[OLPC library] goal setting and scope for BookSprint

Thu Aug 21 09:10:10 EDT 2008

Anne Gentle schrieb:
> Hi all,
> Adam Hyde and I wanted to describe our scope, goals and set
> expectations for next week's BookSprint.
> 
> We're writing for kids, parents, and teachers, keeping in mind that
> kids will teach other kids. (Side note: I'm reading Three Cups of Tea:
> One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time and it
> has helped me envision the kids and schools we're writing for.)
> 
> We discussed whether the school server is within the scope of this set
> of manuals (which are remixable). As Walter put it, a classroom
> framework for the guide which would include modules (I think he means
> manuals) on the desktop, connectivity, activities, content and
> libraries, and maintenance (e.g., backups, etc.). I'd like to keep the
> school server in mind as we go during the week but we haven't
> specifically set one up for our use, yet.

Frankly speaking I think that documenting the school server isn't quite 
feasible next week unless we get some good and dedicated remote support 
from people who have a lot of experience with the current school server 
version being used in the deployments.

I think especially with the desired scope of such an XS guide as 
mentioned by John (installation, administration, troubleshooting) that 
is a whole separate sub-project of the overall documentation efforts. 
Again, this could be done in parallel next week, but we'd need the 
appropriate resources for that.

> 
> So, with these expectations in mind, here's what we hope to accomplish
> in 5 days.
> 
> 1. Extend and deepen details on the current set of information,
> updating for version 8.2.0. We have 8 XOs installed with joyride-2301.
> (BTW, I love the Control Panel and ability to download Activities and
> just generally love the OS updates.)
> See http://sugarlabs.org/go/DocumentationTeam#User_Manuals for the
> outlines for the XO and Sugar info sets.
> 
> Returning to the school server - the current doc set does discuss the
> school server but only in passing. We can place more detail in the
> maintenance and backup chapters when we update them. I'd like input
> here.
> 
> 2. Add:
> Troubleshooting (esp. for connectivity)
> Repair (dis-assembly with photos)
> More detailed support-type information (from the RTFM list by Adam's team)
> Glossary (Is there a way to use a Pootle file for starting the English
> glossary so that the multiple languages would be easier to follow
> along? David Farning, is that something you could research for us?)
> 
> 3. Document Activities in more detail from an end-users perspective
> with the kids/parent/teachers audience in mind.
> Apparently reading about Activities is very important to kids in
> Uruguay according to the analytics on the wiki.laptop.org site.
> 
> Here is my first attempt at a prioritized list of Activities for next
> week. Note that all these listed Activities already have a chapter
> started in FLOSS Manuals. The task of "Documenting Activities" would
> go further towards manuals for each Activity as opposed to just one
> chapter.

I actually think that most activities can be covered within a single 
chapter, with maybe Journal, Browse, Write and the TamTam suite being 
notable exceptions.

Also in terms of remote collaborators like myself I think that 
documenting an activity or a sub-set of features within an activity is 
quite a good work-unit that can be independently worked on.

Which leads me to another topic: I think the daily conference call 
should really be used to hand out specific tasks to contributors. That 
way especially remote people can basically check in, say hi, get a task 
assigned and then work on it for the next couple of hours.

Cheers,
Christoph

> Primary:
> Journal
> Browse (with much as much emphasis on Content and ebooks as Internet?)
> Record
> Write
> Terminal
> Chat
> Draw
> 
> Secondary (maybe make these a priority for a second Sprint):
> Memorize
> Calculate
> TamTam Jam/Edit/SynthLab/Mini
> Turtle Art
> Pippy
> Measure (waveforms)
> Acoustic Tape Measure
> 
> Already has a lot written but we may want to bring some content into
> FLOSS, I'm just not sure where to prioritize it:
> Etoys
> 
> What activities might we be missing? The MaMa Media Creative Center is
> discussed as an example of what you'd want to download and install to
> add to your "original" set of Activities.
> 
> Honestly, I think we are going to have an amazing week. We can discuss
> this scope more on this list and plan to have more discussion at 3:00
> Sunday afternoon at the hotel.
> 
> Spanish translation is a high priority and Yama Ploskonka is learning
> more about FLOSS Manuals and hopes to have enough bilingual
> translators on hand to translate chapters as we mark them ready.
> 
> Thanks for reading and I welcome your feedback.
> 
> Anne
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> 

-- 
Christoph Derndorfer
co-editor, olpcnews
url: www.olpcnews.com
e-mail: christoph at olpcnews.com