4:25 p.m.
The Docs Team, at the FAD @ SELF, had an idea to create a one-page
Release Notes for users that aren't as technical as some of our other
users. This Release Notes would be something pretty, graphical, and
would only contain high-level changes. I guess what we are looking for
is something that is a "composite of the tour and release overview" to
quote Paul (stickster).
It might be an even better idea to have a team comprised of some
Marketing members and some Docs members to form a Release Notes Team to
create both the larger Release Notes as well as the one-page version.
More people means less work for a few but also means continuity through
various releases.
Thoughts?
--
Thanks,
Eric Christensen
Fedora Docs Project Lead
Fedora Talk: 5102043 Phone: 919-424-0063 x 5102043
E-Mail: sparks(a)fedoraproject.org SIP: sparks(a)talk.fedoraproject.org
IRC: Sparks on freenode.net
GPG Fingerprint: CA02 4ACA EB6C 1A76 F0D6 1127 7D04 D240 BD0C 14C1
4:29 p.m.
On 07/14/2009 02:55 AM, Eric Christensen wrote:
The Docs Team, at the FAD @ SELF, had an idea to create a one-page
Release Notes for users that aren't as technical as some of our other
users. This Release Notes would be something pretty, graphical, and
would only contain high-level changes. I guess what we are looking for
is something that is a "composite of the tour and release overview" to
quote Paul (stickster).
How is that different from the release summary we used to do before? How
do we differentiate this from the more technical detailed release notes?
Rahul
5:19 p.m.
On Tue, 2009-07-14 at 02:59 +0530, Rahul Sundaram wrote:
On 07/14/2009 02:55 AM, Eric Christensen wrote:
> The Docs Team, at the FAD @ SELF, had an idea to create a one-page
> Release Notes for users that aren't as technical as some of our other
> users. This Release Notes would be something pretty, graphical, and
> would only contain high-level changes. I guess what we are looking for
> is something that is a "composite of the tour and release overview" to
> quote Paul (stickster).
How is that different from the release summary we used to do before? How
do we differentiate this from the more technical detailed release notes?
Rahul
Think desktop publishing... think pretty pictures... think "more than
just links to other pages". I guess that would be the differences I
think of when I look at the release summary. It isn't very exciting
looking.
Well, the more technical detailed release notes are very blah and are
many pages long. It's more like a book. What we want is more like a
newspaper front page.
Eric
5:20 p.m.
On 07/14/2009 03:49 AM, Eric Christensen wrote:
Think desktop publishing... think pretty pictures... think "more
than
just links to other pages". I guess that would be the differences I
think of when I look at the release summary. It isn't very exciting
looking.
Just for an understanding of what I am referring to, this is the actual
release summary I last worked on
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/9/ReleaseSummary
Well, the more technical detailed release notes are very blah and
are
many pages long. It's more like a book. What we want is more like a
newspaper front page.
That still doesn't answer the question on what you would call the
current release notes in the future.
Rahul
5:58 p.m.
On Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 02:59:02AM +0530, Rahul Sundaram wrote:
On 07/14/2009 02:55 AM, Eric Christensen wrote:
> The Docs Team, at the FAD @ SELF, had an idea to create a one-page
> Release Notes for users that aren't as technical as some of our other
> users. This Release Notes would be something pretty, graphical, and
> would only contain high-level changes. I guess what we are looking for
> is something that is a "composite of the tour and release overview" to
> quote Paul (stickster).
How is that different from the release summary we used to do before? How
do we differentiate this from the more technical detailed release notes?
In all the ways we've discussed here on the list and in Marketing
meetings previously:
* Easy to read descriptions of major changes, from the perspective of
target audiences
* Screenshots illustrating changes
* Alignment with the feature list and talking points where appropriate
* Links to (and not reproductions of) gory details in the actual
release notes
--
Paul W. Frields http://paul.frields.org/
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http://redhat.com/ - - - - http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/
irc.freenode.net: stickster @ #fedora-docs, #fedora-devel, #fredlug
2:40 a.m.
On Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 02:59:02AM +0530, Rahul Sundaram wrote:
> On 07/14/2009 02:55 AM, Eric Christensen wrote:
> > The Docs Team, at the FAD @ SELF, had an idea to create a one-page
> > Release Notes for users that aren't as technical as some of our other
> > users. This Release Notes would be something pretty, graphical, and
> > would only contain high-level changes. I guess what we are looking for
> > is something that is a "composite of the tour and release overview"
to
> > quote Paul (stickster).
>
> How is that different from the release summary we used to do before? How
> do we differentiate this from the more technical detailed release notes?
I'm with Rahul here, this is almost exactly the idea of what we used
to aim for with the Release Overview/Summary. There used to be lots of
discussions about how best to create the Release Overview from the
Release Notes without lots of duplication of effort across teams, and
that's why the page Rahul linked looks like a repeated version of the
Release Notes, because at that time we were experimenting with writing
the two on a single page and then dividing the content out for
different audiences.
That didn't work particularly well, and certainly restarting the
Release Overview/Summary with a clearer mission and method is a
worthwhile goal, one I'd like to help with, though it wouldn't hurt to
show a bit more knowledge and recognition of the work people did
before... something that often seems to be lacking a bit in Fedora
land! I've been guilty of this in the past, but I can now appreciate
how trying it is to people who've worked on stuff.
Jon
11:19 a.m.
On Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 03:40, Jonathan Roberts<jonrob(a)fedoraproject.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 02:59:02AM +0530, Rahul Sundaram wrote:
>> On 07/14/2009 02:55 AM, Eric Christensen wrote:
>> > The Docs Team, at the FAD @ SELF, had an idea to create a one-page
>> > Release Notes for users that aren't as technical as some of our other
>> > users. This Release Notes would be something pretty, graphical, and
>> > would only contain high-level changes. I guess what we are looking for
>> > is something that is a "composite of the tour and release
overview" to
>> > quote Paul (stickster).
>>
>> How is that different from the release summary we used to do before? How
>> do we differentiate this from the more technical detailed release notes?
>
I'm with Rahul here, this is almost exactly the idea of what we used
to aim for with the Release Overview/Summary. There used to be lots of
discussions about how best to create the Release Overview from the
Release Notes without lots of duplication of effort across teams, and
that's why the page Rahul linked looks like a repeated version of the
Release Notes, because at that time we were experimenting with writing
the two on a single page and then dividing the content out for
different audiences.
That didn't work particularly well, and certainly restarting the
Release Overview/Summary with a clearer mission and method is a
worthwhile goal, one I'd like to help with, though it wouldn't hurt to
show a bit more knowledge and recognition of the work people did
before... something that often seems to be lacking a bit in Fedora
land! I've been guilty of this in the past, but I can now appreciate
how trying it is to people who've worked on stuff.
Jon
Jon,
I don't think we were trying to say that someone wasn't doing their
job in creating this documentation. We are simply saying that there
may be a better way of doing these projects. I know that I've been
asked where people can find a document much like I've explained here.
The Docs Project is constantly looking how we can produce the Release
Notes better and that we are getting the information out to our users
in a better way. This idea is just one of those thoughts.
I know I appreciate everything that everyone does for the Fedora Project.
Eric
11:58 a.m.
Jon,
I don't think we were trying to say that someone wasn't doing their
job in creating this documentation. We are simply saying that there
may be a better way of doing these projects. I know that I've been
asked where people can find a document much like I've explained here.
The Docs Project is constantly looking how we can produce the Release
Notes better and that we are getting the information out to our users
in a better way. This idea is just one of those thoughts.
I know I appreciate everything that everyone does for the Fedora Project.
I wasn't suggesting that, simply that more recognition of work that's
done before would sometimes go a long way, rather than dropping by and
saying "we have this great new idea..." without showing any awareness
of similar work that's been done before. A quick bit of Google
searching shows enough to get a feel for what has come before. I know
in the past this has made work I've done feel undervalued, and left me
feeling very frustrated with the project as a whole. Not only would it
prevent such feelings but it would also lead to better quality work,
building on the shoulders of giants and all that...
I'd like to emphasise as well that I'm almost certain that everyone in
the project appreciates all the work done by other contributors, and
I'm sure you're no different. Just a little more research before hand
might go a long way. This, I guess, is just a bit of a hot button
issue for me that I'm a little quick to react to...
Like I said, and I'm sorry it's been pushed to the side, but I'd like
to help with this effort, so please do keep us on the marketing list
informed of what direction you push things.
Jon
5397
days inactive
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7 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
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Eric Christensen -
Jonathan Roberts -
Paul W. Frields -
Rahul Sundaram