[ILUG] grokdoc...

[kevin lyda]

On Sun, Apr 18, 2004 at 07:12:25PM +0100, Timothy Murphy wrote:
> >         http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20040418085408603
> I looked quickly at this, but I didn't see any documentation -
> has any actually been produced?

well that's the story announcing the project.  if you read it it's kind
of obvious that they're looking for help setting up a wiki so that kind
of implies the wiki isn't there yet.

but for people who are interested in better docs from a non-geek
perspective, *now* would be a good time to get involved.  to help direct
the project so that it will help you.

> I must admit I'm slightly dubious.
> While much documentation written by geeks is bad,
> the only good documentation I have seen _was_ written by geeks.

to be honest, i'm dubious too.  but pj has built up a pretty impressive
website in groklaw.  and it's not just her doing the work - she's
got a whole collection of volunteers who gather docs and do research.
she's obviously a do'er and organiser, not a talker.  so i think the
effort might succeed in ways other projects have failed.

if people here want better docs for newbies or are just interested in the
technical side of wiki's, then i think it's a good place to volunteer.
even grammar mavens that bitch about geek/american spelling/grammar have
a role here.

that story allows you to comment, and the main site will doubtless have
a few more announcements.

> I'm willing to try, but I don't have much confidence
> that documentation written by people who acknowledge they have no expertise
> will be very useful.
> 
> [I'm just wondering if a book on the calculus by someone who admitted
> they didn't know much about the subject could possibly be of  value.]

no, but a book on cars by a person who isn't an automotive engineer
would probably be more useful to a car buyer then one that is written
by an automotive engineer.

obviously geeks will have a role in such a project.  it won't happen on
some secret website only newbies can access.  and i suspect there will
be requests for certain applications or features.  for instance the
person this weekend who asked about adding a disk to their system.  it
would be nice to have a gui tool to do this on a desktop.

kevin

-- 
kevin at ie.suberic.net  ~  "you're either with us or against us." --gw bush.
                         in that simplistic world-view liberals and
                         progressives are "us" and bush and bin laden are
                         "against us."
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