ubuntu-manual team mailing list archive

[Kevin Godby <kevin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ubuntu Manual Project
Meeting Minutes of March 31, 2012
#ubuntu-manual on irc.freenode.net

##Attendees

The following people attended the meeting:

* benonsoftware
* c7p
* carsten
* daker
* godbyk
* hannie
* tomswartz07
* ajmontag


### Call to order

godbyk opened the meeting at 20:09 UTC.


### Release of Getting Started with Ubuntu 11.10

Getting Started with Ubuntu 11.10 was released earlier this week.
Congratulations and many thanks to all those helped make it possible.

Diksha Gupta of EFYTimes.com wrote a short article about the release:
<http://news.efytimes.com/e1/80966/Here-Comes-Ubuntu-Manual>

Problems we faced during the Oneiric cycle

The collection of screenshots was one of the major hold-ups in the
release of the 11.10 manual. Many screenshots were taken at the wrong
resolution. A few screenshots were simply missing – that is, they were
included in the manual (\screenshot{...}) but not uploaded to the
repository.

[ACTION] To help alleviate these problems in the future, we will
provide clear instructions on how to take the screenshots and insert
them in the manual. The chapter author and editor are responsible for
the screenshots that appear in their chapter. These instructions
should appear in the style guide.

[ACTION] Explicitly spell out the duties of the chapter author and
editor so they know what their responsibilities are.

Reviewing/proofreading also took too long.

One positive note, however, is that the authors performed well and
didn't abandon us.

Hannie proposed a possible solution: have two people in charge of each
chapter: an author and an editor. Both people report to the
editor-in-chief on a regular basis.  The author and editor of each
chapter is responsible for collecting the screenshots used in that
chapter.

tomswartz07 mentioned that reading through the chapter and figuring
out what had changed with the new version of Ubuntu was one of the
more difficult tasks the author faces.

[ACTION] Hannie will email the authors to assess what problems they
encountered during the previous release cycle.


### Collecting list of changes between 11.10 and 12.04

[ACTION] The authors will be responsible for determining what needs to
be updated from 11.10 to 12.04.


### Clarify responsibilities of the various roles (authors, editors, etc.)

Authors are responsible for the screenshots in their own chapter. They
are also repsonsible for determining what needs to be updated in their
chapter.

The chapter editors are responsible for copy-editing their chapters.

The editor-in-chief is responsible for coordinating with the chapter
authors and editors, keeping everyone on task, and maintaining the
schedule. The editor-in-chief is also who makes the final call on when
the manual gets published.

[ACTION] Provide clearer lists of responsibilities and guidance for
each of these roles.
[ACTION] godbyk will create a draft list of responsibilities for each
of the roles and post it to the mailing list for feedback.


### Format of the next version of the manual

godbyk looked at Booktype <http://www.sourcefabric.org/en/booktype/>
and converted the prologue chapter from LaTeX to Booktype's online
editor. Booktype's design appears to be geared toward generated ePUB
primarily, and so it doesn't support all of the elements of our
current manual (e.g., margin notes).  If you'd like to view the
prologue in ePUB format and play with their online editor, create an
account on <http://booktype-demo.sourcefabric.org/> and email
<kevin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> and he'll give you access to the private
manual project he's started.  Note that this manual exists solely for
testing purposes.


### Strict deadline

We will hold another meeting to set a deadline after we have an idea
of what changes need to be made for the 12.04 edition. The deadline to
be set by the editor-in-chief.


### Promoting the manual: blogs, twitter, articles, etc.

In the future, we will strive to do a better job of promoting our
manual through various outlets including blogs, Twitter, articles on
OMG! Ubuntu~ and other new sites, etc.


### Next meeting

[ACTION] c7p will establish a date/time for the next meeting


### Meeting adjourned

The meeting was adjourned at 21:27 UTC.


--Kevin Godby <kevin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>