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

Responding to a thread on the marketing list, and taking it to Docs as well.

The general topic of paying some people to work on documentation has come up before but was not 
really discussed here. The context was submitting a list of items to be considered for inclusion in 
the budget for TDF. 

There are many things on the Docs wish list that no one is working on at this time, but which could 
be valuable additions to the delivery of information to users. Professional quality video 
tutorials. Well written, up to date, thorough information targeted at specific audiences such as 
business installations, accessibility, and others. Training materials (workbooks). And so on. Some 
of these could be specified and contracted to appropriately skilled and knowledgeable people, to be 
paid for. This would not overlap with work being done on the user guides, FAQs, etc, by volunteers. 
I think it's well worth considering.

If this were to occur, I would certainly not envision that consideration for payment would be 
restricted to TDF members. Did anyone suggest that might be the case? 

Where would the money come from? Probably the general budget, from TDF's fund-raising, but only if 
we made a case for it. BTW, book sales raise around $100-$200 per month; this is not enough to 
cover many payments for work done, but it's quite a bit more than what Tom suggests as "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." 

--Jean

On 23/01/2013, at 1:04, Tom Davies <tomdavies04@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> 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)
> >   [...]
> >
> > 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

-- 
Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to marketing+help@global.libreoffice.org
Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/
Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette
List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/marketing/
All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted