playing around with the site, but I may not do enough
soon
> enough to be a lot of help in the evaluation process. Especially since
I'd
> like to keep helping out with producing the docs themselves, though I'm
not
> doing a lot of that either at the moment.

OK. If you feel like working on docs, you might *consider* doing it on
the Alfresco site?
But, obviously, that's entirely your decision. :wink:

To me, the Alfresco site (or any other) is where the docs are stored,
checked out and in, tracked for who's working on them, etc. (The work is
done offline in LibreOffice.) So yes, I'll certainly use the Alfresco site,
once I figure out how to organise the work there. I am composing a separate
note for a new thread on this topic.

Hal

Jean has said she is taken up with administering her Plone-based web.

What takes up most of my available time is updating OOo documentation...
to the point where I don't have time to write more to fill in gaps and
expand the range of user docs available. And certainly no time to learn
about new systems like Alfresco, much as I have an interest in doing so.

But I think it would be interesting for her to be able to get a look
behind the scenes at Alfresco, for the development of her own project,
and maybe to feed back about differences of approach. I see her access
as purely "passive". The ability to look around, but without actually
"touching" anything.

I wish you'd get off this thing about OOo/ODFAuthors being "my" project
or "my" website. It happens to be where I spend a lot of time and
energy, but it's a community of people just as the LibO Docs group is a
community of people. I just herd the cats.

That said, yes I also think it will be interesting for me to get a look
behind the scenes at Alfresco. I don't mind having admin access as long
as you don't expect me to actually DO anything. :wink:

--Jean