ubuntu-manual team mailing list archive

[c7p <c7p.admin@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello all,

thank you for your interest in Ubuntu Manual !

I want to say a welcome to the new authors and other contributors as well and
a thank you for the contributors that continue their work !

Ubuntu  12.04 is going to be released in the next hours, the schedule of
the manual is to be confirmed [0] and almost all section have an author.
It's time to start working on the new manual and provide a great guide to
the community of Ubuntu, and especially the new members of it.

This mail will try to give authors some guidelines and also answer some
possible questions that you have.
 Of course it can't answer all questions so feel free to send your replies.


Before continue reading this mail make sure you've read the "General
Knowledge" section of the following page [1] (check the end of the mail for
the link)


As you've read, contributors share their work on a bazaar branch and the
manual consists of Latex format files.

In  the previous manual, we gave the option of submitting LibreOffice
documents on an UbuntuOne shared folder to the authors, instead
of  sharing Latex files on the branch. This was a good practice for those
who didn't have the time to learn latex or found it too complex.

After  the final submission of their documents me, Hannie, Kevin and other
members of the team translate these documents into latex.
We should give the same option to new authors as well, but i think  that
sharing your work through bazaar and writing
your  text into latex it's the most direct way of collaboration as the
UbuntuOne folder is private by default whereas the branch is open to the
world.

Latex  is like html, you use tags to format the text, that's all. Of
course  you don't have to search the whole Internet to find the
command  you want to use, Kevin has written a style guide for authors and
other  contributors that contain all the Latex commands that
you'll ever need [4], it's a great reference.

For now, as you may haven't installed and played with Latex, this seems too
much of theory and i understand it.

*[1] has all the information on how to get our bazzar branch to your local
computer and how to install Latex.*

Try  to install it, if you face any problem post them to the mailing list.
Finally after playing with it, if you see that Latex confuses and you can't
work with it
let me know it in order to create an UbuntuOne folder so as you can submit
your work as LibreOffice docs. Latex always deserves the effort though :).

That's all the techy stuff from now and on, nothing more nothing less.



Now, here is some information about how author should do their job:

1) Check the material of the previous manual, track changes, make an
outline  what their chapter should contain, and share it on [2]
2) Communicate with other authors through the mailing list. Usually you'll
find yourself wanting to know if something is written on an other part  of
the manual, or wanting to ask other authors about something else. It  seems
that the better the communication though contributors is the more
consistent the manual is. So do communicate, i want to see the mailing
list full of mails !
3) Gather the information and material you need for your section
4) All authors should follow the same *Writing Style* and know the *target
audience* [3].
5) Write your section

Regarding [3], if you think that the Writing Style guidelines and target
group require changes feel free to express yourself.


[0] https://lists.launchpad.net/ubuntu-manual/msg02971.html
[1] http://ubuntu-manual.org/getinvolved/authors
[2] http://pad.ubuntu-uk.org/precise-changes-todo
[3]* **http://kevin.godby.org/ubuntu-manual/talks/writingstyle.pdf*<http://kevin.godby.org/ubuntu-manual/talks/writingstyle.pdf>
[4] http://files.ubuntu-manual.org/style-guide.pdf

I  know... too much information for one day. I just wanted to share the
most necessary information in order to answer to your questions and as well
let you know how to get started and how we work.

To  recap, if you have questions from the above mail just ask, then start
with [1] and if you find any problem do post it to the mailing list. It's
almost sure that the Latex or bzr installation will "hit" somewhere.

Mailing list is a great tool for the team, probably the most important one.
Use it !

Let me know what you think and if you have any questions.

Thank you ! Have a great week !

--John
c7p @ #ubuntu-manual