discuss: the tldp foundation
Subject:
Re: the tldp foundation
From:
Stein Gjoen ####@####.####
Date:
22 Jun 2004 22:02:49 -0000
Message-Id: <40D8AD19.9000907@mail.nyx.net>
Rahul Sundaram wrote:
[...]
> While its remarkable that tldp has managed to survive
> as an informal group of volunteers for a long time a
> foundation can be formed to better deal with these
> kinds of things
I cannot quite see how a foundation works better or differently
than these mailing lists, could you elaborate?
> benefits
> 1)clear leadership and direction
We already have a leader but I would like to see more on
what directions are in the plans and the vision for TLDP
(without Dilbert styled marketing speak of course). This
too should be possible to communicate on a mailing list.
> 2)can be assigned copyrights
Is that really necessary?
> 3)can recieve funds
> 4)organise things more easily
Could you elaborate more on what needs to be organised?
> 5)contacts can be established in a better way
Such as?
> what do you guys think?
I would like to know more on what you have in mind.
My own view is that we should improve our services to
our users by keeping in mind exactly who they are and
what they want, specifically:
o end users, readers
- better structure (*)
- better navigation between documents (*)
- possibly more formats for reading (*)
- more complete collection of documents
- adding auxilliary documents
- more brocures (*)
- more overview documents
- adding in existing documents from elsewhere
o authors and new authors
- better tools
- improve templates (*)
- better generators (*)
- continue improving documentation
- recruit new authors
o publishers, packagers
- make tools to make selection and compilation easy (*)
- improve contacts with these (*)
- get fresher TLDP contents in more distributions
o editors, reviewers
- continue improving documentation and process
- workflow management
- recruit more people
o other items
- more coverage of TLDP
- more announcements (*)
Do note: I am not trying to oust current leader.
rather I am trying to realise what I believe are needed
improvements by suggestions, prototyping and getting
things started, as marked with asterix above. Regrettably
I have not had the sufficient amount of time to follow up
on initial work and proposals but have had great help from
Emma Jane Hogbin and others in a number of cases.
As an additional teaser I can tell you that I believe I
have succeeded in getting professional help in structuring
documents in the form of someone doing a Master grade project
in Librarian Sciences for us.
I believe we can accomplish all this without a foundation.
We still need to think more on where we are going and how
we want to do it.
Regards,
Stein Gjoen
