Re: [libreoffice-marketing] A documentation project for Scilab and other FOSS

Hi :)
I don't see how this would be possible in LibreOffice and even if it was i'm not sure it wouldn't 
back-fire.  People currently or previously in the Docs Team might be offended that it wasn't 
offered earlier.  People doing similar levels of work in other areas might get offended.  

Of course we already know that some people are getting paid to do work (mostly by supporter 
organisations (either listed or unofficial supporters)) and others volunteering.  That doesn't seem 
to create problems so perhaps this wouldn't either.  

If TDF do go this route then as a volunteer i don't know whether i would prefer it if people 
getting paid were excluded or not.  Generally i think that i personally would prefer it if everyone 
was treated equally regardless of whether they were paid or not.  If it was restricted to just 
official members of TF then i probably would be a little upset because i see a LOT of non-members 
doing a LOT of the work.  

Also i don't see where the money would come from.  Would it be paid out of the fundraising done by 
TDF?  The official guides themselves don't raise enough revenue to cover such costs and that was 
not the reason for selling through Lulu and Ubuntu's place.  The amounts raised that way are 
deliberately tiny and are barely enough to cover the costs of appearing in such places in the first 
place with perhaps a little bit to cover contingencies and maybe push into other similar 
distribution networks.  

Regards from
Tom :)  






> ________________________________
> From: Kannan Moudgalya <kannan@iitb.ac.in>
> To: "marketing@global.libreoffice.org" <marketing@global.libreoffice.org> 
> Sent: Sunday, 20 January 2013, 2:36
> Subject: [libreoffice-marketing] A documentation project for Scilab and other FOSS
>
> Dear All,
>
> I am not sure whether the documentation project that we have implemented for Scilab, Python and a 
> few other FOSS systems will be applicable, or even relevant, to LibreOffice.  Let me explain the 
> Scilab Textbook Companion (http://scilab.in/Textbook_Companion_Project) below:
>
>   1. Worked out examples from standard textbooks (mainly engineering)
>      are coded in Scilab and uploaded on to our portal
>   2. We pay honoraria to the creators (about $200) and to the reviewers
>      (about $100)
>   3. The code in tgz form can be downloaded from the same portal by the
>      public, even without registering
>   4. Using LaTeX and bash, we automatically convert the code into a
>      book form (~100 pages) and offer it also for free download
>   5. About 150+ textbook companions have been completed and another 100
>      are in progress
>   7. As this is crowd sourced, we are achieving massive scale up
>   8. As many students and faculty members participate in this activity,
>      Scilab itself gets used widely
>   9. This is repeated for a few other FOSS systems as well, such as
>      Python, OpenFOAM (alternative to Fluent and StarCD) and OSCAD
>      (alternative to OrCAD)
> 10. As one needs the textbook to understand the code, it is a true
>      companion - as nothing from the textbook is reproduced, there is
>      no copyright violation either
>
> If the above is not applicable for LibreOffice, can we think of another crowd sourced, targeted, 
> activity?  If by chance such a crowd sourced activity is already available for LibreOffice, we 
> would like to explore it for India.
>
> Regards,
>
> Kannan
>
>
>
>
>
> -- Bridging digital divide through FOSS and helping migration to Scilab from Matlab
> http://spoken-tutorial.org/CSI.pdf
> http://spoken-tutorial.org/What-is-a-Spoken-Tutorial-2-Minute-Video-English
> http://spoken-tutorial.org/What_is_a_Spoken_Tutorial_English
> http://scilab.in/Textbook_Companion_Project
> http://scilab.in/Lab_Migration_Project
>
>
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